I shared this elsewhere, but the Department of Ed recently sent test ISIRs (FAFSA data) to colleges and universities to test the submission process. It did not go well. There’s pessimism about the current early to mid March deadline.
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I have not heard that it didn’t go well. What were the specific issues? Were they problems with the ISIRs or with the schools’ systems?
First was that the test ISIRs were not generated by the new system, so that made colleges concerned that the system can’t yet generate ISIR files. There were only eight test files shared which wasn’t a large enough sample. There were unannounced changes in data field formatting that prevented files from loading. It seems to have impacted some SIS systems more than others.
Here is a workaround for the parent-without-a-SSN situation:
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/fafsa-support/contributor-social-security-number
Note that “Following these instructions will result in an incomplete FAFSA submission that must be corrected at a later date.”
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We have been trying to submit our FAFSA since early January. My son’s sections all show as completed as do my husband’s, but there is no submit button on either one and the status has been showing as “in progress” for well over a month. Has anyone else experienced this? We had a high school counselor look at it, and even she doesn’t know why we don’t have a Submit button. There’s a continue button, but it just loops you back to the beginning. We have tried various browsers with no luck. We’ve gone back over the information multiple times to make sure everything is complete. We have emailed studentaid.gov twice, and I tried to call. After getting through the phone tree, the message said their call volume is high and then proceeded to hang up on me. I’m about to lose my mind. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen!
Does this describe the situation? Is it possible for your child to go back to their FAFSA & try changing a couple responses … then change them back … to try to get the submit button now?
FAFSA APPLICATION STATUS IS “IN PROGRESS” EVEN WHEN USER IS READY TO SUBMIT FAFSA(Added Feb. 2, 2024; Workaround)**
Status: Open
Description: If a 2024-25 FAFSA form has all required information and the only remaining actions are for signature/submission, the status of the FAFSA form in My Activity will display as “In Progress” for any users/contributors that do not have those remaining actions. For example, if a dependent student completes the student section but does not submit and the student’s parent completes the parent section, the FAFSA form status displays as In Progress to the parent because the student still needs to submit. As a result of the In Progress status, the parent may not realize what action is required to finalize the form.
Workaround: Student can enter the application and navigate through the end of the application to finalize and submit the application.
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My son did go back in and navigate all the way through to the end again but still didn’t see a submit button. I don’t recall if he actually tried to change any responses though. I will have him try that when he gets home.
We initially had a similar problem where the “submit” button didn’t work. It turned out that my son had entered my spouse’s last name as married name only. She typically only goes by her married name, but her legal last name name is Maiden name + Married name. Once he fixed that, and my spouse had logged into her account, the submit button worked.
Interesting! This information leads me to suggest this: Double check all of your H’s information on your S’s FAFSA to make sure that it matches his FAFSA exactly. AND … be sure that the email addresses for your S and H are not the same address (but each of their email addresses needs to match the email address on their FSA account).
We finally got it!!! We tried removing a school and re-signing and then going back in and re-adding the school and re-signing, but that didn’t work. We were at our wit’s end, then we just tried adding a fourth school (he only had three originally), and it worked! After that, we saw the submit button, and now the status is “in review.” OMG! I don’t know why three schools was not acceptable, but it’s done. What a debacle! 
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Wow! What a crazy thing. I’m so glad that it finally worked.
There is now a listserv where families with the no SSN issue can sign up for updates. The issue is supposed to be fixed this month.
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As a parent of twins heading to college for the first time, we’re in the dark as we try to see how the new rules impact us. We talked to lots of people to determine schools that served families like ours pretty well. We were told the NPCs were worthless because of the new rules. So we have no idea. So we really have no clue what or where we can handle.
I do keep warning them that the solution can’t be to just bury themselves in debt. And and interesting question comes up.
Why not? They pay enough attention to wonder if student debt might actually get cancelled. If it does, the smart play is borrowing to the hilt. Go to the expensive place with the climbing wall and cool dorms!
Obviously a terrible idea. But… not crazy. And I wonder how many will fall into that trap?
With FAFSA so delayed and so much in the air, I’m wondering how many kids will just pull that trigger because they’ll be under so much pressure between April and May.
Why do you assume the NPC’s are inaccurate? Did the college’s financial aid office tell you this? While I agree that some NPCs were not up to date early in the application season, it could be that the colleges have updated with current tuition costs. Some colleges will not announce 2024-25 costs until summer, which is no different than any other year.
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Yes. The college people told us that. They said they were based on previous year’s formulations and they did not know how the new system would work. Many websites said exactly that.
And it makes sense the federal government couldn’t even say what anybody’s SAI was h til January. Then when they offered an estimate they immediately took it back and said they were wrong. That was two months ago and we still don’t know.
So how would State U have been able to tell me in November?
I just did an NPC yesterday that said I could expect X dollars in grants from the school, which I assumed to be merit aid based on the SAT and GPA it asked for. It was $8k different than the same info expressed in the acceptance letter my son received months ago. To the bad.
All that merit stuff matters.
A freshman can only borrow $5,500 in federal loans for the year. Those are the only loans that “might” be forgiven down the road. The reason they see huge sums forgiven is because those borrowers were unable to repay their federal loans in the standard 10 year timeframe, and the loan amounts ballooned due to accumulating interest.
Borrowing a ton with the intention of never repaying is morally wrong. Not to mention a big gamble. Oh, and undergrads can’t actually borrow a ton.
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I agree with you 100 percent about the morality of it. But people do stupid things under pressure. And there will be lots of that in the coming weeks. I just did an NPC letting me know that I could borrow $33k next year through a Parent Plus Loan to help my kid through college. (Nope!) and sure enough there’s talk of adding those into the forgiveness mix. Again, I’m not considering that. I think nobody should. But when people have weeks instead of months to make life changing decisions, stupid stuff happens. Parents Would Have Billions of Dollars in Student Loans Forgiven Under New Plan
I believe the article states that parent-plus loans can not be considered for student loan forgiveness at the present time.
Middle class families attending non meet need schools should presume that the merit awarded (if any) will be the extent of any (non-loan) financial aid. If the school does give a little bit of a grant, that is a bonus, but I would not expect or plan on it. If parents had that mindset, it would help with college planning.
Sure. But right now I don’t know what our need is. Neither do any of the schools. I’ve asked how they will treat the new rule about multiple kids in college at the same time and I’ve heard “We don’t know” and “Don’t worry about it.” One NPC is offering me $8k less in aid than I already know we got. Another school specifically offers a privately-funded scholarship to offer full need to families similar to mine, from my region, but the NPC at the school doesn’t reflect that because “We don’t have the FAFSA yet.” Not a single school has said, “Yes. We’re confident that the NPC offers a pretty close approximation of what you’ll pay. Plan on that.”