Is your address a U.S. address?
I got the page that said FAFSA is busy, so I just waited on the page. I am now able to start a form & will let you know how it goes.
I started a FAFSA. Frankly, I am surprised at the information being requested. Itās asking me to enter much of the tax information that will be transferred from the IRS, not just the information that is needed in addition to the IRS information (such as income from work). I donāt understand that, because the tax information is what will actually be used, not my responses about that information. Itās also asking for my spouseās complete information, including SSN & email address, even though I said we filed jointly (which indicates that he will not need to okay a tax return transfer). Iām not seeing that the student information is actually simplified. I assume that the parent will be asked the same questions (I am filling out as student since I donāt have a student to link to as a parent).
I never had to fill out any tax info. Basically it was a couple questions about assets and scholarships for the financial part. It only asked me for my momās info, but when my mom filled out her portion, it asked for my dadās info too, even though they filed jointly. He didnāt have to do anything though, which was interesting.
Did you indicate that you didnāt file a tax return? If so, thatās why you didnāt have additional questions about your income. If not, itās possible that it didnāt ask you based on your parentās information. Did your parent complete their section before you did yours?
I just did mine for my S24 and I didnāt have to enter any tax info. All it needed was two questions from my 2022 tax returns (both easily 0) and then what is balance of checking/savings and what is balance of non-retirement investments. Super short.
This was me under my account after S24 sent me an invite.
S24 did not have to sign - possibly because he is a minor.
I just realized that itās possible that your child has to wait for you to complete their section until after you do the parent section. Depending on parent responses, student questions may differ. Did you complete your section yet, and if so, did your childās section show additional questions to answer?
This is new, and Iām interested in knowing how it all works now.
You may not have had to answer any questions because of the 0 responses (skip logic). As for your childās signature, it is required. If they didnāt provide their signature already, itās possible that the FAFSA is complete but not submitted. Did they get an email indicating that it was successfully submitted? If not, youāll need to go back in under your childās FAFSA account & sign/submit.
So a few days ago we filled out S24, but it wouldnāt let us do signature. Then we sent invite to me (parent) from him today.
So today I went into my account and saw the invite. I filled it out answering very short questions. It also asked for spouseās name, social and email.
At the end I signed as parent and then it immediately said FAFSA is done and submitted.
We went into S24ās account and nothing else to do, says is submitted and pending.
So S24 did not have to sign for it to be submitted - again I donāt know if this is the case because he is a minor.
Spouse didnāt need to do anything.
The 2 questions prompting the zero
- Did you have any scholarships that counted as income
- Do you have any foreign income (and it showed the pertinent line on 1040 schedule 1 line 8d)
It has nothing to do with him being a minor. The signature is needed because it is assumed that he is completing his section, so he needs to attest to his information being truthful. Not sure why his signature wasnāt requested, although you may actually have provided it during the process of completing his section but didnāt realize it.
I understand that, I am just providing data to you that no signature was needed on his part.
I do tax returns as an attorney on a frequent basis, so I am pretty familiar with forms.
I went back to his account after doing the parent portion with the full intention of having him sign, yet it says done.
He also got an email with the SAI.
But I had tried to do his signature a few days ago and it wouldnāt take (and we were thinking because I had not done the parent portion). Like I couldnāt even click on it. But maybe with all the glitches maybe it kept the signature somehow?
The signature on parent account was just clicking a button.
Dumb question but does the parent do the form under their login or does the child log in and then the parents info entered. Or do both need to complete the form.
Hereās what I did
- Child filled out form under his account and sent me (parent) an invite. It didnāt take a few days ago but it went through today.
- I as parent logged into my account today and saw the invite pending. I clicked on it and it gave me the questions to answer for S24.
Your child should do their section under their own FAFSA identifier. If the parent insists on doing it for their child, which is not supposed to happen, it has to be done under the childās identifier. The parent has to have & use their own identifier for their sections. The child will send the parent an invite when they fill out their section. I honestly donāt know whether the parent can complete their section before the student starts theirs & invites the parent.
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As long as the parent is not charging their child a fee to do the form for them, there is nothing wrong with a parent overseeing a financial aid form. In fact, I would recommend that these forms be done collaboratively so as to avoid serious errors that may be problematic to fix.
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Overseeing and completing with the child is fine.
BTW the most interesting question on the FAFSA was how many members of your family will be attending college for 2024-25 school year?
With all the chatter about multiple children in college not being considered for FAFSA it was notable that this was one of the dozen or so questions asked.
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I oversee and complete with my child.
We already had account information from last year (so for parents/children completing this for the first time this year be sure to write down your login credentials so a year from now itās easier!).
I ran into a signature issue when I tried to sign off on the parent profile BEFORE the child profile. It looked like it ātookā but once we logged into the child profile and submitted it showed the parent profile was outstanding still. I went back in and signed it again and itās now showing as pending.
And I didnāt need to submit any financial information - assumption being thatās going to them from the IRS.
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They cannot. The invite from the student pops up and I had to click on it in order to access the form. And the invite had to be sent twice before it went though (it didnāt go through on 12/31 but that was a wonky day)
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