<p>I am 21, about to be 22 when I fill out the FAFSA in early January. I am self supporting ever since halfway through my senior year of highschool (basically the past 4 years).</p>
<p>I can provide documentation that I have been working 40 hours a week and paying rent all these years. I have my own apartment and a lease to prove it. I rarely talk to my parents and they refuse to pay for any college.</p>
<p>But everything I read states I will not be classified as independent until I am 24, married, veteran, in military, etc (you guys know the drill). I feel I am obviously independent to any competent person.</p>
<p>I plan on applying to at least 6 different colleges and hope at least 1 of their financial aid administrators will give me an independent override, but I am skeptical. From what I've been reading lately, even a self supporting student not claimed on parents taxes or helped by them in any way must still prove abuse of homelessness to qualify for an override.</p>
<p>Is there any hope for my situation or am I basically screwed?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, unless you meet one of the qualifications for a dependency override, you’re probably stuck as a dependent student for a few more years. The rules are narrow, but they apply to everyone. Will your parents at least fill out (or give you) the info you need to file FAFSA? Do you have any idea what their income level is?</p>
<p>I might be able to get my mom to fill out a FAFSA. She has been unemployed for at least 8 months out of the year so I’m guessing her income will be in or around $30,000. My parents are divorced so only her income would be counted.</p>
<p>A few rough estimates on an EFC calculator give me a parental contribution of $3K which I know she won’t pay, but that wouldn’t be that hard to close a gap of in the form of loans.</p>
<p>The kicker is that my income will only be about $15K for the year. I’m barely able to survive on this. Yet it’s asking me for around $4K in EFC from me.</p>
<p>An EFC of $7K when I’m self supporting surviving on $15K a year seems absolutely atrocious to me.</p>
<p>Can someone with some experience with this let me know if this is realistic to be able to get an independent override on?</p>
<p>A few rough estimates on an EFC calculator give me a parental contribution of $3K which I know she won’t pay, but that wouldn’t be that hard to close a gap of in the form of loans.</p>
<p>keep in mind that your aid package will already have loans in it, so you may not be able to also get a loan to cover your mom’s EFC.</p>
<p>Hopefully, because of your mom’s situation, she’ll qualify for auto 0. </p>
<p>But, that may be short-lived if your mom becomes re-employed.</p>
<p>*She has been unemployed for at least 8 months out of the year so I’m guessing her income will be in or around $30,000. *</p>
<p>If your mom didn’t work 8 out of the last 10 months and yet still earned $30,000 this year, does that mean that she normally makes a very large income?</p>
<p>My mom would have probably slightly more than $30K in income for the year since she gets the maximum unemployment and her job she had for the first 2-3 months of the year paced her at about $50K a year.</p>
<p>Something I did find interesting in your link though was the definition of an independent student:</p>
<p>Student is determined by the college financial aid administrator to be an unaccompanied
youth who is homeless or is self-supporting and at risk of being homeless.</p>
<p>Surely someone who made only $15K and is self supporting is at the risk of being homeless… If I lost my job or got my hours cut anymore, I would surely be homeless. Therefore as long as the financial aid administrator is not completely oblivious, I should be classified as an independent student, right?</p>
<p>Unemployment income is reported on FAFSA. If she can qualify, it will at least get trunl past the first year when his $15K income will add so much to the EFC (assuming he will not make a similar amount while in school).</p>
<p>No, that was including her unemployment, which should account for about $15K in income. Then her job netted her about $16K in income. She told me for sure that it would be over $30K total, so auto 0 efc is out of the question.</p>
<p>Only if they asked their family for help and didn’t get it. </p>
<p>I don’t know why you rarely talk to your mom. If it’s your personal choice then you will have difficulty proving independent status for financial aid. If there is a compelling reason (you were abused or neglected, or thrown out of your home, or there were complaints filed with child protective services prior to you becoming 18) then that might be different.</p>
<p>With your thinking, ANYONE who loses their job runs the risk of becoming “homeless”. I’m not sure that’s the way it works.</p>
<p>Now, having said that…if your reasons for being independent are compelling, a financial aid officer at a school “can” do a dependency override, but you need to talk to the schools directly. These are not automatic and they are NOT easy to have happen. Just paying rent for yourself and working to support yourself is NOT going to be sufficient for a dependency override, I don’t think.</p>
<p>I do not think you will be eligible for a dependency over ride. Being self supporting is not a reason for an override. </p>
<p>If your Mom’s AGI is under $30,000 and she meets one if the other criteria (eligible to file a 1040a/ez, displaced worker, someone in family receives means tested benefits) then you would be eligible for the auto 0 EFC and your income would have no impact. Otherwise your income will affect your EFC.</p>
<p>edit - saw your post after I posted. I think part of unemployment is non taxable - a couple of thousand dollars (though that may have been for 2009 only). It is the AGI that is important for the auto 0 EFC. So it is possible that her AGI may come in under $30k.</p>
<p>thumper1:
I was thrown out of my mother’s home halfway through my senior year. I have been working 40 hrs/week ever since supporting myself. I can easily prove this via bank statements. Plus I got a letter of eviction from my mom when she threw me out.</p>
<p>If your Mom’s AGI does come in under $30k then you are better off with the auto 0 EFC. Then the following year you would be turning 24 (assuming you are turning 22 before the end of this year) so would be independent.</p>
<p>Truni, independent students do not have the same income and asset protections as dependent students do. YOUR income will be largely assessed for financial aid purposes for the upcoming year if you become an independent student. This might NOT actually help you…your contribution might actually be HIGHER than if you used your parent information if the parent qualifies for either auto $0 or simplified needs. I believe for simplified needs the parent income has to be below $50K with either a federal needs eligibility (free lunch etc) OR the filing of the 1040A or EX forms. With simplified needs your income and assets would not count at all…and only your mom’s info would count. Her EFC isn’t going to be very high with an income in the $30K range.</p>
<p>Thumper, are you sure that the student’s income isn’t included under the Simplified EFC formula? I thought only assets are excluded…pretty sure students still have to report their income.</p>
<p>IMO - If the OP was indeed kicked out of the parental home while in high school, it MAY be possible to receive a dependency override.
Documentation will have to be provided, probably including several letters of reference relating directly to the situation. If this event was documented with the school at the time that may help.
The OP has nothing to lose by pursuing this and I think it may be worthwhile.</p>
<p>If the student thinks she can get income info from mom, I doubt very much that a dependency override would be in order. Homelessness is not automatic for students over 21 - those need to be done as dependency overrides.</p>
<p>What happened in high school is in the past. What is the current situation like? Does the student have a relationship with her parent? If so, a d/o is probably not likely. If there is more to the story & it can be documented, that’s different. The ONLY way to know is to talk to your school.</p>
<p>Just because I can possibly get her income does not mean we can live together. She kicked me out and refuses to let me live with her. I wrote that she kicked me out in highschool to convey our relationship has not been good since halfway through my senior year.</p>
<p>There has not been any abuse. But are you saying that just because I talk to my mom, I will not be eligible for an override, even with full self-supporting for the past 3.5 years?</p>
<p>That may very well be the case. A dependency override isn’t granted because students and their parents don’t get along with each other. There has to be more substance to it than that. AND it does NOT matter if you were self supporting or not. That is not relevant to the question of dependency status for financial aid purposes.</p>