Most students headed to college in the fall have applied for financial assistance via the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The process can be complicated and confusing for high school seniors who may be thinking about paying their own bills for the first time, but the government has a number of supporting pamphlets and documents explaining various topics.
One topic that has become increasingly complicated in recent years is addressed in a documents entitled “Who’s My Parent When I Fill Out My FAFSA?”
The form includes a flowchart with such questions as, “Are your parents married to each other?” “Do your parents live together?” “Did you live with one parent more than the other over the past 12 months?”
The document not only addresses who is considered one’s parent, but who is not:
The list includes widowed stepparent, grandparents, foster parents, legal guardians, older brothers or sisters, and aunts or uncles.
A second document addresses the even newer issue of same-sex marriage, which includes retiring uses of “mother” and “father”:
The FAFSA instructions even address questions about students whose parents may not be in the country legally:
While a student headed to college may be looking forward to independence, the parent question is not insignificant. Even if parents do not plan to help their child pay for college and even refuse to provide information for the FAFSA, “the application will be considered ‘rejected,’ and you might not be able to receive any federal student aid.”
