<prompt> Human: I graduated high school in Connecticut in June 2015 and before deciding where I wanted to go to college and what for, I made the decision to travel the country US for a year. I now reside in Colorado and have made the decision to go to Colorado Mountain College community college and eventually transfer to a University in Colorado. BTW My families financial situation growing up never gave me the idea that higher education was even an option so I havent prepared myself and am not familiar with the process applying for financial aide.I have lived and worked in Colorado since October 2015 so I am eligible for residency and after a year of having that I can get permanent residency which would give me in state tuition. But thats in a year and I would like to start college in the fall. I cant go through FAFSA with my parents tax records because my parents have never done their taxes. I plan on doing mine before the deadline but Ive never done that either and have no idea what Im doing. Im basically not a dependent of my parents, but I havent taken the legal steps to declare that either, not that I would know how to.Help me Reddit. Im a kid thats been thrown into an adults world and Im trying to work with what I got. Im on my own and am frozen in the decision of what to do next. I want to be able to support myself and go to college and not get out in massive debt.  <response>: Federal law requires that parental financial information be used when calculating financial aid awards, unless the student is declared independent.Now, if you were fleeing from an abusive home or something similar, you may be eligible for a dependency override and then the school wouldnt need your parents information.Unfortunately, self-sufficiency is not sufficient grounds in and of itself to merit a dependent to independent override for financial aid purposes.If your parents dont file their taxes, you can just choose wont file on the FAFSA. If the numbers say they should have filed, itll just get kicked over to the school and theyll take W-2 and other income info and calculate your package with that. 