The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is the big, bad form that most colleges in the US use as a basis for financial aid. One of the key points of a the FAFSA is that if you are under 24 years old, you’re pretty much required to include the financial information of one (or both) parents. This is a feature of the FAFSA that really bothers me.
There are a lot of reasons and situations that make this feature of the FAFSA unbearable for some students. In the past, if you could not get the financial information of your custodial parent (for whatever reason), you were out of luck with the FAFSA – you couldn’t even submit it. For many colleges, this meant no chance of aid at all. If you couldn’t pay out of pocket, you couldn’t go at all.
The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA) changed that, starting with the 2009-2010 school year. However, this change comes with a lot of caveats and addendums (also known as “bobby traps and catches”) that you should know about before you file a FAFSA without filling out the “parent” section.
Filing Without Parental Information Barely Helps
According to the 2009-2010 Federal Student Aid Handbook:
Although students whose parents refuse support are not eligible
for a dependency override, the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA) granted that such students may receive unsubsidized Stafford loans only.(page 32 of the handbook)
What this means is that students in this situation go from receiving no aid at all to only being eligible for unsubsidized Stafford loans. You can’t get the Pell grant, Perkins loans, or subsidized Stafford loans – all of which are better options than unsubsidized Stafford loans. Unsubsidized Stafford loans are also limited by grade level, and you will not be eligible for the “extra” unsubsidized Stafford loans that students can get when their parents are denied a PLUS loan.
However, this only covers what aid the government will give you. The pure fact that you can now submit a FAFSA means you may be eligible for the aid that your school might provide you. Which brings me to my next point about this new provision:
You’ll Need the Help of Your College’s Financial Aid Officer
Even though you can now submit the FAFSA without parental information, you can’t do it alone. Most of things needed to make this work have to be done by, or with the help of, a college financial aid officer. Additionally, these things must be done by the financial aid officer of the college you’re going to attend.
This means that if you are a potential freshman, you pretty much have to pick the college you want to go to, before you even fill out your financial aid paperwork. That’s a big decision, and normally one you shouldn’t make without seeing the results of your financial aid application. Your best bet is a pick a college that really wants you, and do everything you can to befriend the financial aid officer. You’re going to need them if your parents refuse to fill out the FAFSA or support you.
If you go ahead with filing out the FAFSA by yourself, you’ll need to provide documentation that your parents refuse to both provide information for the FAFSA and refuse to provide any financial support to you. If your parents won’t sign this statement, you’ll need the signature of a third party, such as a teacher, counselor, cleric, or the court.
After you’ve done this, the financial aid officer at your college can then look at your situation and then decide whether to award you unsubsidized Stafford loans, or not. As you can see, it’s not exactly cut-and-dried, or easy, and it certainly requires the assistance of the financial aid officer.
Before You Do This, Make Sure You Really Need To
The absolute best option is to get your parents to provide their information for the FAFSA. You will still be eligible for those unsubsidized Stafford loans, no matter how much your parents make or how much money they have. So it can only help you to have their information.
If you’re having trouble getting their information for the FAFSA, remind them that providing it does not put them under any legal obligation to support you, or to pay a single dime toward your education. In some situations, this may help to coax the information out to them. Still, there are a lot of situations where the parents just can’t be convinced. Or you may not be on speaking terms with them at all.
One last thing to consider is whether you truly are still considered a dependent. If you aren’t, you can fill out the FAFSA as an independent student, and you won’t need their information at all to get the full aid you qualify for. The FAFSA website provides a form to determine whether you are dependent or not.
It may seem unconventional, but for some people, there are ways to become independent. The first is quite simply to join the military. Active duty personnel and veterans are automatically considered independent. The other option is to get married. No, you shouldn’t get married just to get financial aid, but if you are already engaged, you might consider applying for your marriage license early. Just being married on paper is enough to grant you the status of “independent” on the FAFSA – you can have a proper wedding ceremony whenever you want.
If you can’t get the information you need from your parents, and you can’t qualify to file as “independent,” then it’s time to talk to the financial aid officer at the college about filing as a dependent without parental information. I’m sorry that there aren’t more options for you, but hopefully this will help you make things work.
Many thanks to Suddenly Human and NotAnyoneYouKnow from the Financial Aid category at Yahoo! Answers. They brought this financial aid development to my attention and helped me find the source I needed to write this article.
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25 responses to “How to File the FAFSA Without Your Parents’ Information” 
I love grad school. Automatic independence for financial purposes, but dependent when it comes to using parental health insurance.
Thank you for putting this together- I knew many dependent students in my time as an advisor who could not get parental support for the FAFSA. This explains the options very nicely.
I’m finally old enough to not have to use my parents information on the FAFSA and they have to go and change the rules!! Although as far as I was told last year, I personally make too much money to receive any help!!
So I guess for my plan to go back to school it’ll be student loans for me! which I’ve never had to look into before. This’ll be fun!!
Hey thanks for this! I’m past the independent marker now…but I remember searching for this kind of info for years. I actually had to put off college for 3 years because I didn’t have the money. Now, I’m back and I make so little I am eligible for pell grants, etc. I am actually kind of glad I waited (even if I am a few years older than most of my classmates). I will bookmark this post though for reference. I am sure a lot of people can benefit from the option/info.
My stepdad spent every cent of what he and my mom made when I intended to start going to college, so my mom let me get married at 17. As soon as I got home from the civil ceremony, I applied for financial aid. haha. I got full tuition coverage because my husband and I didn’t have jobs, so no income. Take that government!
I’m 22 now, and we’re still together, happy, and not pregnant (everyone though I was since I got married so young). It worked out great!
Ashley, ow old was the guy you married? im thinking about doing this same thing because my mom simply refuses to do anything for me.
My brother just went through this process. I directed him here and your info really helped him. Great post, and thanks for putting this all together.
Interesting information. I was lucky enough to have my mother fill out all the necessary forms for my financial aid. Still, if I found myself in this situation, I suppose it’s good to have the option for going for financial aid on my own. Hopefully, they’ll make it possible to qualify for more Federal financial aid in the future (certainly, having only unsubsidized Stafford loans limits your options a bit).
This is good advice for anyone beginning college. My daughter just graduated and has done well with her finances but, my youngest is now ready to go back to school and he can use this info. Thank you for listing this.
@Tracie – Your son will use this info? This worries me a bit! Are you planning to withhold your FAFSA information from your son? Read the article again carefully – this information is for a very small subset of college students: the ones whose parents refuse to help them (for whatever reason). This puts these kids at a severe disadvantage – no federal grants or subsidized loans!
correct, feature of the FAFSA that really bothers me indeed. thanks for you advice
@ Stephanie, My daughter will be filling out the FAFSA for 2010-2011 in Feb. I no longer want to help her with college expenses. I want her to go her own way and do it on her own. Also I am on disability and I do not file a tax return. What is the best option for her??
Will my daughter be able to file independent and receive aid if I sign a document stating I refuse to support her ???
Sarah: I can’t speak to your specific situation without all the facts, but I will say that sounds like it would leave your daughter screwed. She would be eligible for less in terms of both aid and loans. She would only be eligible for unsubsidized student loans, which are the worst of the Federal student loans. It would suck.
Giving your daughter your info for the FAFSA in no way obligates you to pay any of her college expenses. It will, however, help her meet eligibility requirements for free federal grants and low-rate loans, assuming she doesn’t make too much money herself to qualify for such aid.
This is a unique situation. Usually, I have students come to me because their parents have already refused to give information for the FAFSA. I always wish I could speak to those peoples’ parents and convince them otherwise. So I don’t know if I can say enough to convince you to give your information for your daughter’s FAFSA, but I certainly hope so. Let me put it this way: there is basically no downside to giving your information for the FAFSA, but there are heaps and tons of downsides for your daughter if you do not.
I would like to know if my daughter gets PELL grants now and I refused to sign my FAFSA will she lose these Pell grants also. She is not talking to me right now
If you refused to sign the FAFSA for your daughter, and your daughter is considered a dependent by the FAFSA, then no, she will not be eligible to receive any PELL grants.
My parents make 160k a year but, paying for school is a problem for them. How can I submit my fafsa so that I can receive some financial aid if any? I am 20 years old and I only make 7 an hour?
Hi Joe,
The short answer is: you can’t. Your parents make too much money, and so you’ll only get unsubsidized student loans, if anything. If you submit the FAFSA without their information per the instructions above, you will only get unsubsidized student loans, if anything. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the simple fact is that the FAFSA is just not your friend here. You’re most likely not going to get any money for school from the federal government.
It’s still important to file your FAFSA, though, because state aid and many scholarships use the results of your FAFSA when determining how much money they will give you. So, if you’re going to try to go to school before turning 24 or getting married, you will need to focus on scholarships instead of need-based financial aid, but still file your FAFSA anyway.
This is EXACTLY what I have been dealing with! My parents refused to give any of their info and my school would not do anything to help and now I still owe them tuition from last semester and I’m not able to enroll for any more calsses until “the balance is paid in full, or I have pending financial aid”…how the heck do they expect this to happen when I explained my situation?! At least there is an alternative now