My daughter was on leave from university and is now looking to return next sprng or fall 2019. Will she now be considered independent for financial aid? She has credits that would place her as a junior.
While yes, at 24 years old she is independent for federal aid. This does not necessarily make her independent for institutional aid. Many schools have policies in place that if you start as a dependent student, you finish as a dependent student, even if you have a life event that makes you independent. Some schools have policies that you are not independent for institutional aid until you are 27 and can demonstrate 5 years of self sufficiency receiving nothing from your parents.
Your best bet would be to check the school’s policy.
When my S went back to school at 28, he was independent for FAFSA, but the school still had us fill out the CSS/Profile with our information. So though Pell-eligible, the institutional aid reflected our income. (But was still generous.) They counted the cost of him living at home as payment toward EFC.
I’m guessing that that would be less common with FAFSA-only schools, but that’s just a guess.
For me this was many years ago, but I dropped out freshman year due to a poor fit at our state flagship. I sort of drifted around taking a class here and there at community college but mainly worked for the next couple of years. I went back to school full time at 24 and I was considered completely independent. One key thing is that I was not living with my parents, and I had moved to a different state. I enrolled at a private LAC, and I got some aid, though there was quite a bit of shortfall and they required my parents to cosign loans loans that were beyond the federal. I made too much in my working years to get any federal aid beyond the regular student loans - but I was able to borrow quite a bit more than a dependent student would - which actually was a really bad thing. I wouldn’t recommend borrowing a ton.