You’ve been extremely helpful❤️
Please help. I am a parent and working with a small local company that helps submit FAFSA and other aid on our behalf forthe student (I’m the parent). In our FAFSA they seemed to have incorrectly indicated that we were not giving consent for parent tax and income info. But they seem unable to go in and correct it because of this update/processing status in the FAFSA system. I’m stumped on how to correct and so is ‘Navigate Financial Aid’ who is supposed to be doing this for us. I’m terrified my daughter’s schools will all get no SAI calculation on our behalf. Please help 
…how do we correct the FAFSA to indicate consent? We seem to be unable to access/correct/edit and the small business doing it on behalf seems stumped (the have been around locally for about 20 years and helped many many families so they are legit- just struggling with this update too)
Did the company do the FAFSA FOR you?? You should not be letting someone else complete your form. It’s okay to have them help you, but they shouldn’t actually be doing it for you.
At this point, I don’t believe that you can fix it. My understanding is that changes can’t be made until processing is complete later this month. When your student is able to make updates, they need to go into their FAFSA, update that section and resubmit. You’ll be able to add your information once the student indicates that you will complete the FAFSA.
However, you should call the FAFSA helpline and explain your situation. While I don’t think it will help, I do think it’s worth making sure.
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I agree. And I think it’s illegal with new FAFSA simplification for anyone to charge people to complete FAFSA.
ETA: adding link: Federal Student Aid
Seems there might be a loophole for people to charge to give fafsa advice, and not to technically be the preparer.
Regardless, no need to pay anyone for FAFSA advice either.
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I posted similar note in this thread and looks like it is generic issue for many filers. AFAIK( i contacted FAFSA via chat), there is no way to make any edits/approvals to your form until FAFSA is processed. Previous years, I believe, FAFSA was processed(online appln) in 3-5 days. This year, i think they are holding back on all “completed processing” stage letting all users file FAFSA during the soft launch or whatever stage of FAFSA software they are in. YOu can only see it around end of january and i feel by then they would have also sent it to the schools(if you added a list of schools in your fafsa). After it is processed you can edit your form and check any box that says (student or the parent) - i approve others to see my data. I am afraid of the same question - will colleges in my list see/not see the SAI (based on whatever was set up when parent+student completed their fafsa forms)
No. They provide services/guidance and on loans and scholarships etc. but were walking us thru ‘new’ FAFSA’ as we sat in their office. … in the confusion of inviting or linking the parent and my daughter FAFSA account (and mindlessly following the lead of their help) I guess it must’ve been completed incorrectly.
So now my daughter is submitted without linked parent financial info. Thus the screen share I showed. … so I’m worried that gets sent to our schools with no calculated SAI and we will not be able to edit or correct until after her schools see that incorrect version… is that single error going to cost me all Financial Aid??? or will I actually be able to edit afterwards and then the schools will go back and look at a refreshed version?
It may very well be transmitted to schools without the parent information, but that will be quickly overridden by the updates that your child and your will make as soon as they have access to the FAFSA. This is a weird year, and schools understand that the FAFSA is not available for updates early on the way it usually is. Don’t fret … just wait until the FAFSA is available for updates, and do it immediately. (I assume that you already have your FSA ID. If not, though, set that up immediately.)
Thank you. Yes, we have our FAFSA ID, i’m just so nervous they’re going to create and deliver a package with essentially no aid because our parent info is not linked. Hopefully if we make that edit and correction as soon as it’s available, and the schools get the update, it won’t be too late
I used to work in financial aid. If I was planning what to do this year, I would begin reviewing issues immediately, as soon as I could get the FAFSAs loaded into my system. I would focus my immediate attention on verification and on issues that likely weren’t the common problems we’re seeing posted here (like missing signatures). Few schools will be immediately ready to package aid … they are going to want to resolve as many issues as possible first. So they’ll probably do prep work while waiting a short time for the issues that have been percolating in the FAFSA end to be resolved.
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My daughter’s college actually says to wait until the end of January/February. I was surprised. This is my 19th go-around and I still don’t feel confident!
Is she a returning student? If so, they probably won’t be packaging returning students right away & figure that they might as well wait until all the bugs are worked out. It’s important to find out what each school wants. If you’re a high school senior, you’ll want to follow the earliest deadline for your schools.
Hi there. Can I ask if FASFA asks if a student is a commuter or living on campus when we enter the colleges on the form. I can’t remember of it asked me this.
She’s a current sophomore and the baby of five. Website says to wait, so wait we shall do! Did you see my other question about the retirement plan? You seem to be the FAFSA guru!
No. They used to, but they don’t anymore.
Thank you! Seriously you are invaluable! Greatly appreciate everything.
Hi does anyone happen to know how I would calculate current value of business. I have a an S corp small business with one employee. How do I know what my business is worth?
Hi All,
I received an email from several of the Financial Aid Offices I applied to advising that my FAFSA has not been submitted to their office. I completed the FAFSA form on the DOE sight on 1/3/2024, but the status of the FAFSA is still showing as “In Review.” This is my first time using FAFSA. Has anyone had their FAFSA form reviewed and sent to the Financial Aid office? Or have i potentially done something wrong when submitting my info to DOE/FAFSA. Has anyone had their 2024-2025 FAFSA processed? Should I have used to 2023-2024 FAFSA form? Thank you for any help/guidance!
No one has had a 2024-25 FAFSA submitted to any financial aid office. Do they also require CSS Profile?
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I though that was the case, but the FA Office has been persistently asking for the FAFSA, so I thought maybe I misunderstood. I have submitted CSS profile as well, so hoping they might be able to use that? Thank you for responding - I really appreciate it!
I’m guessing that they have an automated system set up to request certain information at certain points in time. They didn’t think to update it to reflect the current reality.
Feel free to call them to let them know that you would love to comply, but it’s currently not possible. Maybe if enough students call, they’ll update their communication system!
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