Generally, a lower SAI is an indication that you may be eligible for a higher amount of need-based aid. 
1 Like
Letās hope. I think mine is just a bit to high to get a pell grant unfortunately.
This news report details the backdrop to the current delay in receiving financial packages. Fortunately the DOE eventually saw fit to fix the issue rather than wait until next year. Better to be frustrated by the delay than denied full aid consideration.
Good luck to everyone. I hope that all of you are admitted to a school/program that you like and that you have the funds to matriculate!
It was a system mess-up. Many things occurred behind the scenes that had unintended consequences. There were a LOT of unanticipated issues, for a lot of different reasons. It seems like things are slowly moving toward resolution ā¦
1 Like
Here is another articleā¦FAFSA applications DOWN. Wasnāt this change supposed to make this more accessible?
Itās really bad, especially concerning because applications are up (as is number of applicants). Hereās the data in graph form, link below. Some states like Illinois make completing FAFSA a grad requirement (there is an exemption form to get out of the requirement), so those numbers will go up.
I expect part of the reason FAFSA completions is down is because students may need help, and some counselors are not up to speed on the changes/issues.
Oh my gosh. I mean, thereās a sense that things might be moving in the right direction. But itās entirely possible that this actually doesnāt work out. You donāt want to be cynical but itās March 17 and completed FAFSA submissions are down by 2/3. For this to work most of these people need to file. But itās easy to imagine the system not handling a glut of this magnitude. But if the glut doesnāt happen millions (literally) of kids will be faced with no federal aid or loans.
Maybe someone pulls a rabbit out of a hat. But if notā¦ what? Colleges close? Feds just send buckets of cash for schools to distribute?
Thatās all melodramatic. Butā¦ 12 million kids disappears. Thatās actually dramatic.
1 Like
Students have until June 30th to file FAFSA to get their Federal aid.
I havenāt seen any estimates yet of the number of students who wonāt be able to attend college next year because of FAFSA delays, I donāt think itās in the millions. With that said, I would like to see this discussion and analysis.
They actually have until June 30 2025 to file for federally funded aid for the 2024-2025 academic year. @kelsmom can verify. But this needs to be completed before their academic year ends.
Filing later does not help those who attend FAFSA only schools where the data on the FAFSA is used to craft need based financial aid awards of institutional money. Fact isā¦MOST colleges use the FAFSA onlyā¦and if students donāt apply, they risk losing out on some institutional funds at some places.
Oops yes, should have written the year.
Agreed that students will need to get fafsa in to get institutional funding as well, but some schools are still packaging not-final FA awards without FAFSA right now, so at least some students are getting an idea of their FA.
This isnāt ideal either!
What a major headache for families this year.
For sure a mess.
I expect the preliminary awards that some schools have given wonāt change except for adding in pell grant, and any other fed financial aid. But who knows when they will be able to do that?!
How are they giving preliminary awards without any financial info? Guessing?
Most FAFSA only schools donāt care what a studentās SAI is, so they are just giving their typical discountā¦they will of course add in other Fed FA when they can. Some schools, like those with merit grids, can also package that for the time being. With that said, it seems to me most FAFSA only schools are not giving preliminary FA packagesā¦but I really only know based on what I see on CC, Reddit, and some counselor pages.
Most, if not all, CSS schools have been giving preliminary FA packages.
Yesā¦because they have the financial data to do so.
This FAFSA upgrade was supposed to make this form more accessible so that more folks would complete it. This rollout seems to have really screwed that up.
Right. And many FAFSA only schools donāt need any financial data to make a preliminary package because they are just discounting, based on a studentās profile, whether they fit any institutional priorities, how much they want the student to enroll, things of that nature.
For sure. I expect completions will start ramping up now that things are processing. Schools will start ramping up their outreach to accepted applicants to get FAFSA filed as well. And the students in the 12 states that require FAFSA for graduation will start getting those completed at a higher rate too. Hopefully the students considering attending college in the Fall get this done.
1 Like
Did you get an email when it finished processing?
My concern is that I donāt even remember which schools I added to the FAFSA submission and I CANāT BELIEVE that the list of schools I sent to does not seem to be memorialized anywhere. (Iām still seeing āIn progressā status so hoping to have visibility once itās āProcessedā).
Does anyone know if the list of schools who are to receive your FAFSA profile can be found anywhere while itās still Processing? Email confirmation also does not have it.
2 Likes
The list of schools appear once it is processed. If you canāt see it on the dashboard, check the submission summary.
2 Likes
We did not get any email. Just checked on the website.