I have been trying to solve this problem myself for weeks, but at this point I have no idea how to continue. Basically, the problem is that the SAI on my FAFSA form (7000 range number) is not being properly transmitted to my college. They are getting a number in the 50000 range. I have been in contact with both my college and the FAFSA people and they each blame the other. FAFSA says the college is not pulling the numbers in properly, while my college says FAFSA is transmitting the wrong numbers. I have no idea how to continue because each side is firm that they are not at a fault and are not willing to solve the problem. I have called/emailed/chatted with them 5 times each over the past couple weeks to no success.
At one point, everything did match, but FAFSA did an authomatic update a few weeks ago that changed my SAI by 3 (according to FAFSA). That threw everything off when it was sent to my college and caused this huge discrepency to happen. I lost a pretty large grant, unsubsidized student loan options, and federal work study options because of this.
Can some people please help me figure out next steps. I just have no idea how to continue because each side will not stop blaming the other.
Thank you very much and please let me know if anything needs to be clarified.
Will they accept the CSS profile? Maybe that number will be like the original FAFSA SAI and can override the discrepancy. I am also having a hard time with the FAFSA people. They are claiming my form needs corrections but none show up, claim it is missing signatures but both myself and my parent have the confirmation that we signed…it is a giant mess this year!
Maybe your admissions counselor can also point you in the direction of a person in a higher up financial aid office position that will be better able to help you.
I hope it all gets cleared up soon!
If an automatic reprocessing was done, your correct current SAI is the reprocessed SAI. How do you know that your FAFSA was reprocessed? Did your SAI change in your FAFSA portal (fsa website) after you were told it was reprocessed?
What is your SAI in your portal? What did the FAFSA people tell you your SAI is when you talked to them? What does your school say your SAI is?
You can tell that there was a “system initiated” change. The new SAI on my portal is 7868 and the FAFSA people say the same thing. My college says the SAI they have recieved is 55,074.
Your situation makes no sense, and it leads me to believe that there might be a system issue on the part of the school. Contact them and ask to speak with someone who can help you with this issue. Do not let them just say that they see a particular SAI so that’s how it is. Make sure you insist that you speak with someone who can help you understand why your SAI differs from what FAFSA has communicated to you. Someone at the school should be able to look critically at what is going on.
I will try again, but I had the assistant director of financial aid on the phone the other day and they were saying they were looking at my FAFSA form and it had the 500,000 number on it. Thank you for your help.
Edit:
I will also send them an email with this proving what my SAI is.
That’s a huge discrepancy! Call again, with a print out of your FAFSA Submission Summary in front of you. Ask them what they see for any income/asset information you can see on the summary. Although you can’t see it, ask them to tell you what they see for your income information. Either your assets are inflated in their system or your income is somehow inflated. It comes directly from the IRS to the FAFSA processor, but maybe it got messed up when uploaded into the school system. I find it surprising that a manager doesn’t raise an eyebrow at such a huge SAI mismatch. They need to go over the numbers with you.
Thank you. I will try and call today and get the highest level person I can on the phone. Also the 50,000 number is totally wrong because that is almost more than what my family makes in a year. It just can’t be correct.
Oh, it’s 50,000 not 500,000? But still, it’s a big difference. Definitely don’t give up!
What was your previous SAI, before reprocessing? Did your family have an untaxed rollover? What did your parents and you report as assets (including investments & business/farm income)?
I’m just trying to think of things that could possibly trip up the system. That would be about the only thing I can think of for your situation. Otherwise, it seems like there is some mismatch between what is in their system for you and what is on your FAFSA Submission Summary. You can try to talk with someone at the school before finding out about the rollover. It probably isn’t the issue (although if the school says that there was a rollover when you talk with them, it could be).
