Dependent or Independent? Questions To Ask Before Starting Your FAFSA Application

Are you a dependent or independent student? This might be the most important question you can answer about yourself before filling out your FAFSA. No, we're not talking about whether you need the safety of a security blanket to sleep at night. Determining your dependent or independent status for your FAFSA is a matter of how you and your parents or guardians file your taxes. Once you determine your status, you'll know what sort of additional information to gather for your application. We've outlined the different FAFSA status classifications below.

Dependent Status
Do you rely on your parents for monetary support? Will your parents be helping to pay for any of your college expenses including tuition, room, board, or incidentals? More importantly: Do your parents claim you as a dependent on your tax return? This means you fall into the "dependent" classification. Dependent students are required to provide information about both parents on the FAFSA. Even though your parents will be helping you with your education costs, this does not disqualify you from receiving federal aid.

Are your parents separated or divorced? There's a simple way to determine which parent you'll provide information about on FAFSA. It's whoever you spent the most time living with over the year before your FAFSA application date. Did you live with both parents for a roughly equal amount of time? Provide information about the parent who gave you the most monetary support in the year prior to your application. Don't forget to gather information about your step parent as well.

Independent Status
For the 2008-2009 academic year: If you were born before January 1, 1985, you are automatically considered an independent student. This means you're only required to provide your own information and can ignore your parents' info.

Here are eight other scenarios that make you an automatic independent:
* You are married or separated when you apply
* You pay half or more child support
* You are enrolled in a graduate-level program in the academic year you're applying for
* You are a veteran
* You are on active duty (training is excluded) in the U.S. military
* You yourself can claim a dependent for tax purposes
* Both your parents are deceased
* You are a ward of the state

Sometimes, there are gray areas in determining your status. In these cases you'll want to contact a FAFSA administrator for help in determining what status is appropriate for your application.

Independent Married Status
Are you married? You'll need to provide information about both you and your spouse for the FAFSA. Your financial assistance will be determined by your combined income.

Must-Have Information For Your FAFSA
We've compiled a list of the essential facts you need to provide on your FAFSA. Whether your describing yourself, your parents, or your wife, you'll need to check every item off this list before your complete your application. [I can put these in different order later]

· Name
· Address
· Phone number
· Social security number
· Driver’s license number
· Alien registration (if non U.S. citizen)
· Previous year tax information, tax returns, W-2 forms
· Records of untaxed income
· Amount of money they have in savings, checking, or CD accounts
· Amount of money invested
· Farm or real estate assets
· Email address

Additional Tips:

Maintain your privacy! Keep this information in a secure place. You should consider shredding documents with sensitive financial information the second they can no longer be of use to you in your application. Are you applying online? Use a secure connection on your home computer. Be sure to run a security sweep of your computer's data cache after your application is complete. And remember: The earlier you file your FAFSA the better aid package you're likely to receive. Start gathering your information now!