First of all I have to say one thing. If you're in school, financially dependent on your parents (or other family members) and think that coming out to them has a reasonable chance of causing that financial support to disappear or be reduced, don't come out to them. It's your future we're talking about and honestly in most cases it's just a couple of years of evading questions from the fam. Yes, it sucks but sometimes you have to prioritize.
If you do lose that support, there are still options. All you need to do is go talk to your adviser, or Financial Aid Officer or whatever, and ask them what you can do to get yourself declared independent from your parents.
When you do that, they can no longer claim you on their taxes, and you are no longer expected to receive any support from them financially. At that point, the fact that you're working a "good job for a 19 year old" will make the government, and potentially your school, step up and give you some serious aid.
Sorry, but the above is generally not true, at least not in the United States. In the government's eyes, your parents are responsible for contributing to the financial support of your eduction until one of the following occurs:
- You turn
26. Note 26 is not 18 or 21.
- You get married (to a woman since the feds don't recognize gay marriage even in places like Massachusetts).
- You join the military.
- You have dependents (i.e., you have a kid).
- You are a ward of the court (i.e., your parents are dead or were stripped of their parental rights over you by the state and you have no other legal guardian).
Until that happens your parents' financial situation will be considered for all federal financial aid awarded to you, regardless if they're actually supporting you or not. That goes for work study, most kinds of student loans and Pell grants. Moreover, many universities use the expected family contribution number determined by the federal government through filing your FAFSA to determine other aid.
Virtually all universities allow you to file for an exception or otherwise petition for unusual circumstances, but there are no guarantees. They're under absolutely no obligation to help you or recognize your situation. The burden is on you to prove to them that your financial situation is either very, very bad or has changed substantially since you began your studies. The funding for such aid has to come from other sources besides the federal government, which is generally harder to come by. Unless one of those conditions I listed above is met, the federal government will not consider you independent of your parents for financial aid purposes.
It doesn't matter if you're not a dependent for tax purposes. That's a completely separate determination that does not affect financial aid actually, although it does affect who's allowed to take educational tax credits and deductions.
