IIRC not tax/dependency status; in order to be free from parents’ income you need to be above 24, emancipated from your parents, a ward of the court, etc..

source: https://www.fastweb.com/financial-aid/articles/federal-finan...

These criteria are really shitty for some people. My middle class parents spoiled me and paid for the entirety of my college tuition and expenses, but I had friends from families with similar income whose parents completely refused to pay for any college expenses, and they had to survive on whatever scholarships and student loans they could get, but couldn't get any FAFSA aid. I'm not sure what the alternative is, and I'm sure they were more privileged than many/most of the people who do qualify for FAFSA aid, but it still felt really unfair to me.

I guess they should've gotten sham marriages to qualify as independent? (Why is marriage a qualifying criterion for independence? Seems really antiquated to me...)

Or married, I think.

Married, yes.

Veteran also works -- I qualified not to include my parent's income. But the $10k I made the year before put be above the threshold for a household of one. I think I got a state $500/year and that was it. Everything else was loans.

It was a perverse position I was in during the 6 months between military service and returning to college. Any money I saved during that time was considered to be 100% applicable to that next year of college. So I basically had to deplete all savings before any aid or even loans were allowed to kick in.

Incidentally, the GI Bill, which is often advertised as $xxx per month is pro-rated to the day.

Are you saying that one divorced parent claiming me as dependent means that both of their incomes are automatically combined when applying, or that both likely claimed me as a dependent?

I haven't been aware of where my father is since I was a teenager, so it's entirely possible that he was in fact claiming me still. The fact that that disqualified me from any assistance is pretty sad. I'm very lucky to be where I am right now.

I recall us explaining this to admissions but there being no budge at all.

Your situation really sucked. However the reason that is that way is because the schools want to avoid financial aid fraud: a rich dad is “out of the picture” when in fact he isn’t — people use that strategy to get more financial aid. In your case, it was horrible. Getting classified as an independent student under the age of 24 is very difficult; it depends on the school’s financial aid administrator. Only .9% of students got an override. However, being married, a veteran, having legal dependents, or being an orphan are the only automatic ways to be considered independent for the FAFSA. If that were my situation, I would have joined the National Guard for two years: that makes you independent and gets you additional money from the GI Bill. However, that’s not for everyone.

I’m sorry you had that situation. In your case, it was clearly unfair.

I saw that there is the ability for an Admissions person to do an override in a link posted in this thread, I was curious how often it was done as it wasn't recommended to me at all. So that makes sense.

I was very close to joining the USMC/Army to deal with all of this. USCG/USAF (admittedly didn't try USNG) and everyone else were "full" back then if I didn't have a Bachelors. I graduated right after 9/11..