Tax dependent

I feel your pain as I was in the same situation when I was trying to get financial aid - it's the plight of the middle class :)

I will look up a link for you, but unless they have changed the FAFSA qualifications, you can't apply on the FAFSA alone until you are 23 years of age, so taking her off your taxes now wouldn't help anyway. I'll double-check to see if they have changed anything in the past 5 years.

Here is a great checklist and time line for finding funding for college that is similar to one I go in high school.

http://www.finaid.org/students/checklist.phtml

Yup looks like it is the same for FAFSA as it was when I was researching for my own degree:

http://www.fafsa.com/Forms/Ajax/FAFSA/frmdependencydetails.aspx?rf=0;p ku3at=zg30019a:9e3-86%6018~7e!-e@05

I would claim her for the next couple of years and take the money you get back and save or invest it. Student loans or scholarships may be her best options. Is there a major college in your state she would be interested in going to as out-of-state tuition fees are so outrageous?

You may also want to look into universities in your state that have sister schools. My university was sister schools with Univeristy of Hawaii, so if you applied early enough (which is great for you since you still have 2 years) you can get on an exchange program where you can go to the sister school without paying out of state tuition and they in turn are able to send a student from the other school to the university in your state.

Good luck and I know this can be stressful - I have a 9-month-old and I've already started to fret about how to pay for college!

You would have to have her emancipated so that she is legally on her own, and then even then, it may not work. and that is one of those things that once you do it, you can't undo it. it is something to look into before you actually do it to make sure that you are ok with the pros and cons of doing it.