For anyone still having issues, here's what you need to know: 1. Nelnet's system maintenance is related to implementing changes for the 2025-2026 FAFSA simplification. 2. You have three options to get your loan information: - Keep trying the website (it's coming back online gradually) - Call directly (1-888-486-4722) with your FSA ID ready - Use the workaround of checking recent loan statements 3. If you're on a deadline, document your attempts and contact your school's financial aid office immediately to explain the situation. Most schools have procedures for handling FAFSA delays due to servicer issues. 4. Remember that for the new FAFSA, you'll need your current loan status and disbursement amounts, but NOT the detailed payment history that was required in previous years. Hope this helps reduce some stress during an already complicated process!

Just wanted to add my experience for anyone still dealing with this - I was stuck in the same situation yesterday and tried calling Nelnet multiple times but kept getting disconnected. What finally worked for me was calling early in the morning (around 7 AM EST) when their lines first opened. Got through in about 30 minutes instead of the 2+ hour waits people are reporting later in the day. The rep was super helpful and emailed me a detailed loan summary within 10 minutes of our call ending. If you're still struggling to get through, try calling right when they open at 7 AM - seems like that's when you have the best chance of actually reaching someone!

I'm dealing with the exact same issue right now! My daughter's FAFSA was processed but her college is asking for high school info that just isn't visible on the online form. This is so frustrating - how did they launch a system with such obvious bugs? Reading through all these responses, it sounds like the manual SAR approach might be our best bet. @Omar Fawaz thanks for the update on what worked for you! Going to try printing the SAR and filling it in by hand like you did. Hopefully we can get this sorted before her aid package gets delayed any further. Has anyone had luck with the FAFSA correction method that @Chloe Martin mentioned earlier? I'm wondering if that might be faster than waiting for the manual documentation to be processed.

Just wanted to chime in as someone who's been helping families navigate FAFSA issues for a while now. This high school information bug is unfortunately becoming really common with the 2025-26 form. A few additional tips that might help others dealing with this: 1. If you're going the manual SAR route (which seems to work best), make sure to write clearly and include the date you're submitting it. Some financial aid offices are getting swamped with these manual corrections. 2. Keep a copy of everything you submit - both digital and physical. I've seen cases where documentation gets lost in the shuffle. 3. If your student attended multiple high schools or has a complicated education history (homeschool, GED, etc.), include a brief note explaining the situation along with your documentation. The good news is that most financial aid offices are aware of this issue now and have processes in place to handle it. Don't panic if you're hitting this bug - your aid won't be denied because of a system glitch, it just might take a few extra steps to resolve. Hopefully the Department of Education gets this fixed soon, but in the meantime the workarounds mentioned in this thread definitely work!

This is such a valuable thread for newcomers like me! I'm getting ready to help my daughter with her FAFSA application and honestly had no idea that email corrections were even possible after submission. Reading through everyone's experiences really helps set realistic expectations about processing times and the correction process. It's also great to see the financial aid professional's perspective - knowing that this happens "ALL THE TIME" definitely takes some of the pressure off. I'm going to make sure we create all our FSA IDs early and maybe even do a practice run through the application to catch any potential errors before the real submission. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences here!

As a newcomer to this community and the FAFSA process, I just wanted to say how incredibly helpful this entire thread has been! Reading through Connor's initial panic (which I totally understand) and then seeing the supportive responses from everyone really shows what a great resource this community is. I'm planning to start my daughter's FAFSA application in the next few weeks, and all the practical advice here - from setting up FSA IDs early to doing practice runs - is going to save us a lot of stress. It's especially reassuring to hear from Vincent who works in financial aid that these email mistakes are common and easily fixable. Thanks to everyone for sharing their real experiences and timelines!

As someone who just went through this exact situation last year, I wanted to share what we learned! We had one kid finishing undergrad and starting a PhD program, plus another still in undergrad. The biggest thing we discovered is that you really need to look at the TOTAL picture of support. Our grad student got a full tuition waiver plus a $25k stipend, but when we added up ALL their expenses (rent, food, car, insurance, medical, personal expenses, etc.), it came to about $45k for the year. Since we were covering the $20k difference, we could legitimately include them in our household size. The tricky part is that graduate funding packages often aren't finalized until late spring, but you need to file FAFSA much earlier. We ended up making our best estimate based on typical funding for their program, then double-checked our math once we knew the actual numbers. Fortunately we didn't need to make corrections, but it was definitely stressful not knowing for sure! One more tip: if your grad student is considering multiple programs, try to get funding info from all of them early in the process so you can plan accordingly. Some programs are much more generous than others, which could totally change whether you meet that 50% threshold.

I'm in a similar boat with one kid potentially starting grad school and another still in undergrad! Reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful. One thing I'm still trying to wrap my head around is the timing - it seems like we're supposed to predict support for July 2025-June 2026, but most grad school decisions and funding packages don't come out until March/April 2025. Has anyone dealt with needing to file corrections after initially submitting? I'm wondering if it's better to be conservative initially (not count the grad student) and then correct later if needed, or if corrections create more headaches than they're worth. Also, for those who've been through verification for household size - what kind of documentation did they actually ask for?

For documentation detail, I'd recommend being specific but organized. Create categories like "Required Course Materials" (list each textbook/software with costs), "Transportation" (monthly gas/parking breakdown), "Housing" (actual rent vs their estimate), etc. Include receipts or official price lists where possible. Don't overwhelm them with 50 loose papers, but do show you've done your homework with real numbers. A one-page summary with supporting documents attached works well. Also, when you meet with financial aid, ask about their "Professional Judgment" process specifically - this lets them override your FAFSA info if circumstances changed. Even things like increased medical expenses, reduced parent work hours, or unexpected family costs can qualify. Pro tip: If your first meeting doesn't go well, don't give up! Different counselors have different levels of experience and authority. Sometimes asking to speak with a supervisor or senior aid officer can make a huge difference in what options they'll offer you.

Just wanted to add my experience to this incredibly helpful thread! I went through this same situation last semester and ended up getting an additional $4,200 after initially thinking I was stuck with what they first offered. The key breakthrough for me was when I asked specifically about their "Cost of Attendance Adjustment" process - turns out my school had a whole separate department that handles these appeals that the front desk staff didn't even mention initially. What really helped my case was bringing a detailed comparison showing their estimated costs vs. my actual costs for things like: - Books/course materials ($800 more than their estimate) - Housing (rent went up after their calculations were done) - Required technology for my major that wasn't in their standard budget The whole process took about 3 weeks from initial meeting to getting the funds disbursed, which was cutting it close but worked out. One thing I wish I'd known earlier - they can often make retroactive adjustments too, so even if you're already partway through a semester, it's still worth asking. Also want to echo what others said about asking to speak with a senior counselor if the first person you talk to seems dismissive or says there are no options. Persistence really does pay off in this system!