Your Opinions, Please

I'm getting ready to finally tackle the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've wanted to read this for years. I'm going the audio version (we'll cross our fingers). My questions are:

1.) Would you consider the trilogy as stand-alone from The Hobbit? I read Hobbit in 9th grade (and loved it). So I'm trying to figure out if I count Fellowship of the Ring as 2nd in a series or not. I guess either way it will go for the challenge, because it would be my second book to read by the author. But, still, I'd like to know if others count the 4 together as a series. Personally, I don't. I always saw it as a trilogy, and a separate prequel-ish book. Yet I think I thought that so I wouldn't feel guilty in 9th grade when I didn't immediately plunge into the other 3 books after I finished Hobbit.

2.) Would you consider this YA or no? I hear back and forth. And as my definitions of what exactly is YA lit (even after a YA lit class) vary, it's hard to say. It's quite appealing to many of the age group. But there aren't any main characters of that age. I'm going to go with a no, but I wanted to check with all of you first.