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To clarify some confusion in this thread: You should absolutely notify your school's financial aid office about your status change. They will guide you through their specific process. Most schools have a formal procedure for mid-year status changes. Regarding the FAFSA itself: 1. You don't need to submit a brand new FAFSA application mid-year 2. In most cases, you should submit a FAFSA correction to update your grade level 3. Your school may submit this update on your behalf, but confirm this with them Also important: The financial aid award you receive as a graduate student will be calculated differently than undergraduate aid. Graduate students qualify for up to $20,500 in Direct Unsubsidized Loans annually (higher than undergrad limits), but as you noted, grad students don't qualify for Pell Grants.
Update for anyone who finds this thread later: I finally spoke with my financial aid office today. They were actually super helpful! For anyone in this situation, here's what I learned: 1. I DID need to submit a special form through my university (it was called "Change in Academic Program/Level" form) 2. I did NOT need to update my FAFSA directly - the school handles that reporting 3. They will recalculate my aid package for spring semester based on graduate student eligibility 4. There will be a 2-3 week processing period before I see my updated aid package 5. My loan limits will actually increase as a grad student, but I'll no longer be eligible for subsidized loans Thanks everyone for the helpful advice! The most important thing is definitely to contact your school's financial aid office directly since it seems like every school handles this differently.
PSA: Always save copies of your FAFSA confirmation emails and screenshots of your submitted application. You never know when you'll need proof!
idk if this helps, but I had a similar issue and it turned out there was a hold on my account because I hadn't submitted my vaccination records to the school. Might be worth checking if there are any random administrative holds?
did ur daughter check if she entered the wrong email for him? my son put .con instead of .com on my email and thats why i never got anything lol. such a simple mistake but took us forever to figure it out
Just an update on what we've been seeing with our college access program - the FAFSA's "contributor" function has been one of the biggest technical issues this application season. The Department of Education actually acknowledged there's a bug affecting about 20% of parent contributors. One workaround some families have used successfully: have your daughter upload the signed Alternative Documentation for Contributors form (it's on the StudentAid.gov site) instead of waiting for the electronic contribution. It's not ideal, but it can get you past this roadblock.
One more important point: When you get to the tax information section, you'll notice that Social Security benefits are generally not taxable (or only partially taxable in some cases). This means they might not appear on your tax return, but you still need to report them separately in the untaxed income section of the FAFSA. This is one of the most common mistakes people make - they assume that if it's not on their tax return, it doesn't need to be reported on FAFSA. Always better to report and be transparent!
After you submit the FAFSA, I recommend keeping an eye on the SAI (Student Aid Index) calculation. With disability income, sometimes the formula doesn't accurately reflect your actual financial situation. If the SAI seems too high based on your family's circumstances, contact your daughter's college financial aid office about a 'professional judgment' review. They can adjust the SAI to account for special circumstances like disability and medical expenses.
the paper form is THE WORST don't do it unless u absolutely have to!! took us 6 weeks to get processed and nearly missed the deadline for my kids scholarships
UPDATE: We got it working! For anyone facing the same issue, here's what solved it for us: 1. We cleared browser cache/cookies on both computers 2. I created a Gmail account instead of using Outlook 3. We made sure my name format exactly matched my tax documents (included middle initial only, not full middle name) 4. My daughter logged out and back into her FAFSA account completely After doing all this, the invitation came through immediately and I was able to complete my portion. Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions! The new FAFSA system definitely still has some serious bugs to work out.
my kids fafsa got processed but then we got selected for verification and had to upload tax stuff now were waiting again its so frustrating
UPDATE: We figured it out! My daughter logged into studentaid.gov and found her SAI score right on her dashboard under 'Your FAFSA Status.' We also confirmed which schools received her information. Turns out she was confused about the difference between the FAFSA results and actual financial aid award letters from schools (which will come separately). For anyone else with this issue - definitely have your student check their actual account rather than waiting for emails. Thanks everyone for your help!
has anyone here had experience with whether this affects parent contribution expectations? i'm wondering because graduate students are automatically independent on FAFSA but if she's still technically working on undergrad degree does that mean we still have to provide our info?
Great question! If she's classified as a graduate student for FAFSA purposes, she's automatically considered independent regardless of when the bachelor's degree is actually conferred. That means parent information isn't required for the FAFSA. However, some graduate programs still request parent information for institutional aid through the CSS Profile, even though it's not needed for federal aid purposes.
One more important point: Make sure you complete the 2025-2026 FAFSA instead of the 2024-2025 form if you're applying for aid for next academic year. With all the FAFSA changes and the new SAI calculation, many families are filling out the wrong year's form, especially since the new one was delayed. The 2025-2026 FAFSA is the one that requires the new FSA ID verification process for both student and contributors.
Connor O'Neill
Quick additional tip: when you complete the FAFSA, review the SAI calculation before submitting. Sometimes the child support paid doesn't get properly calculated in the preview. If something looks off, save your work and call the Federal Student Aid Information Center to troubleshoot before submitting.
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Ava Williams
•Great advice - I didn't know you could review the calculation before submitting! Definitely good to know we should double-check this.
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Zainab Ibrahim
anyone else think its crazy that fasfa expects parents to pay so much?? like im not made of money people!!!
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Yara Khalil
•For real. They act like you can just pull thousands of dollars out of thin air. And then they're surprised when kids graduate with massive loan debt 🙄
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