In IRS Publication 970 the student must not have completed 4 years of college prior to Jan 1 of the tax year. If they have not, that student is an undergraduate. That's why TurboTax asks you the question, "Was (student) working on an associate, bachelor's or graduate degree?"
If you answered that question YES, then the student was an undergraduate on Jan 1 of the tax year.
I don't know what IRS page you read. but IRS Publication 970 (which is long) addresses the undergraduate requirement in numerous places. Also, my information above is directly from IRS Publication 970, and just re-worded to "plain English" so us common folk can make better sense of it. The important thing is, take the wording "literally".
Understand that Pub 970 does NOT cover the dependent qualifications. It's not what that publication is for. Dependency qualifications are covered on the IRS website (for the information you care about) at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.irs.gov/help-resources/tools-faqs/faqs-for-individuals/frequently-asked-tax-questions-an...>
