… is financial aid? … Financial aid is money that students may use to help cover the cost of their education that is made available by federal and state governments, as well as public and private organizations in the form of grants, fee waivers, … … Most importantly, apply early to avoid the financial aid application processing rush. We highly recommend that you keep a copy of all the documents used to complete the financial aid application, such as tax returns, W-2s, permanent … You can view these questions at Dependency Status Dependency Status . If you can answer "yes" to any of these questions, then you are considered independent. If you answer "no" to all the questions, then you must provide your contributor(s) …