<prompt> Human: Hello PF!I am a 22 year old college senior that will be moving onto a M.Ed program at the University of Minnesota. During the program orientation they said that I will be filing as independent in my FAFSA because I am in grad school. I talked to my dad about this who seems to think that is not necessarily the truth. He is going to talk with an accountant friend to sort it out but obviously there is a motive for him to claim me as dependent. I think I would prefer to file as an independent since I will be eligible for more scholarships and grants that way. The sticky part is that my dad pays for part of my schooling without expecting any repayment from me. My dad made it sound like he would switch to only loaning me money with interest if I filed as independent even though it would probably be less expensive for him if I could become eligible for scholarships and grants. Does anyone have experience with filing FAFSA for grad school here? Google only returned a short explanation that most grad students file as independent without providing any reasons why. Not very helpful. Can you help me out PF?  <response>: Being independent for tax purposes is completely unrelated to being independent for FASFA purposes. 