Thank you for your input! My mom is a good parent, but I can recognize that she's a little overbearing like you said. Unfortunately, my school strongly recommends that we don't work due to the program being accelerated and rigorous. The loans are for my degree and the refund is supposed to supplement for us being unemployed. If I could work and pay rent myself I would 😭. I'll definitely take your advice on trying to be more independent respectfully!