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In the process of submitting FAFSA and I'd prefer to not include my parents' income (they will have no part of any of this and I have been financially independent for years). I am 25 and a military veteran so I am independent for FAFSA's purposes. However, some schools have statements similar to the following: "If you are younger than 30 years old and do not have dependents other than a spouse, you must report parent information on the FAFSA to be considered for need-based funding." I happened upon this line on Dickinson's website and almost overlooked it... point is, do I really need to include my parents' information on this? Or did they just not include the comprehensive list of people considered independent for FAFSA? According to LSAC's site, I am considered independent (https://www.lsac.org/sites/default/file ... 18_web.pdf). It's contradictory!

The FAFSA standards for "independent" are totally separate from schools' standards for reporting parental info for scholarship determinations.

The above post is correct. You need to follow the schools requirement so if they’re telling you to include your parents information on your applications, you must do so. If you feel particularly affronted by that requirement most schools will allow you to submit an addendum to explain why you should be excluded from that policy. Many if not most law school applicants are financially independent but The schools want what they want and usually people are only excepted from the policy if circumstances are incredibly unique (i.e. foster children, parents deemed legal incapable of caring as a child, student is actually full-time caregiver to their parents). Basically, being a veteran isn’t particularly unique in determining your independent status.

TLS wrote:The above post is correct. You need to follow the schools requirement so if they’re telling you to include your parents information on your applications, you must do so. If you feel particularly affronted by that requirement most schools will allow you to submit an addendum to explain why you should be excluded from that policy. Many if not most law school applicants are financially independent but The schools want what they want and usually people are only excepted from the policy if circumstances are incredibly unique (i.e. foster children, parents deemed legal incapable of caring as a child, student is actually full-time caregiver to their parents). Basically, being a veteran isn’t particularly unique in determining your independent status.

The above post is spot on. Schools consider parents' income up to age 30 not because they actually think most students will be having law school paid for by the Bank of Mom and Dad, but because they want to have the ability to trumpet a generous need-based aid policy while at the same time excluding most students from qualifying. If parental income wasn't considered for under-30s, a (large) majority of every class would be eligible for max need-based aid, which would obviously be financially untenable for the law schools.

QContinuum wrote:

TLS wrote:The above post is correct. You need to follow the schools requirement so if they’re telling you to include your parents information on your applications, you must do so. If you feel particularly affronted by that requirement most schools will allow you to submit an addendum to explain why you should be excluded from that policy. Many if not most law school applicants are financially independent but The schools want what they want and usually people are only excepted from the policy if circumstances are incredibly unique (i.e. foster children, parents deemed legal incapable of caring as a child, student is actually full-time caregiver to their parents). Basically, being a veteran isn’t particularly unique in determining your independent status.

The above post is spot on. Schools consider parents' income up to age 30 not because they actually think most students will be having law school paid for by the Bank of Mom and Dad, but because they want to have the ability to trumpet a generous need-based aid policy while at the same time excluding most students from qualifying. If parental income wasn't considered for under-30s, a (large) majority of every class would be eligible for max need-based aid, which would obviously be financially untenable for the law schools.

That all makes sense. Thanks everyone!