<p>I just posted about a friend of my daughter's, whose parents are divorced and mom is moving in with a boyfriend.</p>
<p>A second question: if this student pays rent and much of her own transportation and food costs, and this amounts to more than 50% of her support, then she is not a dependent. Does this mean she files her own FAFSA, and if parents aren't contributing to college at all, could the EFC be based on the student's income alone, if she is not a dependent?</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>She would not be a dependent for tax purposes, but that has nothing to do with FAFSA filing. Unless she meets one of the criteria for becoming an independent student for FAFSA (which does not sound likely), she will be a dependent until age 24.</p>
<p>You can find the criteria here, on page 3:</p>
<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf</a></p>
<p>The FAFSA line instructions, including guidance on who is the parent, are here:
<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/index.html[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/index.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks, I’ll pass this on.</p>
<p>If it worked like that, all of our kids would be working and paying rent.</p>
<p>This young person is on her own in ways that most CC’er kids would never be.</p>
<p>Makes no difference for FA purposes.</p>
<p>It could…is she 18 yet?</p>
<p>Even if she is 18, she is still a dependent, unless she has a kid herself or is a veteran or was a ward of the court before turning 18…the link in one of the previous posts explains it. I can pm you with our experience about this, if you’re interested.</p>
<p>Yes, but if she is UNDER 18 and on her own, she may have other options. That was the reason I asked.</p>
<p>Wow…feels like your yelling at people trying to help sk8rmom.</p>
<p>^ I’m sure Sk8rmom wasn’t yelling. She was the one who posted the link you were trying to direct her attention to. She is a long time poster here and she was trying to be clear about why being 18 might make a difference. Maybe if she had underlined her point it would have been better but some people don’t bother with that.</p>
<p>Sorry, didn’t realize that one word in caps would constitute “yelling” as it was obviously only for emphasis! I’ve got the quote thing down, gotta look thru FAQs sometime and figure out bold and underline.</p>
<p>
just substitute u or b for quote. Or highlight the word and press ctrl b to **bold ** and ctrl u to underline</p>
<p>
Many of the parents here don’t realize that all-caps does mean “yelling.” For those of us who have been long-time computer users, it definitely says “I’m mad and you’re wrong I’m shouting!” - even for a single word. </p>
<p>There are some folks here that use caps quite a bit, with four or five capitalized words in a single post or paragraph. They’re presumably unaware that their helpful paragraphs appear to be tirades.</p>
<p>Usually the extra emphasis isn’t necessary, but if it is, you can italicize with [ I ] and <a href=“omit%20the%20spaces”> / I </a>.</p>
<p>Or a shortcut - highlight the word you want to *italicize * and hit the CTRL button and the letter i .</p>
<p>Yes, but the CTRL-i can be browser or environment-specific, so I was afraid to mention it.</p>
<p>Here’s an anecdote: We once had a new VP of sales in our small high-tech company who was in the habit of capitalizing freely. She managed to offend a number of people very quickly, and she had no idea that it was happening. But many people honestly thought that she was angry with them. One alert manager understood what was happening, and took her aside to explain it. She had no idea how her emails were being interpreted, and was completely shocked to find out how much damage had been done. She was able to repair the situation quickly and humorously, but she was on shaky ground and didn’t know it. Everyone else in the company was very comfortable with email etiquette; it didn’t occur to them that she wasn’t.</p>
<p>I don’t believe in attacking people on here since we are all in the same boat and trying to help each other. I truly felt (which is why I used the word “feel” in my previous post) that sk8rmom was in effect saying to me, “you idiot, I already said that”. I guess I took it very personally because I am also a “sk8rmom” and personally have a similar financial situation that I offered to share by private message. I have done considerable research on this topic and generalities do not do it justice and can hurt one’s chances or raise unnecessary scrutiny.</p>
<p>
I didn’t realize that. As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing (and when it comes to computers “a *little *knowledge” is what I have)</p>
<p>Oh dear, I’m a shouter. I use caps all the time. Consider me a bit tone deaf!</p>