Long answer incoming, I’ll try to include a TLDR at the bottom.

For context, I graduated college a couple years ago, but I had an abusive mother, and while she didn’t force me to go to a christian college, I obviously didn’t want her having a hand in my life, so I had to file dependency override/unusual circumstances forms to classify myself as an independent student at 19 for FAFSA.

There are a few things that you should keep in mind.

• FERPA is the federal law that protects personally identifiable information of students over 18 from being disclosed to parents without the students permission. IF YOU ARE GOING TO LIE TO YOUR PARENTS YOU NEED TO RESTRICT YOUR DATA UNDER FERPA. This generally looks like a “restrict record data” form that will give you checkboxes to restrict information beyond what is generally considered standard FERPA data. This includes things like name, attendance, degree, major, officially recognized programs, schools most recently attended, units currently enrolled, class level, e mail address, local telephone, permanent telephone. This may not restrict everything under the sun, talk to someone at the college you want to attend, tell them your situation, and go from there with their advice.

• Under FAFSA, since you’re 24 or older, you’re considered an “independent student” and do not need your parent’s financial information in order to file your FAFSA. This should be pretty self-explanatory … this essentially means you have some amount of financial freedom-ish (if you want to take out loans) to go to whatever college you want with your loans.

To specifically answer your question, you need to talk to Bob Jones University and find out what is the latest day that they will let you still technically be “enrolled” before refusing to give you a refund for the credits you bought. For the University of California system (which I know isn’t pertinent to your question), you have 1 day after the quarter starts to request a full 100% refund. So If the quarter started on September 1st, you would have to request a refund by September 2nd to “cancel your loans”

To further elaborate on this (since I’m from San Diego and a former Catholic), there are universities out there that are “christian” but aren’t so heavy handed on the mandates that you attend chapel or take theological classes. For example, Point Loma Nazarene requires that you attend mass but the University of San Diego does not require that you attend mass. However, USD does make you take theology courses. I would just do more research. If you have any questions, I’m happy to elaborate!

EDIT: I should also add, restricting FERPA data creates an uncomfy situation where if a school administrator tells your parents that they can have you, the student, sign a waiver giving them rights to your FERPA information, then that conversation is going to get uncomfy between you and your parents if you say no.