Getting Emancipated at the Age of 20

My question involves juvenile law in the State of: California

Hi,

I am a college student studying my undergrad (biology, pre-med) in California. As of last semester, my parents would aid in paying my tuition and I do not qualify for financial aid due to my parents income. I cannot file as an independent to receive financial aid until I am at the age of 24. After many exchanged words, my parents and I are not on speaking terms and they are refusing to help pay for anything of mine.

Now, with my current job, I am able to pay for 75% of my lower cost expenses. I will soon have to bear the burden of paying for tuition and rent and I will not be able to make ends meet while attending school. My question is, will I be able to emancipate from my parents and qualify for financial aid for school based on my income level and not my parents?

I understand that once I am 18, I am a free adult, but the age for financial aid is 24.

TIA

If you are applying for financial aid, and have not received parental support for certain amounts of time, your school's financial aid department MAY consider you to be "emancipated" (or "independent"). This means that they can calculate what aid you may qualify for based only on YOUR income and expenses, and without consideration for your parent's ability to contribute to your education. You may have found yourself at the beginning, filling out the FAFSA: Free Application for Federal Student Aid and gotten to the space where they ask for your parent's financial information. Generally speaking, you'll only qualify as an independent student if:

1) you are 25 years of age or more, or
2) you are enrolling in a Master's or Doctorate program, or
3) you are married, as of your application date (NOT divorced), or
4) you have children who get more than half of their support from you, or
5) both parents are deceased OR you are a ward of the court, or
6) you are a veteran of the US armed forces, or on active duty

If you DON'T meet one of these requirements, you can STILL qualify as an independent student, if you meet criteria set out by the specific school in question. You'll need to fill out everything you can on the FAFSA, include the school codes for the schools you are considering, and then you'll need to meet with a financial aid advisor at each school, and present them with your FAFSA form (they should get it electronically) and whatever evidence you have that you have been self-supporting without parental assistance (a lease, utility bills in your name, copies of cancelled checks proving you paid them, copies of your W-2's showing how much you've earned for the last several years, copies of tax returns, etc.). It is then up to each school's financial aid office to make the appropriate adjustments to your FAFSA to determine your actual aid amount. If you don't meet the automatic age requirement, you will have to take this additional step, it cannot be accomplished ONLY via the FAFSA submission.