Based on the information released the other day, they are going to process in batches, and only a handful of schools will get the initial batches … and they won’t get a lot of ISIRs. So it will still be a bit before they start to get into the processing mode for the masses.
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Oh boy.
How’s it work? Even if a school has the reports for half its admits, can it send them anything? Seems like any that have any institutional aid might need to know about everybody? Or doesn’t that matter?
Meaning, if my kid gets his report day 1, I assume they aren’t processing it and sending him an offer.
If I were in charge at a school, I would hold off. I can’t say what any individual school will do.
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This just seems crazy slow to me:
- At peak, we expect that the majority of institutions will receive no more than 1,500 ISIRs per day. The top 5% of institutions by volume may receive up to 25,000 ISIRs per day. We will continue to work with our institutional, vendor, and third-party servicer partners to monitor and manage any volume concerns.
(from the link you posted on the other FAFSA thread: Details of 2024-25 FAFSA Initial Institutional Student Information Records (ISIR) Delivery and Update on Support for Institutions and Vendors | Knowledge Center)
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Help! My student is trying to change a couple of schools on the FAFSA form. In the student accound, it says that the form was submitted (back in January!) and is still not on button 3, as being processed.
My kid can’t seem to click on the form to change schools getting FAFSA information. I am not computer savvy and don’t know what the solution is.
Anyone other family out this that had this problem and resolved it? Thanks!
You cannot add/delete colleges until the form is processed which should be by the end of March/early April.
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Oof. Thank you for that information.
Still says “in review” for us. However, status update updated from 1/14 (when we submitted) to 3/4. No idea why. We did nothing.
Some FAFSAs are being sent to a very few schools for testing. It’s possible yours is one of those. But you still won’t be able to access it until all FAFSAs are processed and released to schools.
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I have heard the same. Fewer than 10 real ISIRs at a number of colleges. Probably just a test, but the fact that they are testing real data is promising.
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An update from FSA was posted last night: Additional Details of 2024-25 ISIR Delivery, Updates for Non-SSN Contributors, and Launch of the FAFSA Partner Portal | Knowledge Center.
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Very frustrating. We completed the FAFSA early January and then he decided on a last minute application and have to wait to add the school. Very, very poorly implemented system.
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My S24 received an email yesterday from Xavier with his complete FA package. It was very well done listing merit along with grants for attending a Catholic high school. No financial documents have been supplied to the school, only checking the box on the application that the student would be applying for FA. On the FA offer page, Xavier included a sliding scale you could add to the package if Pell Eligible.
There was also an ability to uncheck the $5,500 federal loan to truly see a student’s COA.
To state simply, my student’s SAI was not needed to determine the FA package.
My point is that many families are waiting for the FAFSA to be sent to colleges when, in fact, the vast majority of colleges do not meet need; therefore, the SAI is irrelevant to some degree. Colleges that do meet need are overwhelmingly CSS schools and those colleges are providing FA packages upon acceptance.
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Kudos to Xavier!
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Does the fact that they don’t “meet need” mean that the SAI is completely irrelevant? That would only be true of schools that offer zero need-based aid, right? I think I read that on average, schools that don’t guarantee full need get kids to within about 10k of the EFC. If that’s even close to ballpark, schools need some kind of info to distribute institutional need-based aid. Right?
I’d have to think these schools aren’t just lazy, or otherwise inflicting this hassle on themselves. Meaning, I’m guessing that if the FAFSA and SAI were completely irrelevant they would have sent out aid letters months ago.
Why would they do that to themselves?
Every school can handle the process of distributing their own funds in whatever manner makes sense for them. In the case of the letter from Xavier, they offered this student merit and non-need based grants (the grant was for attending a Catholic high school). They determined that this would work for their student population. I am guessing that they have a large population of students who receive merit and non need based grants … so the only additional aid they would traditionally receive would be federal loans, which they feel comfortable omitting from the award letter (the reality is that pretty much every student will be able to borrow $5,500 if they complete the FAFSA). If there is additional information on the FAFSA that will increase aid, there is a sliding scale with the award amounts provided. In this school’s case, the scale is for Pell eligible students. I am guessing that their historical financial aid numbers allow them to determine that this method will work for their student population. Every school is different.
That is my experience…the don’t meet full need schools either have a grid type merit program that they don’t stray from much, or offer merit/discount based on how much they want the student, so not based on the student’s financial need (like Xavier is apparently doing). Of course schools can disburse institutional aid however they want.
This isn’t my perception, would love to see any data on this!
Just to take an example there are many public schools that are generally full price for OOS students. So, if an EFC zero OOS student applies to the UCs or UIUC for example, they likely won’t get any financial aid beyond their Pell grant and student loan. So $50K-$60K+ would be what they are expected to pay.
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There are some schools that are not “meet need” that try and get the COA close to the SAI/EFC. There are many others that do not. Xavier didn’t know if S24’s SAI was 10K or 50K. The package said his COA would be 36K, less on a sliding scale, if Pell eligible.
Xavier has a total cost of about 68K.
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I believe that someone (maybe it was @AustenNut?) posted a chart last year that listed how close various colleges got to meeting the full need of all of their students. I found it really helpful. I remember being pleasantly surprised to discover that some colleges that I had eliminated under the theory that they don’t guarantee to meet need or their NPCs came in high, were potentially viable options because they were meeting the full need of 75-95% of their student body. The chart made me realize that my kid could go ahead and apply and the financial aid package might be fine or at least reachable if I stretched as opposed to my original thought which had been that my daughter probably shouldn’t even apply or should only apply to those schools if merit aid was likely to get her net price down to a low number.
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