Professional Judgment: Unusual Circumstance Appeal – Dependency Override

Students who have an unusual circumstances regarding Dependency can file an appeal. Examples of unusual circumstances are as follows (but not limited to):

• parental abandonment of the student,
• abusive family environment which threatens the student’s physical/emotional health or safety,
• student’s inability to locate parent(s) for long- term and on-going basis,
• your parent(s) is incarcerated,
• other unusual circumstance

Please note that the conditions below, singly or in combination, DO NOT QUALIFY as unusual circumstances meriting a dependency override:

• Parents refuse to contribute to the student’s education
• Parents are unwilling to provide information on the student’s FAFSA (or for verification)
• Parents do not claim student as dependent for tax-filing purposes
• Student demonstrates total self-sufficiency

In order for a student to be reviewed for this appeal, they will need to provide documentation.

All students must first create a Student Forms account, please visit https://finaid.olemiss.edu/studentforms/ for information on how to set up your account. Once you are logged in you can request an appeal within the portal by navigating to the ‘Request’ button at the top right of the screen. From there click on the green plus sign next to the appeal and correct academic year. This will allow you to add a request as a task for you to complete. Choose “Professional Judgement: Unusual Circumstance Appeal”. Fill in the web form completely and upload the appropriate documentation per the request. All information regarding the appeal is within Student Forms.