conuly

I suspect he misunderstood and isn't being claimed as a dependent on the taxes. Because I'm fairly sure it's irrelevant. He was probably told that he doesn't qualify for financial aid because his parents make too much money and he's a dependent and misunderstood. Even if she's not claiming him, he still can't get his financial aid evaluated separately from hers at his age. It's almost entirely a matter of age. The law assumes your parents will help you, whether or not they do. If they do not, you are in a horrible situation.

The idea behind it is that your parents might help you under the table, and they don't want that to happen. So, people with parents with money might qualify for better aid than they deserve. The problem is that parents aren't legally required to help their children at all, because a college education is seen as a luxury (the law is outdated at this point).

I fully believe that the kid is truly in an awful situation as this is about the third case of it I've heard of, and the first one was someone in my college, and the second was my partner. The first person took out hideous loans and must have owed a fortune when he graduated at terrible interest rates. My partner waited until he was 25 to go to college.

This is a regular problem, and it likely affects a lot of people. I'd love to see a solution. But I know of no good or certain solutions. The very complicated legal options would require a lawyer and would be very expensive, which is simply not an option to people who are in this position.

Personally, I'd like to see the law modified to either not expect parents to contribute to higher education and make it public the same way we do for 1st - 12th grade or make parents legally required to provide the amount of money to their kids that the financial aid statement declares is their share and refuses to cover for the child based on that finding. I prefer the former, because the latter might be very difficult for parents in some situations, but at least it wouldn't destroy a young adult's ability to get an education.