<p>Living in his own apartment makes no difference to his dependency status at all. If he is under 24 and an undergrad student (and does not meet one of the other criteria for independence - married, a veteran etc etc), he will still be a dependent for FAFSA so you will fill out FAFSA in the same way as always using both parent and student information. It will make no difference to the information you have to provide or to eligibility for simplified needs.</p>
<p>The part of FAFSA that asks about whether a student lives on or off campus is because the school’s COA on which aid is based * may*be different depending on whether the student lives on campus, off campus without parent, or off campus with parent. Of course you should answer the information accurately to represent the actual living situation. It may or may not make a difference to aid(at my daughter’s school there is one COA so it makes no difference).</p>
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simplified needs allows you to not report assets. Income must still be reported.</p>