Dependency status.
In plain English
Dependency status is how the FAFSA decides whose financial information counts when figuring your aid. If you are a dependent student, you must report your parents' income and assets along with your own. If you are an independent student, you report only your own (and a spouse's, if married). The FAFSA decides this with a fixed set of yes-or-no questions, not by whether your parents actually support you or claim you on their taxes. Common ways to be independent include being 24 or older, married, a veteran, a graduate student, or having your own dependents.
01Why it matters
Your dependency status often swings how much aid you get, because parent income can push your eligibility up or down by thousands of dollars. It is set by the FAFSA's rules, so you cannot just declare yourself independent because you pay your own bills or your parents stopped helping.
02The math, step by step
You are 19, single, in college, and live on your own paying your own rent. The FAFSA still treats you as a dependent because you answer no to every independence question. So you must include your parents' income, even though they no longer give you money. A classmate who is 24 answers yes to the age question and files as independent, reporting only her own income.
03What this is NOT
FAFSA dependency is not the same as tax dependency. The IRS rules about who claims you on a tax return are separate. You can be financially independent in real life, or not claimed on anyone's taxes, and the FAFSA can still count you as dependent.
04Receipts
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Plain-English answers from our glossary. Receipts included. Never advice.
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