Grandparents, foster parents, legal guardians, older siblings, and uncles or aunts are not considered parents on the FAFSA unless they have legally adopted you. If your legal parents are living and married to each other, answer the questions on the FAFSA about both of them. If your legal pa...
For applicants with divorced, never-married or separated parents who don't live together, the parent who provided the most financial support over the last 12 months is considered the contributor. If it's the same amount for each parent, the contributor is the parent wi...
As you determine this, you’ll need to indicate whether your parent or parents are married, remarried, separated/divorced, unmarried but living together, or widowed. Based on that answer, the FAFSA® will ask for the date of their marriage, divorce, or spouse’s death. If your parents ar...
Determine your dependency status.If you’re a dependent student, you and your parents must both provide information on the FAFSA. Independent students, however, can fill out the form on their own. You may be an independent student if you’re 24 or older, are married, are a veteran or mee...
Can my parents make too much money that I won’t qualify for aid? Technically, there is no income limit that disqualifies you from submitting the FAFSA. However, higher-income families may qualify for less need-based aid, such as Pell Grants. ...
For FAFSA®purposes, your married parents are separated if they’re considered legally separated by the state or if they’re legally married but have chosen to live separate lives, including living in separate households. In this case, as stated above, you’ll include the information of the ...
If your parents are married, gather information for both of them. If your parent is widowed or single, you'll just need information from that one parent. If your widowed parent is currently remarried, you'll need information from your parent and your parent's spouse. ...
Specifically: The FAFSA uses parents’ 2022 tax information for the 2024–2025 school year. If a parent filed 2022 taxes while married but is divorced by the time the student applies for Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 financial aid, the parent of record may have to manually enter their tax inform...