Why is FAFSA asking only for student income for my 18-year-old niece but parent income for my 17-year-old daughter?

This is actually a dependent vs. independent student status issue. The FAFSA treats students differently based on specific criteria, not just age. Your 17-year-old daughter is automatically considered a dependent student (requires parent info). For your niece, since she's 18, check if she accidentally indicated she meets one of the independence criteria - like being married, having children she supports, being a veteran, or being homeless. The system would then skip parent questions. Your sister's daughter needs to go back and check those answers - she probably clicked something wrong since simply being 18 doesn't make her independent for FAFSA purposes.

the exact same thing happened with my son last fall! he checked the wrong box saying he was "not supported by parents" just bc he has a part time job. we had to delete the whole application & start fresh. so frustrating!!!

The new 2025-2026 FAFSA has actually streamlined the dependency questions, but they can still be confusing. Your niece likely selected one of the independence criteria by mistake. Here's what she needs to do: 1. Log back into StudentAid.gov 2. Select "Make FAFSA Corrections" 3. Navigate to the dependency section 4. Carefully review and correct her answers 5. Continue through until she reaches the parent information section Important: For FAFSA purposes, living in a dorm does NOT make a student independent, and having a part-time job doesn't qualify as "self-supporting" - there are specific income thresholds and documentation requirements for that designation.

I HATE the FAFSA system so much!!! My son had the exact same problem last year and we couldn't just "edit" or "correct" it - we had to completely withdraw the application and start from scratch! And then it took WEEKS to process the new one. By then we almost missed our school's priority deadline which could have cost us thousands in institutional aid. The whole system is designed to trip people up I swear.

Have your sister contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center directly to get this fixed. My daughter had a similar issue and we wasted 2 weeks trying to figure it out ourselves. When we finally reached a FAFSA agent, they unlocked the application and helped us make the corrections in about 15 minutes. The problem is getting through to them - I kept getting disconnected after being on hold forever until I used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to hold my place in line. They have a video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Saved me hours of frustration and the agent was able to reset the dependency questions for us.

Financial aid counselor here. To clarify some confusion in this thread: 1. For 2025-2026 FAFSA, a student is considered DEPENDENT unless they meet specific criteria (24+ years old, married, have dependents they support, veteran, etc). 2. Simply being 18 or living in a dorm DOES NOT make a student independent. 3. If an application is "locked for processing," you have two options: - Wait until processing completes (typically 3-5 business days) then make corrections - Contact FSA directly to request they cancel the processing application 4. Your 17-year-old daughter's experience is the CORRECT one for most students. 5. Your niece will almost certainly need to start over with a new application because dependency status errors are fundamental to the calculation. Act quickly - incorrect dependency status will result in an incorrect Student Aid Index (SAI) and potentially much less financial aid than she's eligible for.

Just want to add - make sure both your daughter AND your niece understand that dependency for FAFSA has NOTHING to do with tax dependency! My daughter argued with me because "I file my own taxes" so she thought she was independent for FAFSA. Totally different systems with different rules!

wait do they both need to list both parents income? my husband and i file separate taxes & the form only asked for my income not his. is that wrong?

Update: My sister finally got everything sorted out! She had to withdraw the first application and start a completely new one. My niece now understands she's a dependent student for FAFSA purposes even though she lives on campus. The new application is asking for parent information like it should. Thanks everyone for your help - who knew checking one wrong box could cause so much trouble!

This is such a common mistake! I'm a college admissions counselor and we see this dependency confusion constantly. The key thing to remember is that for FAFSA purposes, almost ALL undergraduate students under 24 are considered dependent regardless of where they live or whether they have jobs. The only exceptions are very specific situations like being married, having children you support more than 50%, being a veteran, or being homeless/at risk of homelessness. Living in a dorm and having a part-time job definitely doesn't qualify as independent! I always tell families to read each question very carefully and when in doubt, assume you're dependent - it's much easier to correct from dependent to independent than the other way around.