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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53 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.
[...] How to File the FAFSA Without Your Parents’ Information [Poorer Than You] [...]
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.
FAFSA asks questions for the previous year, so don’t see how ashley did this…
If you cannot get information from your parent because you are a homeless, unaccompanied youth, or you are in an abusive home and had to live with someone else (ie grandparents, friends), then you can file special cirumstances of FAFSA. If your parent just doesn’t want to help you, and you really cannot obtain their financial aid info, then you have to speak to the financial aid officer at the school you wish to apply. He can override the dependency question and then offer the loans/grants. It is very hard to get yourself declared independent solely bc your parents don’t want to provide their information.
I give FAFSA help to high school students for a living. Hope it helps.
Hi claudia i had some questions and i was hoping you could help. My mother passed away last year and i moved in with my 26 year old sister however my dad claimed me on his tax returns and due to his income and his wife’s income i did not get any financial aid even though i do not live with him and he has no intentions on helping me pay for school. He is also planning on moving to another state this year and i was wondering if there is anything i can do to claim myself independent.
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).
[...] How to File the FAFSA Without Your Parents’ Information – Stephanie, who just so happens to be Poorer Than You, writes about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form and the changes made to it in 2008. She emphasizes that you no longer need the information from one or both of your parents to fill out the FAFSA form, but there are limits to what aid you can get if you choose (or are forced into) this path. Stephanie does a great job of laying out some of the options you have if you are in this situation, and I highly recommend it if you are a current or soon-to-be student. [...]
[...] Poorer Than You (<– not true) outlined how to File FAFSA without your parent’s information. [...]
[...] simply can’t have everything. The key is the make the most of what you have and prioritize.How to File the FAFSA Without Your Parents’ Information at Poorer Than You — If you are a student looking for financial aid and cannot or do not want [...]
[...] How to File the FAFSA Without Your Parents’ Information at Poorer Than You [...]
[...] Than You shows how to file the fee application for federal student aid without parental [...]
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
Parents are not obligated to help their kids BORROW money and get in HUGE debt. Get a job, or 2, save your own money and pay your own way. Cash. Or better yet, land a good husband.
I am divorced and filled the fafsa and the father stays in the same house since I am in college too cant afford it. Will my son get denied of aid or should I say he is not living in the house?
This helps me to understand that I need to complete the information for my daughter and son. My husband and I make $110 a year and have some money saved. Our income is not quite enough to support our adult children and living expenses, we have to go into our savings. Our children do not qualify for FAFSA help so our only options would be the subsidized loan correct? What is that? Can we avoid using our savings?
What if the applicant’s parents are divorced, and only ONE parent’s information is available to include on the FAFSA? In other words, as her mother, I will fill out the parent information part with my own tax and income information, but I am unable to obtain that same information from/for her father.
Will the information and signature of one parent suffice?
now that the hell are the chances of that shit???? 23 years old still getting treated like i’m 3 years old!!! [String of swear words edited out by Stephanie. Dude, I totally understand how you feel, though!]
My mother refused to give me her info for my FAFSA. I filled it in without her info and called my schools financial aid office. They told me an unsubsidized loan is a very hard thing to get. (?) They also told me I need a very good reason why she is refusing. I don’t have a good reason. I’m at a loss as to what I should do. It’s an affordable community school but I just don’t make enough to support myself and pay my tuition at the same time.
Oddly enough, my Mom worked in this schools financial aid department when she was in college. She should understand.
What a nightmare for my sons girlfriend. Heather is 19, she graduated from High school this past May. Heather lived all year with her grandparents, she received no financial help from her parents at all. Heather enrolled herself in High school and got food stamps so she could eat.
Her grandparents gave her a roof over her head and that is about it. AS Heather was basically neglected by her parents, she received little to no medical care, as a consequence, her vision is too poor to pass a simple vision test to receive a drivers license, and she is too old to receive medicaid. She has very limited options it seems. I have taken this little girl in to the best of my ability and have tried my best to help her explore her options for going to college. Heather was recently accepted into a beauty college. Upon filling out the FASFA we encountered an unexpected road block. Her mother is homeless and God knows where and her father is an idiot alcoholic whom refuses to give any information so Heather can apply for the much deserved and NEED BASED financial aid.
my mom died in feb. i lived with her my dad does not want to give out his info because of old student loans he cant afford am i screwed?
So a boy who lives with his grandma whose parents are both AWOL but who never was put into her custody is SOL? Neither parent’s consent is deeded to adopt the boy out, but he can’t fill out a FAFSA without them? Ludicrous!
I have been married for about two years, we are currently talking about divorce. I was wondering if that would make me a dependent again I am only 21. If so I will have to go through all these steps because I have no clue to where my mother is; she took of when I graduated and have not seen her since.
Yes. If you file for divorce before turning 24, you will go back to being a dependent student for FAFSA and financial aid purposes. Sorry!
My daughter plans to enter college next summer. We have set aside a portion of college $ for each of our daughters which will by no means even make a dent in the final bill. Will the fact that she and her sisters have $ for college hurt our college bound daughter on the fafsa? What should we do?
I would love to have an answer for my ex-husband, who refuses to provide financial information for our daughter’s FAFSA. He is remarried and doesn’t reside with his wife. She lives in another city and also has a son who plans to attend college next year. He asserts that since they maintain separate households and separate finances, the FAFSA rule about stepparents doesn’t apply. That is not the way I read the FAFSA rules. Does anyone have a definitive answer to this? FWIW, our daughter has lived with her father exclusively for over three years and he claims her on his tax return. She is a high school senior.
Anyone posting here ever had success with getting the parent who is refusing to provide information to also sign an affidavit that they don’t intend to provide information OR support for the child during college? The situation is heartbreaking.
What do you do if your grandparents claim you on taxes and provide your support…. am i left out in the cold?
My boyfriends parents are putting him in this situation. They’ve already screwed him over on everything else(car, living..etc). They do for his sister though, which is irritating to no end. It probably doesn’t help that his mother despises me because, as she’s put it, I’m competition(creepy when you think about it. If they refuse to fill out the fafsa is this the only option?
My cousin is about to Graduate High School and my Uncle and Aunt are both abusive not only physically but emotionally. I am flying my cousin out here to live with me. I am going to have to help him get into college and try and help him get aid. Is there a way for FAFSA to get the information without him getting it from his parents? Is there a way for him to be a independent student?
One option that may not be very ethical (although how ethical it is to not help one’s own child go to school so they can provide for themselves is questionable as well) is if there is any way for the child to get the parent in question’s social security number, birthday, filing status, and if they know some general answers (address, possible number of dependents claimed) there is a very good chance they could call the IRS and fake their way through the questions in order to get the income amount either over the phone and/or sent to them (usually they will only send to address on file but might be able to change that with info above).
I have a sister in law whom refuses to help her son because she picked her boyfriend over her kids and the boyfriend is very abusive to the point that my niefiew came to live with us during his senoir year.
The mother wont help one bit, she recieves child support on him still, not one dime to him and now she doesnt want to let him further his education because of herself she didnt even graduate high school. To me this is a dead beat mother and I wish the laws would change, we have tried everything for our niefiew but the dead beat stands in the way, she wont even come to his graduation, probably because she is so low of a mother that she didnt get to go to hers because she quit school. We cant do fasfa nothing. all he wants is his right to go to school and some help. How sad he has to live in life like this in a free country. If anyone wants her phone number and let her know she is a deadbeat, ask, i will give it to you.
PISSED OFF UNCLE TRYING TO HELP
I’m a parent who can pay for college, but not willing to provide our SSNs for our student’s FAFSA next year. We have reasonable concerns, based on the student’s behavior, that identity theft is a real risk.
If they’d simply set it up so the student is able to create accounts for parents to log into separately and our information is not shared, it would not be an issue.
They do have this ability. You set up your own login on the FAFSA site. The student begins the process, once it is in the system, you create your login and complete the parents portion. It is connected to your child’s app by entering their name, dob and last 4 of their ssn#. This information is NOT accessible to the student and is only provided to the financial aide office, and they do not disclose the information as far as ssn etc to the student. They only tell the student what they are eligible for. If backup documents are required, you can go to the financial aide office and provide them that information without your child having any access to it.
We won’t be providing any information. Oh well. Time for daughter to save.
I think my daughter would be wasting years of her life and many tens of thousands of dollars going to college. Just one of the reasons I WON’T be helping her with the fafsa.
long story short. signing any govt. form leaves you open to their scrutiny and to screw you. why do they have this stupid rule anyway? because it is better for them. don’t fool yourselves people into thinking that a handout from the government is easy or even worth it! i won’t give my info to my daughter and neither will her dad. she is an adult by law (21 in a couple months…old enough to drink, smoke, die for her country and vote…but not fill her own fafsa?!!utterly RIDICULOUS and i am not gonna have my arm twisted behind my back by the government to do something they shouldn’t be expecting me to do) and she should be able to file her own damn fafsa without me and i am not the bad guy, either. the damn government is. i know i don’t have to pay a dime for her school, just fill out the fafsa. what’s the big deal, right? oh, just that, like i said, when you sign a government form, you sign away all your rights and that’s a big deal to me, just sayin’.
This is awesome! Guess I might not have to get hitched! JK.
I am currently having problems myself with financial aid. I haven’t lived with my mother since October 15th, 2009. I was living with my boyfriends parents from that time until April 6th, 2010 because I had gotten a job and me and my boyfriend had found a decent apartment for a decent price and had signed a years lease. I lost my job September 24th, 2010 and my boyfriend had had his hours severely cut so we just could not afford to sign another lease together. My boyfriends parents didn’t really want me coming to live with them again because they don’t really like me in the first place the only reason they let me before is because their son (my boyfriend) kept begging them to please help me with a place to live because I was going to have nowhere else to go. My boyfriend was welcomed back into his parents home with wide open arms and my mom still wouldn’t help me by giving me a place to live so I had to go to a homeless shelter the last day of the lease when it was up which was June 1st, 2011 and I have been there since. Financial Aid at “Anthem College” where I am trying to go is telling me that I can’t be considered independent because I am under 24 and to be considered independent I have to be 24, Married, Award of the State, Have children, or be emancipated and I am none of that. I am homeless for god sakes I have to support myself on a day to day basis for the most part besides being fed at the homeless shelter and clothed It’s not coming out of the shelters direct money so I pretty much am supporting myself. But for some reason according to the guy I talked to at financial aid I am not independent so I still need my parents tax information. This is bull shit. Why does it ask on the FAFSA if since June 6, 2010 have I been homeless or at risk of being homeless. I say yes it tells you what qualifies you as homeless and I fit the bill I click the other option they give you besides “I will be providing parental information” that says “I am homeless or at risk of being homeless” and it doesn’t provide a space for there tax info if it really needs it. Then it says at the end that my FAFSA application is incomplete and I still need to provide my parents tax information. What the hell? That makes no f-n sense. Why in the hell is it so hard to get an education? It should be free, just like it is to go to public school.
I would love to help my daughter with college. But my husband and I haven’t filed our taxes due to our account charging 3X($12,000) the amount to file our business taxes one year and he won’t file our other years till we pay him for that year. We are in the mortgage business and times have been tough. My mother would co-sign for my daughter for a non-government Sallie Mae loan but the college my daughter is going to is not on the list and refuses to be put on the list. If she ever gets an unsubsidized loan will she be able to get a regular student loan once we get our situation controlled and is there any student loans that the college doesn’t have to be on the list.
Thanks any info would be greatly appreciateed.