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Filing as an independent doesn't help. I had a friend who was in all ways independent (was basically disowned by her parents) and she couldn't qualify for any FAFSA based aid because she was still required to disclose her parents assets, and her parents refused to sign the forms to do so.

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This is the biggest problem for many kids. The system assumes parents are willing to pay a "fair share", when many are absolutely not, for any number of reasons. Those kids are penalized and it is completely unfair.

Story of my life right now.

This was worse than that: her parent's weren't particularly rich, but she wasn't available for any FAFSA aid, since her parents refused to sign the disclosure forms.

How old does someone have to be before they're automatically independent?

24

So can you just wait until you're 24 before signing up for college and get lots of subsidies?

Tons of high-school graduates in Australia get a job for a year after highschool, that way you will earn over a threshold amount in a year (I think it was $15k when I did it) and be declared independent from your parents.

Then when you go to university, you qualify for Youth Allowance and get paid to go, as I did. It was something like ~$450/week IIRC.

Yeah - http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink...

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