If you are > 22 years old I believe you are independent. Regardless, by this time you should be. You also can't be a NY resident without having a NY address for 1 year (though some people have dodged this one somehow and had housing only 6 months or so).
As soon as possible and when reasonable, lease a house/apt/whatever. Get a NY license and if you own a car get it registered in NY. Get NY insurance. Basically you want to prove that you have no plans on staying in whatever state you are coming from and that you are going to live in NY permanently. Doing all that stuff helps a lot. When you have leased your house for nearly a year, there's a form you can get from your school to apply for residency. Fill it out and return it. By the next semester you should get in-state tuition.
You don't need a job to be independent. But they will ask you if you've lived with your parents for > 6 weeks in the last year. They'll ask if you've filed your own tax returns. They'll ask if your parents have given you any money in the past year. And so on.
