PLEASE HELP ME. CANT GET STUDENT LOAN

[Anonymous]

Paying your "own bills" or not being declared on your parent's tax return is not suffficent to be considered independent.

To be independent (and thus only your income not paretns is considered) you must:
1. Be 24 years of age or older by December 31 of the award year;
2. Be an orphan (both parents deceased), ward of the court, or was a ward of the court until the age of 18;
3. Be a veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States;
4. Be a graduate or professional student;
5. Be a married individual;
6. Have legal dependents other than a spouse;
7. Be a student for whom a financial aid administrator makes a documented determination of independence by reason of other unusual circumstances.

#1-#6 are self explanatory. #7 is the catch-all but is EXTEMELY difficult to prove. Just being independent because you "want to do this on your own", "your parents don't help you" or "your parents have a lot of bills so you are working to support yourself". #7 is for EXTREME situations and the requirements are much tigher now than in 80s or 90s. Good examples would be a parent who abandons their child, a parent who abused a child, a parent who assulted a child, a child who ran away from home for multiple years, a child where birth parents are dead and legal guardian (step parent) refused to support them, etc.

#7 can't be used by "normal students" anymore. I remember talking to a friend who is a financial aid officer and less than 5% of applications for #7 are accepted.

The goverment looks at this way. If you parent have money then they should pay for part or all of your school costs. Otherwise Bill Gate's son could get part time job make $5K in a year and file independent and get $10K-$20K worth of grants plus subsidized federally backed loans.

Bad news is Stafford loan limits are set by Federal Government and are based on your academic year.

You can borrow a max of:
Freshman - $7,500
Sophmore - $8,500
Junior+ - $10,500

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to throw this idea out there to you, if you are living with a significant other and your state has common law marriages, you could claim that you are married on your FAFSA, but you must check with your state laws first before doing so to see if there are any other ramifications.  I am not telling you to defraud the government, only if you and your sig. other share lives, income, bills, etc. this would be a perfectly acceptable way for you to claim independence.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Paying your "own bills" or not being declared on your parent's tax return is not suffficent to be considered independent.

To be independent (and thus only your income not paretns is considered) you must:
1. Be 24 years of age or older by December 31 of the award year;
2. Be an orphan (both parents deceased), ward of the court, or was a ward of the court until the age of 18;
3. Be a veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States;
4. Be a graduate or professional student;
5. Be a married individual;
6. Have legal dependents other than a spouse;
7. Be a student for whom a financial aid administrator makes a documented determination of independence by reason of other unusual circumstances.

#1-#6 are self explanatory. #7 is the catch-all but is EXTEMELY difficult to prove. Just being independent because you "want to do this on your own", "your parents don't help you" or "your parents have a lot of bills so you are working to support yourself". #7 is for EXTREME situations and the requirements are much tigher now than in 80s or 90s. Good examples would be a parent who abandons their child, a parent who abused a child, a parent who assulted a child, a child who ran away from home for multiple years, a child where birth parents are dead and legal guardian (step parent) refused to support them, etc.

#7 can't be used by "normal students" anymore. I remember talking to a friend who is a financial aid officer and less than 5% of applications for #7 are accepted.

The goverment looks at this way. If you parent have money then they should pay for part or all of your school costs. Otherwise Bill Gate's son could get part time job make $5K in a year and file independent and get $10K-$20K worth of grants plus subsidized federally backed loans.

Bad news is Stafford loan limits are set by Federal Government and are based on your academic year.

You can borrow a max of:
Freshman - $7,500
Sophmore - $8,500
Junior+ - $10,500

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I fell under #3. I was deployed for a year during Desert Storm I was 18 at the time. So I guess this is how I was declared independent. I just thought it was because I was a member of the military. Go VETS!

[Anonymous]

Ummmm, I am also pretty sure that you're considered independent if you get MARRIED....chew that one over why dontcha.  hahahah

[Anonymous]

I have been going through all this for my son to go to school.  I applied for a parent plus loan.  You have to be iependent until you are 24 , otherwise I would of wanted my son to be independent because he would receive much more stafford money that way.  To be independent though you have to not have contact from your parents for at least 2 years and I could not have my son do that as it would be lying.  There are people who can help you with becoming independent but if you do that you also cannot have medical insurance under your parents and you need to check it out because you do lose a bit.  I also read somewhere that now you can still have your parents get a parent plus loan for you even if you are independent.  Have you talked to your financial aid office because a lot of times they can help you get work study which can help with your tuition for school.  I can understand what you are going through because it is not easy for kids to go to school and it is not easy for there parents.  I have my own parent plus loan that I know my son will not be able to pay off in addition to what he alreayd has so I am doing the best I can.  good luck to you and I hope there is something out there for you.   

[Nectarine]

I was able to get my financial aid office to do a dependency override (I'm 23 and have lived on my own since 17).  Ask your financial aid office for details.  If they don't know about it, press them to call FedAid and ask for details.  On the paper FAFSA, there is even a little bubble for it.  For electronic FAFSA they have to edit it for you.  But the increase still won't be $15'000 (see above).  For me, it wasn't "extremely" hard to prove, although I imagine it depends on if the Financial Aid department knows how to process them [EDIT: and of course what your situation is, not everyone gets it].  I had to bring two statements from people that knew me, one from me describing the situation, and had to fill out a form.  The bottom line is not to count on getting it, to instead look at other options.

But aside from that, here is the biggest issue right now:  you're looking at a $20'000+ school year.  Is this for your Freshman or Sophomore year?  If so, you should be getting more credits at the community-college level (doing that is saving me about twenty grand and six months of time).

You can also test-out of classes (CLEP) for less than $100 a class, which is an option if you've mastered the basics in (for example) English Composition or you're a math whiz, or you love Business Law for some reason.  There are 34 classes that you can attempt total, and each one saves (for me) about a thousand dollars a pop if I can pass them.  The trick is looking at the website and taking a practice test to see where you're at (ie if you can pass it).  

If you're in your junior or senior year of college, the hard fact is that you may not be able to afford to attend this college.  And I know that sounds really cold, but there are plenty of other college options to look at besides the one you really love.  I loved going to school in San Francisco, but there was just no way I could continue with the cost of living in the bay.  So I'm going to a different school now, and loving this one more than I did my last one!

Other financing includes Work-Study (which pays way more than min wage and usually goes for 15-19 hours a week).   You can also try for scholarships with the school directly, but these can be pretty competitive.  Look at reducing cost First for the most impact.

Message Edited by Nectarine on 10-22-2008 12:44 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

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heather76 wrote:

Ummmm, I am also pretty sure that you're considered independent if you get MARRIED....chew that one over why dontcha.  hahahah

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That would be #5 on the list that CreditMizer posted, I believe.

[laz98]

i have always been considered an independent student, ever since i was 20.  i don't fall under ANY of those rules.