At this point, I wouldn’t worry about it. Once the FAFSA is finally available for updates by the student, you should be able to go into it & see what, if anything, is actually wrong. Next week is going to be a busy one on that website!
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I had the same language you posted
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So my kids’ were processed on 3/22 and 3/23; does that mean they shouldn’t be affected by the latest screw-up, and the numbers are correct?
I have seen two different dates for when the numbers should be correct - 3/21 and 3/24.
Looks like the DOE itself is saying 3/21, and we know how reliable they are 
: Update on 2024-25 FAFSA Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) Delivery | Knowledge Center
anyway, hoping for the best!
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Do we actually know when our ISIRs are delivered to the schools? Observing from the school portals, none of my daughter’s schools received the form so far.
Schools don’t always update the portal in real time, unfortunately.
Any mid-January submissions getting processed yet?
Yes, ours was submitted Jan 23.
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Ours was submitted January 14 and still in review. Should I be worried?
well we got our FAFSA processed finally, but it definitely did not take into account a twin sibling that will also be starting college in the fall (as was anticipated). I was a bit surprised by how high the family contribution was expected to be for each child. How are parents addressing this huge change in the FAFSA now? For those with siblings already in college, are the colleges somehow still going to maintain the same support that your children had been receiving previously?
This is a huge issue. But it was not an error. Senator Lamar Alexander, main sponsor of the FAFSA Simplification Act, said for years that parents with multiple kids in college were getting an unfair advantage. So it’s not an unintended consequence to be fixed. It was the intended result.
Lots of schools it won’t matter. Especially those that don’t come close to addressing need. I had a son get into a school that uses CSS. They sent an aid package. Total out of pocket to go there is 6 times the SAI just calculated by the feds.
Our SAI could fall 90 percent and it wouldn’t matter.
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My FAFSA was just processed, I submitted it in January although I forget exactly when. What does it mean by “estimated” in the Pell grant and loan section? Is the report that just came out not final?
Ours is still in review and blank so we are assuming no financial aid at this point. Not surprising. I’m grateful I advocated for 529s when we had little ones…
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With Lamar Alexander’s logic, then each family should only be allowed to send one child to public school.
Yes. It was always considered a “loophole”
The logic goes like this. College is supposed to be paid out of savings, cash flow and borrowing.
If you have your kids spaced out you only get aid for one kid at a time in college. People who have them closer together get “extra.” Which is unfair.
Of course… everything is unfair. When I fill out a schools NPC they all ask if a student supports any children of their own. Now hold on! How’s that fair? My kids “timed” their own children by not having any to support. Why should students with kids of their own enjoy a loophole?
Either way, you have triplets? You’re stupid. A real grifter. And you should be able to cough up three times as much for college than smart people who had one at a time.
Etc.
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I’m not saying I agree with the change, but a family with triplets isn’t paying three times as much as a family with 3 kids spaced four years apart. The formula was adjusted so all families pay the same amount per kid; whereas before, each of the triplets was theoretically getting a 33% discount by the mere fact that they are going to school at the same time, whereas the other family did not get that “break.” I think the “logic” here is the family with triplets has a cash flow problem, not an affordability problem – but considering the exorbitant cost of college, pretty much everyone but the wealthiest among us has an affordability problem, right?! I feel like many schools are still asking about family size on their own financial aid forms and taking it into account. CSS schools still certainly do. And for those that don’t, it seems like this is a strong point for a financial aid appeal - not that anyone wants more paperwork at this point.
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Not at this time.
People with multiple students in school can ask each school for a review due to having more than one in school. It might not make any difference to the aid, but you don’t know if you don’t ask. Each school will handle this request differently, and unfortunately, you may have to wait to get the review results.
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I found the language helpful in one of D24’s financial aid letters. It is a CSS school, and the letter had a blurb that stated something like:
Your parent contribution of $X is based on more than one undergraduate in college during the 2024-25 academic year. Please note, if D22 does not attend college next year, the parent contribution will likely increase. We estimate if D24 becomes the only child in your household attending college in 2024-2025, your total parent contribution will be approximately $Y.
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