<p>Do read this: <a href=“Divorce and Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid; It’s for the FAFSA which you will be filing after 1/1/2015 when it becomes available. Though a bit outdated, the info there goes well into issues in filing as separated for FAFSA purposes. You will need to fill out a FAFSA which generally gets verified against the 2014 tax forms, and PROFILE often gets checked against that or through IDOC, a verification process. Any inconsistency will be questioned. Yes, you can be married and separated/ Those who are separated on 12/31 of a year can so file on the 1040 series with the IRS and generally do so if permitted since tax rules are favorable that way, especially for HOH status. However, you do not have to meet IRS definition of separated in order to be separated for FAFSA purposes, but when the information does not jive additional questions will likely be asked by the financial aid officer. The PROFILE will also have to be consistent. A question that may come up is whether your parents consider themselves as a married couple who just happen to live apart, or if they are indeed living separate lives. My husband and I were separated for job purposes, with separate residences, but we did not consider ourselves separated in status and would not have so filed on any form regardless of financial aidvantage. But I do know couples who live separately, run their lives separately and have separate finances and though they are together as a married couple when together </p>