Independent Status:
Applicants who are unmarried and at least 30 years old by December 31, 2017 are said to be independent by the financial aid office when considering eligibility for Stanford institutional grant and loan funds. Independent students are not required to complete the CSS Profile or provide parent tax returns. Married students who are at least 30 years old by December 31, 2017 should complete the CSS Profile but the parent tax return requirement is waived.
There is an exception to this policy for students under consideration for the LEADER award from the Office of MD Program Admissions. Parent tax documentation is required for all LEADERs. Also, please be aware that independent status on the federal application is defined differently - see below.
1. 2017-2018 FAFSA - Free Application for Federal Student Aid - www.fafsa.gov
U.S. citizens and permanent residents must complete FAFSA to be considered for federal loans and/or Stanford grants and loans. On the FAFSA applicants should list Stanford University School of Medicine and our school code, G24552.
All MD applicants are considered independent on the FAFSA. Because of this Stanford School of Medicine does not require parent data to be entered on the FAFSA.
Note that the terms are the same for both federal and institutional aid, independent student or independency, however, the definitions are different. For federal aid all MD students are independent. For institutional aid students are independent by meeting the age requirement described above.
***NEW for 2017-18 - Prior, prior year tax data (PPY)*** In years past, FAFSA required information from your tax return that was filed the year prior to the application cycle, e.g. 2015 1040 for the 2016-17 academic year. Starting in 2017-18 FAFSA now requires tax data from two years removed, e.g. 2015 1040 for the 2017-18 academic year.
This change was made to facilitate the financial aid application process. Since it is likely that the PPY tax return has already been filed, the chance of a delay in completing the financial aid application related to tax filing is lessened.
Applicants are required to use the FAFSA Data Retrieval Tool (DRT)- The DRT allows FAFSA to populate tax information directly from the IRS database so that you do not need to submit your tax return to the financial aid office.
If you were not required to file a 2015 federal income tax return please indicate this on FAFSA (Item #32) and submit all 2015 W-2s (if applicable) to the financial aid office.
- Parental income and asset information must be reported on this application. If your parents are separated or divorced each natural parent must report their financial information. When completing the CSS Profile parent email addresses are requested, then parents are sent an email invitation to securely enter their information on the CSS Profile. If parents are remarried stepparent data is factored out so that the need analysis reflects only biological or adoptive parents.
- If you are estranged from one or both parents you may petition to bypass the parent information requirement by submitting an estrangement waiver. Evidence of estrangement, including 3rd party verification, will be required for the petition to be approved. Please contact the financial aid office for additional information.
- 3. Stanford Supplemental Application
This free application allows you to share enrollment plans, declare outside resources, describe special circumstances to the financial aid office, as well as certify that you will abide by the rules and regulations of our financial aid programs. A link to the electronic application may be found in AXESS (see instructions by clicking the gray accordion link below).
- 4. 2015 Federal Tax Returns for Parents:
- Signed copies of federal tax returns from both parents are required unless the applicant is independent as described above. A tax preparer’s name and SSN, EIN, or PTIN is acceptable in lieu of a parent signature. Please note we are not able to accept FAFSA DRT data for parents as we do for student applicants.
- You should submit signed parent 1040s, W-2s, 1099s, and schedules (e.g. Schedule A, Schedule C) as well as partnership or corporate returns if applicable (e.g. Schedule K-1, Form 1120 & 1065). If your parents are not required to file a 2015 federal income tax return please complete the Non-Tax Filing Statement form available on the forms page of our website. All parent W-2s for 2015 should be submitted to the financial aid office regardless of whether parents are required to file a tax return or not.
Note to returning applicants: If you submitted 2015 parent tax documentation as part of your financial aid application for the 2016-17 cycle, we will automatically carry the documentation over to your 2017-18 financial aid file. Please review the checklist 'to do' items in AXESS to determine whether you need to submit parent tax documentation as part of your 2017-18 application.
