Thank you so much for your help. I will try and figure this out today and call my college tomorrow. I will update with how it goes.
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Update: I was able to get in touch with my college right before they closed today just to try one more time. The first person I spoke to said the classic āItās Department of Eds fault.ā Their supervisor actually pulled up my FAFSA form that they got for me and it is a totally different number than what both the college has (50k number) and the number on my FAFSA account (7k number). About to call FAFSA people again right now to see if they can explain this.
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Does anyone know if I can just delete my entire FAFSA and start a new one?
I do not think that is a wise idea. It may totally mess up everything. Plus it is a bit too late for fall.
You are better off somehow to get on Zoom college FA office and FAFSA people. At least 3 way call should be possible.
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I donāt understand how the college can have a different SAI from what your reprocessed FAFSA shows as SAI (I know that comment isnāt helpful!)
But to me it seems the issue must be on the collegeās endā¦their system/updated software is not working right or they have loaded an old ISIR for you, before things were reprocessedā¦is that possible @kelsmom?
It just doesnāt seem possible that OPās SAI in their FAFSA account could be incorrect at this point?? Have you heard of this happening at this point @kelsmom? (I have not)
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My last year experience with FA offices was not positive. I mentioned before that we had one college fixing incorrectly our FAFSA (one college decided that one of our children who attends nontraditional private college should not be counted) and messed up FA at 19 schools. It was so much fun to make FA person to read website of the school and then promise not to mess it up againā¦ Then I had to call all schools explaining why our FAFSA was jumping back and forthā¦
Looks like college messed up something with their system in your case. Only that school can fix it. FAFSA is most likely correct unless the school was editing it like in our caseā¦ This year FAFSA is a royal messā¦ This āsimplificationā probably killed a lot of dreams.
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Thinking this is either the case or there is a bug in the sending of FAFSA data (not the calclulation itself) that even Dept of Ed does not know about.
But anyway, iām done trying to figure this out right now. I donāt want my last 2 weeks of senior year to be filled with stress from this stuff. Will revisit in the summer, and maybe they will have found the bug by then. Iām just caught in the middle of two groups blaming the other and itās quite frustrating. Itās make me lose faith in both my future school and the government (even more than before).
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But wonāt this error impact your ability to attend ?
Can your parents assist ? Doesnāt sound like something that should be put off.
Itās not enough to make me unable to go. The grant was only for 3,000 dollars a year, but just upset that they took it away from me for no reason at all. I know I sound stuck up when I say this, but I think I deserve at least this amount after all the work I put in during HS.
They are helping, but everytime we call, we get basically the same answer. Itās just been a constant cycle of calling and being told the other side is at fault, no matter how high we escalate the issue.
I agree, but I just donāt see a path forward right now. Calling over and over is obviously not helping.
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I have not heard of anything like this happening (sorry, meant to respond to @Mwfan1921), but I am out of the loop this year.
From what I can tell, schools canāt go into the federal system to actually change FAFSA information online yet - I think that will be available at the end of the month. If they canāt make updates, I assume they canāt view any information directly in the system until that time. When they can, the school should be able - and willing - to go online to look at the student FAFSA data at the source. If it differs from what they have in house for the student, then the school needs to resolve the discrepancies. I have some guesses as to what might have happened, but the only way to know is to have the school look in the federal system when they are able.
@Ae1231, my advice is to wait until you have finished with school, since this isnāt a make-or-break for you. When the school can look online at your information in the federal system, they can address the issues. PM me toward the end of the month & I will help you through it. Enjoy your final weeks of high school!
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Thank you so much for all your help today! Iām going to make one more call to both places tomorrow morning since my dad is off work and can be on the phone with me. If that does not work, iāll wait a few weeks and PM you.
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Absolutely. You need a parent on the phone. FA and FAFSA people should not be just pushing student who has very little control in this situation.
And I 100% agree that you should have a grant that you and your family deserve.
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Yep. Iām hoping to make process with him on the phone with me. Weāve had to call individually previously since, by the time he gets home from work, the offices to call are closed, but his work schedule lines up with my school schedule tomorrow! Hoping to make lots of progress in resolving this.
Glad itās just $3K - not that $3K isnāt a lot of money - but sounds like you can float it til it gets resolved.
Thatās good.
Bureaucracy!!!
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Iām glad too. I just want to get it figured out in case I qualify for more next year and in case a problem affecting other students is discovered.
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Iām glad that he is going to help you.
Be sure to ask them to go over the information that they have with you. Have a copy of your Financial Aid Summary printed out for easy reference. There is absolutely no reason that the person you speak with in financial aid canāt give you the income information that they see on your FAFSA. Same with assets. You and your dad will be able to see if there is an issue with data integrity quickly if the amounts they show donāt make sense based on the 2022 tax return and/or the assets reported on your FAFSA.
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Thanks! Iām tried to match the data before with them, but I sometimes have gotten lost in the jargon or they say they donāt have that info avaliable to them for privacy. Iām printing everything financial aid related out right now to get ready. I will update here how it goes once we finish!
The new FAFSA process is really different than in the past. Itās actually possible that the school might not be able to see the financial information - the way it transfers directly from the IRS might mean that they canāt see it like they used to be able to. In that case, your dad can volunteer his AGI and taxes paid to them and ask if the SAI they have makes sense based on that information along with what they can see.
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A final thought - if you have a common name, itās possible that the wrong studentās FAFSA somehow was attached to your name. Schools are trying to get away from using SSN as identifiers, but in some rare instances it could lead to mix ups where two students with the same name might have issues.
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My last name is super,super unique so I donāt think thatās it. But I will give my college my FAFSA ID number just to double check.
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