My student and I both submitted our forms on 1/13. Unfortunately, my student received an email saying that his SAI could not be calculated because his parent signature was required on his application but has not been provided. I’m almost positive I did sign but now it says we cannot provide a signature until this form is processed. Then we can go back in and let me sign. (We both logged back in through our own accounts to see if I could sign but it just says his application is in review.) So now we are in limbo waiting for this first, “incomplete” application to be processed. How did it even let him submit without my signature? So frustrating.
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Because of a data breach three years ago at the accountant we use, the IRS mails us a PIN each year, which we have to use to file our tax returns, for ID theft protection.
That has meant no automatic DRT retrieval for FAFSA purposes for the last two years.
I have no clue at all how this will work this time - I assume they won’t be able to pull it again.
But I see no process in place for doing what we’ve had to do the last two years, which is manually fill out the financials ourselves.
Anyone have any input?
I assume that you will be asked to provide your information manually if it can’t connect. In that case, I am certain that you will need to provide the school with a tax transcript, so I would go ahead and get that ordered. In any case, your student’s FAFSA will be flagged for school review.
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Thanks. That sounds … onerous.
The school doesn’t require it so if it requires massive hoop-jumping, I probably won’t go through with it this year.
(That, of course, will trigger some financial disaster that’ll mean he needs to take the student loan. Sigh.)
I received exactly the same email response, even though I am positive everything has been signed. I printed all pages before submitting. All signatures were there!
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If you are talking about the federally funded Direct Loan…I don’t think that is available to him without a completed FAFSA.
Right, that’s why I am saying that as soon as I decide it’s not worth it this year, we’ll actually need the loan and so will need to have completed it. Decisions, decisions
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It might not be too awful to get the steps completed. The FAFSA itself won’t be an issue … you’ll say you give consent, and you will get a bunch of questions that would normally be completed automatically (since the system will discover that the information can’t be accessed). While you wait for the inevitable request from the school for your tax transcript, you can work on requesting that.
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I’m sorry this happened to you too, but it is reassuring that this seems like a glitch on their side that they will have to fix and not a mistake that I somehow made.
Do you think the inflation adjustment work means that the forms will not be available for editing & fixing errors until mid-February as well? There are only four more days in January. We have been waiting since early January to correct the parent information on my child’s form. The original email confirmation that she received said that she would be able to make corrections in “one to three” days. Clearly that was wrong, but I am trying to figure out if further delays will also delay the window for making corrections. Still hoping to make the corrections before the information is sent to colleges.
I don’t know the answer to that, sorry. But it’s a good question. You might call the hotline and ask. This page has known fafsa issues, but nothing about your question at this point:
https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/topics/fafsa-simplification-information/2024-25-fafsa-issue-alerts
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A college emailed us and said the feds told them not to expect anything until mid February.
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So frustrating. I just tried both the live chat and the phone center. I am still in the live chat waiting room now. The phone center brought me through a menu tree that eventually resulted in “We are experiencing a historic number of calls. Please try again later” and disconnected me.
Darn it. Here is my vent. I consider myself a pretty patient person, and I understand that it has been a challenging process to make all the changes and launch the new form. Frustrating, but I understand it. At the same time, I think the communication has been terrible. At the beginning of the menu tree, there was a voice recording that said “Forms will be processed and sent to colleges in late January; applicants will not be able to correct forms until then.” I am guessing that means that the information will be sent to colleges and scholarship applications before corrections can be made, but it was worded just vaguely enough that I can’t be sure.
More to the point, if it really isn’t going to happen in the next four days, and there are going to be further delays why not just tell people? Ideally via an email update. Particularly when it has been a month after the original (and only) email from FAFSA said 1-3 days. But heck, even if it is not an email update, couldn’t the voice message be updated to say something like We’re sorry due to unexpected difficulties, processing has been further delayed. You may not be able to make corrections until mid-February. It would be upsetting but a lot less upsetting than the uncertainty! I want to be optimistic and believe the “late January” message, but it is pretty hard to believe it at this point. Sorry for the rant.
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I understand the frustration. I also feel that communication is key to minimizing stress. It really would be very helpful to have any voice messages updated to reflect the current situation.
I have not personally seen a communication that says it will be February, but I don’t get all notifications because I’m not actively working in financial aid anymore. It makes sense, though.
I know it’s not an excuse, but those who have never worked in financial aid have no idea the number of other issues that are being addressed by Federal Student Aid at any given time. Regulatory requirements related to institutional eligibility, starting up loan repayment again, overseeing loan servicers, close out of federal programs years, etc. There is a lot going on in addition to the FAFSA stuff.
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From an email received yesterday…
“Due to the delay in this year’s FAFSA availability, Miami will not begin receiving any student’s 2024-2025 FAFSA information until mid-to-late February.”
Miami has pushed their FAFSA priority deadline to February 15 due to this delay, and are still hoping to get financial aid packages to people by mid-March.
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I was just about to post that I went to my S22 college page, and it said they expect FAFSA documents by the end of February.
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The latest per the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators is that there is no processing date provided by Federal Student Aid at this time. Schools are providing a best guess. Please understand that everyone is in the same position. If you submitted a FAFSA that is just sitting there, perhaps with errors that you can’t fix, you are not alone. You’ll be able to fix issues when that time comes, and schools are going to figure out how to process things quickly.
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The U.S. Department of Education says it recently updated a key part of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid formula, but, as a result, colleges won’t receive FAFSA applicant information until early March, instead of late January as initially estimated. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/30/fafsa-inflation-fix-may-delay-financial-aid-letters-education-dept.html
This is beyond shameful.
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Holy cow.
My sister is one of those people with multiple kids in school. Her EFC/SAI skyrocketed. She’s fearful that she won’t be able to afford it next year. Not being melodramatic, but also trying to be honest with kids.
But they live off campus. Making rooming decisions soon for next year. Will she have an aid package before they have to sign leases?
Before that would have seemed like a ridiculous question.
But it seems less ridiculous now.