If you've been living on your own and paying your own bills for a year then you are classified as independent (you better have receipts). If you have all the receipts to prove your independence then you could very well get your school paid for if you're not making that much money. At least no interest loans and so forth.

I'd really go back asap if I were you, but waiting for yourself to be considered an independent saves you a lot of cash in the short term, but every year you wait you're probably losing 20k+ of potential salary per year. So the smartest thing is probably just to get your year done and get cheap/free schooling and then go out and make big bucks.