I just did some digging, and it looks like the school can see tax information on a report they get called an ISIR. They have to safeguard it, so they most likely aren’t going to tell you what they have for your tax information. However, your dad can read off his information from the tax form and ask them if it matches what they have - they can say yes or no. Here is the tax information that transferred from the IRS:
Tax Year (ex. Award year 2024-25 is based on 2022 tax year information from the IRS)
Thank you! I will be sure to have my dad check some of these numbers with them. It’s very kind of you to do all this research for a complete stranger and i’m very thankful.
I am a retired financial aid director. I was always really good at finding out why issues occurred. Although I don’t miss working, I do miss helping students. I enjoy trying to help students resolve issues when they aren’t getting the answers they need to fix their problems.
Update: We just finished on the phone with them. We made a little progress. We were able to confirm all of the information on the ISIR sheet was correct with our tax info. The only mismatch on the entire form is the SAI number. The person we spoke to said they are not able to return my grant money and work study options with me till we get the accurate number to them. Then, we called FAFSA and they are having a resend of my FAFSA form sent to my college to hopefully push out the incorrect number from their system. Back on hold with my college right now to see if they can process the newly resent FAFSA form right away.
Update (again): My college says they are not able to pull in the newly resent FAFSA form right away and I have to wait for an overnight process to occur when their system brings in all new FAFSA’s sent that day. So hopefully everything matches tomorrow morning!
I’m betting it will fix things. If not, the school has an issue with their system. Fingers crossed that everything works out tomorrow! And great job following up with the school to push this issue.
P.S. Some schools don’t pull in the FAFSAs every day, so don’t worry if it takes an extra day or two.
Do they acknowledge problem now?
FAFSA and School people cannot blame family for doing nothing wrong and strip family from deserved FA.
Your dad/mom need to be firm.
Did you apply to another school?
Does that other school see correct SAI from FAFSA?
You potential school should not leave you hanging in this mess as is…Someone needs to step up and fix it.
I think school FA director needs to be involved.
They acknowlege that something is up, but they STILL think it is FAFSA people.
They are blaming each other, not me.
They are, but it’s hard for them to be on the phone for 2+ hours each day, which is what we have been doing.
Yes, everything is normal everywhere else.
They legitamtely think it is not their fault, so they won’t try and solve the problem. We are in contact with the director and trying to set up a meeting.
This is a little out of the box. Would this college be willing to look at your financial aid from some other college(s) to see that all is aligned everywhere else?
And of course the big question is…are you the only student who is having an issue at this college?
Can you get from one of other schools your FA reward that will display your SAI or confirm that SAI in some official letter?
Then theoretically you can get to that school in question and say “Look, I am sorry for all troubles but here is confirmation that schools A, B and C got it right. It matches FAFSA numbers that we have. I want to attend your school D, but something is clearly wrong on your side. Please help. We already contacted and resend FAFSA. Everyone but your school got info correctly. Even your people can see that something is wrong and there is no say my SAI at your school is correct. What else can we do? Can we do 3 way call with FAFSA?”
I am sorry but to me that is a red flag… You will need to deal with these people every year… You need to find people willing to help… I do not know what your parents think but we walked away from colleges that were not supportive with FA workers. I also know several students who were quite unhappy and stressed when they got surprises from FA offices. I am not sure what is right approach here but the level of not support by this school’s FA office is a bit scary.
I was a financial aid director. Had one of my employees told a student that there was nothing they could do about the situation you have, I would be very upset. The correct response in the scenario you described is, “It appears that there is an issue that we need to work with the federal processor to resolve. We will work on this and update you as we go along. Please understand that we are unable to package your aid until the issue is resolved, because we need correct information in our system to package.” I personally would do a manual calculation of the SAI and inform the student of the aid they will receive based on the SAI. Then I would immediately speak with our systems people to have them investigate the issue. I have found that it’s rarely only one person affected when something like this happens, so I would definitely be concerned that there are other students who are affected by whatever weird thing is going on (although it’s possible that it’s only affecting this particular student).
A conversation with the Director is a very good idea. They need to know exactly what is happening.
This year has been awful and there is a lot that has been out of the schools’ control. However, this is not … it’s a glitch that must be investigated and resolved.
I don’t plan to stop pesttering them about it, but i’m going to take a break for the next week to enjoy the end of my senior year. Then back on the phones the next week to spend all day on hold waiting for the next higher up person if I have to. I also am prepared to send an email to the president of the university if I need to.
