The ***STUDENT*** (not the parents) must not have provided more than 50% of their own support. Support does not include scholarships, grants, 1099-Q funds, gifts from Aunt Mary, etc. The student must of provided more than 50% of their own support with money that student earned in the same tax year. So there's no way you the student qualify for the self-exemption.
Note also that the support requirement is on the student, not the parent. There is absolutely no requirement for the parent to provide any support - not one single penny. Note also that there is no requirement for the parents to claim the student as their dependent either. The rules say that if the parents just ***qualify*** to claim the student, then the student can not take the self-exemption. The student must select the option for "I can be claimed on someone else's tax return". It doesn't matter if the student is claimed or not, on the parents tax return.
So if you only earned $9K for the tax year, there's no way you provided more than 50% of your own support, and your parents not only qualify to claim you, they also claim all the education credits and tax breaks, regardless of who paid the qualified education expenses.
Note that determining who can claim you as a dependent and who claims the education credits are two different and unrelated determinations. The fact your parents qualify to claim you as a dependent is covered in IRS Publication 17 at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf">https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf</a> Specifically page 27, "qualifying child".
Who claims the education credits is covered in fine detail in IRS Publication 970 at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf">https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf</a>.
