Fed Financial - Financial Aid?!?!Student Loans?!?! D:?

Financial Aid?!?!Student Loans?!?! D:?

Hi, I'm a freshman in college and have never really thought about financial aid since my parents are middle class and after filing a FAFSA last year, we do not qualify for any, for a UC, anyways. They have also always said they are going to pay for my college education. Now, however, I am thinking of paying my own way through college for the next few years, because I feel the fact that they are paying for it is keeping me from getting the most out of my college experience (they are, at the same time, babying me yet pressuring me like crazy). I realize this will take a lot of work, but could someone give me the 411 on student loans and whether I could get financial aid, is there a legal process that I would have to go through to basically financially divorce myself from my parents? (I also plan on moving out after I figure this out..)

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If you're a freshman in college (unless you were an early admittance student) you should be at least 18 years of age and thus, your parents have no legal responsibilities to pay for you education. Considering this, to legally qualify as an independant and be able to recieve federal aid, you have to supply at least 50% of the money you need to support yourself. So, the first step is to get a job. Also, if you plan on moving out, you should look in to on-campus housing, but since most housing on campus is reserved for freshman, and then it is given to other students on a first-come, first-serve basis you should also look in to getting an apartment near campus, as well as trying to find a room mate or two. Now, you need to sign up for a service like FastWEB, which is an online scholarship search engine; it tailors the scholarships you see based on the information you fill out when first opening an account. FastWEB is free, but also very popular, so you should also talk to your school financial aid advisor and see if there are any scholarships she might reccomend. I would not reccomend taking out a student loan unless you absolutely need to; they have crazy high interest rates if you don't have a co-signer (like your parents, but then the credit history goes into their file, not yours) and you can end up owing four or five times what you borrowed by the end of your college education. You already know about the FAFSA, so I'll spare you those details. There are other ways to pay like work-study programs, which basically work for free in exchange for cut college costs (the college absorbs your paycheck as tuition payment, books/lab fees payment, etc.)
There are two sources for student loans -- the federal government and private lenders. In order to obtain most federal student loans, you will first need to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). In mostyou can combine all of your eligible federal student loans into one loan with a Federal Consolidation Loan. Consolidating also locks the interest rate you pay on your loan.
You are basically asking if you can file FAFSA on your own. The answer is no. You need to be over 24 or married or a parent or in the military. (I think that's all), so your parents income will always count until one of the above happens. You can apply for loans OR you could promise to pay your parents back. Write up a legal agreement if you want.
Hello how are you? So far I agree with all of the above responses. But have you thought about applying for scholarships or grants. They are both sources of money that you do not have to pay back. You can find free financial aid at ScholarshipSupport.com and you can find additional student loan FAQs at my source. Hope this helps you good luck.