I asked my mom if she recieved it a couple weeks later to find out it had gone straight to the trash. My problems have escalated from there.

I ended up spending the first two years of school at a community college, which lost me a great ammount of credits in transfering.

At university, my EFC turned out to be 64000! The only thing my parents have contributed thus far is cell phone bill and car insurance, hardly enough to call me a dependent. I’m also under their helath insurance plan, but they recently told me not to use it when I tore my ankle up. I work and recieve merit-based scholarships in order to support myself.

Every year the school sends them an education tax credit form… I can only wonder how much they are saving because of it.

It pisses me off because my ex girlfriend was bought a house, an infiniti, and a tahoe upon graduating from highschool. She filed the FAFSA under her mother’s income, and recieved the full financial aid package.

I will only contribute donations to the scholarship organizations that have helped me get through school. The only real way to help someone is to offer merit-based money.

I can only hope the government will abolish the FAFSA. After all, we would save money on taxes. It’s unfair that a factory worker has to pay taxes to help a rich kid purchase an escalade while studying some artistic BS.

I just found out that my friend, who makes $20,000 a year more than I do… (I make about 20k before taxes) got tons of PELL grants. I’m wondering if it’s because her parents are divorced, and she gave the tax information of the one with the least money.

This is frustrating for me, because I live in low income housing, have been paying all my bills since I was 17, my parents haven’t claimed me on their taxes since then… hell, I was homeless for 8 months when I was 20, and my parents even knew about it. They would see me on holidays and act like it was no big deal.

Anyway, I am planning on heading to the Financial Aid office tomorrow (because it is still open by the time I get off the bus from work), and hope that something can be done. Otherwise, I’m paying out-of pocket for everything, while working 40 hours a week or more (M-F, 7-4), and barely scraping by… for the next two years, until I finish my associates and am 24.

If there is ever any changes in your parents marital status or financial status, contact your Financial Aid dept at school. I work in the financial aid office at a college, and we always take unusal circumstances into consideration, but we don’t know about them unless you tell us!

There are a lot of aspects of the FAFSA that do not work for everyone. However, coming from the other side…I see a LOT of people trying to scam the FAFSA.

The FAFSA asks parents age so they can take the retirement factor into consideration. If your parent takes an early retirement, you must let the FA office know at your school.

The rich parents thing: See how many parents make over $200,000 per year and still feel entitled to grants. This country doesn’t have the money to send everyone to college - free of charge.

If students could become independents and get grants just because they don’t live with their parents, then all kids would move out before starting college, and they would all be independents. There has to be limits.

The IRS - Internal Revenue Service - is an entirely different entity than the Department of Education. Just because it’s the govt, doesn’t mean they have anything to do with each other. One office deals with income / the other, education.

It does not matter how you file your taxes. It could be that you do live with your parents, but work & claim yourself. It could be that you don’t live with your parents, and they still claim you. Your parents may be split up and have had joint custody of you the previous year, and only 1 parent claim you on their taxes - you could have a different parent file the FAFSA. So the Dept of Ed doesn’t care how the taxes are filed - it has nothing to do with dependency for financial aid purposes.

I see a lot of BLAME being put on the FAFSA. No one has to fill it out. It’s not a requirement to go to school. Just to request financial aid.

I want to go over all the topic s and replies, but it would take forever. I would definitely tell Jane to go to see her FA advisor. She could be considered estranged from her mother and then be an independent.

They do set a limit with the age because, again, there has to be some guidelines. That is also why the individual schools do take extraordinary situations into consideration.

The complaint that someone with parents in a same sex household may get more money. I understand that. There are also people who live with their mom & her boyfriend / or parents getting separated - just because of the FAFSA. Not all schools ask for court documents on the separation. Our school does not. We just need separate W2s so we can separate the income & change the FAFSA to only one parent.

I’ve been devating on this since I’ve filed my FAFSA again after dropping out of college for 3 years and moved state and now returning again on fall(I’m 21 and will be 22 by fall) on the state that I reside now.And parents refuse to help with my tutition since theres no LAW forcing them and Legally, they plainly dont have to.

I’m one of those students that been on their on for years without parental help.Hell, I’m even 21 and almost 22 years old; which passes the age of legally minority and I’m still considered “dependent”. This is a insult thrown to my face and more reason for me to hate this goverment and future criticism points when it comes to its downfall.

Really, does the goverment wants our legal Adult age to be 21 or 24 or older? Make your fucking mind up, please. To me and most people, a Adult is a independent humain being. Thus 21 is the minimun age to have and be awarded that definition BUT the FAFSA thinks otherwise.

Now I’m stuck with my only choice of loans. And taking loans is a step forward and backwards at the same time.

I might as well hold out, take a cheap loan and do 2 classes a semester until I’m of age. Yessh. Talk about torture.

My only option to speed things up is declaring “Abandoment” from my parents. And yea you have to go through court and lawyers for that, so its better to do the waiting game.

My parents have in the past paid for school, and took the $5250 tuition reimbursement from my job as payment. [Though, the $5250 is for one calendar year, so if I turn in my grades in january and get all of that money back, there's no reimbursement for that Spring or fall semester that follows].
Recently my parents have fallen on hard financial times, while I’ve moved out and become independent by IRS standards. So for the first time ever, I filed my taxes seperate from those of my parents.
I had filled out the FAFSA the summer of 2003 after graduating high school and was told I’d get nothing fromt he government, so when it was time to fill it out again (now that tuition falls on my head and my head alone) I expected a larger payout since only my income was supporting my education.
Unfortunately enough, I wasn’t born before January 1, 1985 and thus had to include my parents information.
Once again, the government has bent me over and laid in without lube. ::painful::
I’m struggling to find scholarships whose deadlines have not passed, and are open for part time students; since I’ve held a full time job since 2003 at the same company.
I agree, the FAFSA is broken, they should ask if you filed taxes seperate frm your parents, whether you are financially independent from them otherwise. Your school’s financial aid department can’t do anything for you except give you a sheet of paper that has websites full of scholarships that require you to be a full time student or incoming fershman.

What about the adult learner?
What about the people who just want their degree?

Another punch to the face of the middle class…thank you FAFSA…and thank you Uncle Sam.

I don’t understand why the government would not help people that actually need help. I’d get more help if I had a child, or got married, and those are things I’m not ready to do. I’m also not a minority, so I don’t get any of those benefits either.

Something should be done for the rest of us!

First of all, the ONLY money on the federal level that you are eligible for as an independent is $4000-5000 more in UNsubsidized loans per year. Is another $20k of interest earning debt really worth the headache of wishing you could be considered independent? (of course the alternative of $20k of private loan debt is much worse…)

Secondly, a big reason this rule is in place is because people are dishonest. Even if a student could prove that they support themselves and claim that their parents wouldn’t help, there is no way to know this for sure unless the feds or your school monitored your wallet or your bank account. I don’t think anybody wants this.

Unfortunately I agree that federal financial aid is a system in need of help, but in the face of rising college costs and enrollment plus our doomsday economy, it’s going to be difficult to come up with successful alternatives to what we do now. I strongly encourage anyone upset with the process to develop a positive relationship with their financial aid counselor and/or office. If you put in the time and effort into this instead of complaining, you’re likely to be treated much better, and possibly be considered for certain opportunities over others first.