<p>No, there’s NO income ceiling for completing the FAFSA. There are ceilings for getting certain types of aid, but anyone can fill out the stinking application.</p>
<p>I got unsubsidized Stafford loans in undergrad, no need-based grants or low-income loans like the Pell or Perkins.</p>
<p>You can’t declare yourself independent. You have to meet the criteria and if you’re the average 18-year-old college-bound student, you don’t.</p>
<p>There are certain colleges that you can work your way through; it depends on the individual circumstances and extra aid. My sister is currently paying for her college on her own - but with the caveat that she stayed in-state and went to our local public, and therefore she got the HOPE scholarship which covers her tuition. She works and pays for the rest. Likewise, my parents didn’t pay anything towards my education, but I got a large merit scholarship that covered most of my needs.</p>
<p>Also, parents can be as realistic as they want to be but many working class-families simply can’t afford the EFCs that the FAFSA says they can. I know my parents hadn’t saved anything for my college education (they never really expected me to go), wouldn’t have qualified for large loans even if they applied, and couldn’t afford to sacrifice 1/3 of their income to send me to school. There was none of this sitting down with my parents and calculating the costs - I was on my own, and I knew I had to find a place that I could either pay for out of my pocket (i.e. community college) or a place where I could get a scholarship that would cover the costs.</p>