Well, FAFSA’s done. I used the amounts from our paper return. Hopefully the missing W-2 problem will be sorted quickly and we’ll be able to use DRT in several weeks or so.
@mommdc Thank you for all the help with the FAFSA ID. I just tried and was able to log in. All I had to do was create a new password because the old one had expired.
Applying to 9
Done 9 (accepted to 5)
Essays 13 (some short/some long) several more to go for honors/scholarships
Had our FAFSA “experience” today. Didn’t expect to have to complete, but Louisville’s honors early action process said FAFSA was required, so off we went. DRT didn’t work for us, no idea why. Other than that, it wasn’t bad. DS pushed go on his Louisville honors application (hip hip hooray!!!).
With the somewhat good news from UK on the Patterson NMF scholarship this week ($20k more in room & board money over 4 years than we were expecting), the finances at his top 2 are pretty much set now. Louisville is full ride, Kentucky is full ride years 1 and 2, and we would have to come up with most of room and board (but still no tuition) in years three and four.
I asked DS for updated odds now that we know the financial side. What we don’t know and won’t know for a while is how things come out with Louisville mentored scholarships (Brown & Grawemeyer) and GEMS program. DS said until he knows the outcome, Louisville 47%, Kentucky 43%, Centre or Alabama 10%. Good results on Louisville program apps will probably seal the deal. If a swing and a miss, UK is back in the mix. $20k makes a difference, especially when it is automatic.
Fall break, no school this week. Cruise starts tomorrow!!!
@Astro77 H got the foreign account balances today. He said they don’t change much so I’ll probably just use them as is assuming I file in the next week.
I might just wait until the DRT kinks are worked out.
But I’ll have to get an official exchange rate for the day I file the FASFA.
@MACmiracle , I’m hoping we get a quarterly statement in the mail very soon. Otherwise I’ll just use the June statement, estimate the interest, and do the exchange rate as of the day we file.
Waiting for some other information also in order to file the FAFSA. Plus, I figured I should wait to do it after the first day, in case of glitches, lol.
I don’t how how we manage it, but we seem to end up in the oddest situations.
We bought our house furnished, and it looks like the people who owned it before us bought it furnished, too, which is common where we live. The included furniture was an eclectic combination of “we ordered this from Costco in 2007” and “this was left here by that dear little granny who had the place before us, so now it’s yours.”
The bed in the master was a gorgeous, dark wood sleigh bed with a mattress that’s far and away the most comfortable I’ve ever slept on. The bed in S’s room, however, was more the adorable granny sort. We knew it was ancient, but S said it would do until we could replace it.
Last weekend, my brother decided to replace his nice pillow top mattress with one of those new Casper ones. His pillow-top mattress was only about four years old, so he asked if we’d like it and we said yes. Bro and my dad brought it over, and DH and I did the swap in S’s room today. As we were flopping the new mattress on the box spring, we remarked to S that we’d found a date stamp from 1976 on his old mattress, so this one was going to be a huge upgrade for him.
“Yeah,” S quipped. “And it’s only been hit by one car!”
Yes, there’s a clear set of black tire tracks on one side of the nearly new mattress. Bro and friend dropped it while moving it when it was new, and a car ran over it before they could pick it up again. There wasn’t any structural damage, so bro just put the tire track side against the box spring and forgot about it. Now, however, S will have a story to tell every time he moves that bed. 
@DiotimaDM :))
@DiotimaDM
Oh my, tire tracks, that’s a good one.
Oh man, you guys are killing me. I was gone this weekend on a dual-purpose trip: visiting my older D at her college, and doing the formal admissions talk and tour with D18. So many posts in the meantime!
Visit was great, D will apply, it’s the likely first choice.
Good luck to all with FAFSA! I’m waiting for the kinks to get worked out with DRT.
of apps: probably around 10
submitted: 0
of essays: Common App done, but that's it, and we have a 11/15 deadline looming. LOTS of supplemental essays due 11/1. I'll tally essays when she is done, but with supplementals, like close to 20?
Glad some of the FAFSA problems were solved.
I ignored the FASFA application today X_X and drank wine instead :)) :)) I’ll be busy tomorrow trying to work on it. It’s great to hear everyone’s experience with it. It really does help.
High school student here: Is there any advantage to filling out the FASA/CSS early/at all? My 6 person family makes between 200-250K per year so I’m pretty positive I wont get financial aid anywhere but I’m definitly looking at merit.
@snowfairy137 Some schools will require one or both even if you don’t think you’ll be eligible for aid. Some scholarships use one or the other to assess whether or not there’s need.
A six person family, especially if there’s more than one in college, might get aid at Ivies and the like.
@snowfairy137 Some states have earlier deadlines than others for state aid - check with your schools to see when their deadlines are. I got it done yesterday because I had everything in front of me.
Even if you don’t get any aid, per se, you would be eligible for loans by filling it out. And some schools want the FAFSA for any kind of aid, including merit. With six kids, don’t assume you are ineligible for financial aid.
Having the FAFSA already done means I don’t feel obligated to go to financial aid night at the high school next week. They say they will have a special half hour after the meeting to assist in filling out the FAFSA. I’m not sure what they can do other than explain how to get an ID and go through the form line by line.
Honestly, aside from the DRT irritation, it’s actually quite straightforward to fill out. I spent about 20 minutes getting printouts of balances (including remembering what accounts I had) and then maybe another 20 actually filling it out). Someone on the Facebook page (Paying for College 101 - it’s a nice group) suggested having printouts of all relevant balances on the day you file to prove you had what you typed in.
I’m not sure I can ever match @DiotimaDM 's mattress story. =))
Yesterday S18 was home alone most of the day while we went to S22’s soccer match. His instructions for the day included finishing NM app so that he could submit it to his GC, filling out the teacher rec forms to hand into GC today, and completing one of his Oct 15 college apps. When we got home about 5pm, none of that had been completed, or I suspect even attempted, so it was time to sit him down on the couch with us and go through it all together. We made good progress, and an hour later the NM app and essay were ready, everything was ready for GC and Oct 15 deadline school app was mostly done. Then we went over the Common App again, made sure it was all set, and debated the final list of schools. One school got dropped, one was added. Merit chasing + competitive music school auditions + likes every college he has ever seen = 13 apps!
Now its time for me to work on FAFSA. That will not be too bad though bc I’ve filled it out the last 3 years for D15.
@snowfairy137 I know I have to have FAFSA done by the end of October for merit at S’s school. I plan on having it done well before that.
More progress!
Every essay (all 20+ of them) has been written! S18 started back in July, so this has been an incredibly long process! Now dad is reviewing for grammar (former newspaper editor) and then applications can start being submitted!!
Had a trouble spot with Parchment yesterday where it wouldn’t let S order transcripts. But we fixed it and now transcripts have been ordered for all but the Common App schools as he didn’t realize there was a special thing you have to do to get your counselor’s ok to do CA through Parchment.
Recommender has been requested for Georgia Tech, which has the first deadline coming up, and all test scores were sent last week.
Feels like things are moving forward.
Now I have to call the school today because our program that lets us see old report cards doesn’t have any before junior year anymore (used to have them going back to sixth grade) and at least three of S’s school’s just do self-reporting of grades with a final transcript sent if you decide to go there. He can’t fill in his info because you are supposed to write the course name exactly as it reads on your report card and we can’t see any of them. 
For FAFSA, do we need to create FSA IDs for parents and kid?
@Pri930 Yes, both the student and at least one parent need separate IDs.