Back when the FAFSA form became available, I (the parent) filled out a FAFSA form with all of my info for Child 1. I then did it again for Child 2. And, again, for Child 3.
For each, I sent an invite email for them to create their accounts. They have now accessed the FAFSA site and essentially had to fill their own forms, and then invited me to join them in filling out the parent contribution. I now have six different active forms in the FAFSA portal, and … it feels like I must be doing something wrong.
Does every parent with multiple kids have to fill out the same form N times? And if I’ve already filled out the form (3 times, two weeks ago), is there a way to not have to fill it out again (3 times) … to associate the existing form with the new child account?
The student should begin their FAFSA & then invite the parent. When the parent starts the process and invites the student, rather than the other way around, it creates unnecessary work. From this informational link (How To Complete the FAFSA® Form When You Have Multiple Children – Federal Student Aid): If each child doesn’t start the FAFSA form first, or if you and your child are both completing their FAFSA form at the same time, you may have more difficulty completing your required sections or may even spend time providing information that’s not required.
You’re fine, but you created additional work for yourself by being the one to begin the process. In the future, each child should complete their own section and invite you to be a contributor.
Ah, thank you for that link. I’m sure there’s some reason for having to fill out the form multiple times that makes sense with the right context, but that’s a bummer. Also a bummer that I’ll have to go through it twice for each kid. Thankfully, I already have the data pulled together, and it’s not too painful of a process.
Last year, starting the parent form first probably would have been a problem. Fortunately, things seem to be going more smoothly this year. The system is predicted on the idea that the FAFSA belongs to the student, and the contributor is only supposed to respond when sent an email invitation from the student. It’s because of this that it’s a bit more convoluted when the parent begins the process.
That might explain why I wasn’t able to make it through last year’s form at all. I figured it was just because of the general issues that it was having with the rollout, but it could well have been that I did it out of order. Blerg.
There did not appear to be much, if any, thought put into user experience last year. As a result, the system was very poorly designed. Optimizing an existing system is harder than optimizing the system to begin with, but at least is does appear that many issues have some type of fix this year. Yay!