I'm going through something very similar right now and all these responses have been incredibly helpful! I made the same mistake with my dad's 403(b) account and it's showing about $50,000 more in assets than we actually have. One additional tip I wanted to share - when I called the first school today, the financial aid officer suggested I also double-check any other retirement-related questions on the CSS Profile to make sure I didn't make similar mistakes elsewhere. Turns out I had also incorrectly included some of the retirement account balance in another section, so I'm having to correct multiple questions. It's definitely worth going back through your entire CSS Profile with fresh eyes to catch any other potential errors while you're already in correction mode. The last thing you want is to go through this whole process and then discover another mistake later! Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences - it's made this stressful situation feel much more manageable knowing so many others have successfully navigated the same issue.

As someone who works in college admissions consulting, I see this exact mistake at least once a week during CSS Profile season! You're absolutely doing the right thing by addressing it immediately - that $43,000 asset difference could be the difference between getting substantial institutional aid or not. A few additional tips from what I've observed helping families through this: 1. When you call schools, mention upfront that this is a "retirement account misclassification" - most financial aid officers immediately know what you're talking about since it's so common. 2. Consider sending your correction documentation to schools via their secure student portals rather than regular email, especially if the documents contain account numbers. Many schools prefer this for privacy reasons. 3. If you applied to any schools that use institutional methodology calculations differently (like some CSS schools that cap home equity), this correction might have an even bigger impact at those schools. The good news is that schools WANT to give their aid to students who truly qualify for it, so they're motivated to process legitimate corrections quickly. I've rarely seen schools give families a hard time about this particular mistake since the CSS Profile retirement vs. investment distinction is genuinely confusing. You've got great advice from everyone here - stay organized, be persistent, and don't panic. This will get resolved!

As a newcomer to this community, I just want to say how incredibly helpful this entire thread has been! I'm in a very similar situation with my own daughter who's applying to grad school, and I was completely overwhelmed by the FAFSA process until reading all these detailed responses. The step-by-step guidance about 2023 being the base year, the verification process for non-filers, and especially the reminders about early December filing and checking individual school requirements beyond just FAFSA - this is exactly the kind of practical advice you can't easily find elsewhere. I'm definitely going to bookmark this thread and follow the spreadsheet suggestion for organizing income documentation. Thank you all for creating such a supportive and informative discussion!

Welcome to everyone who's new to this discussion! As someone who's been helping families navigate FAFSA for years, I wanted to add a few practical tips that might be useful. First, make sure your daughter creates her FSA ID using her own email address (not a family shared one) since she'll need independent access for grad school. Second, if she had any work-study positions during undergrad, those earnings should be reported as regular income on her graduate FAFSA - work-study isn't treated differently for grad students like it is for undergrads. Finally, consider having her reach out to the financial aid offices at her target grad schools in January after submitting her FAFSA - they can often provide school-specific guidance about their aid timelines and any additional forms needed. The graduate school financial aid landscape is quite different from undergrad, but with proper preparation it's definitely manageable!

As a newcomer to this community, I can't express how relieved I am to have found this discussion! I'm in the exact same situation - we moved about a month ago and I've been absolutely terrified to update our address on my daughter's FAFSA application. Like many others here, I kept reading horror stories online about simple changes triggering verification delays and was completely paralyzed with indecision. What's been so valuable about this thread is hearing from real people who've actually gone through this process, especially the professional insight from @Megan D'Acosta about how routine address updates truly are in financial aid administration. It completely shifted my perspective from "what could go wrong" to understanding that keeping accurate information is actually the safer and more responsible choice. The consistent step-by-step approach everyone has shared (updating FSA ID first, then FAFSA immediately after in the same session, keeping detailed records) gives me a clear action plan instead of just sitting here anxious and overthinking. It's amazing how much clarity you can gain from a supportive community sharing genuine experiences rather than just generic advice or worst-case scenarios. Thank you all for creating such a helpful environment where people can learn from each other's real experiences. I finally feel confident about moving forward with updating our address information correctly!

As a newcomer to this community, I just want to say how incredibly valuable this entire discussion has been! I'm facing the exact same situation - we moved about two weeks ago and I've been staring at that FAFSA update screen, absolutely frozen with anxiety about whether to change our address information. Reading through everyone's real experiences has been such a relief, especially hearing from @Megan D'Acosta who works in financial aid administration. Her insight that address updates are truly routine and that accuracy is more important than avoiding changes completely shifted my perspective. I was so focused on horror stories that I forgot these systems are designed to handle normal life events like moving. The consistent advice about updating both FSA ID and FAFSA addresses in the same session, plus keeping detailed records, gives me a clear roadmap instead of just sitting here paralyzed with worry. It's amazing how hearing from people who've actually been through this successfully can transform fear into confidence. Thank you all for sharing your genuine experiences and creating such a supportive environment. This community is exactly what I needed to move forward with updating our information correctly!

I'm dealing with this exact same SSA verification issue right now with my daughter's 2025-26 FAFSA! It's so frustrating when you know all the information is correct but the system won't accept it. Reading through everyone's experiences here has been incredibly reassuring - I had no idea this was such a common problem. Based on all the advice shared, I'm planning to take a multi-pronged approach: I'll call FSA first thing tomorrow morning at 8 AM, schedule an appointment at our local SSA office, and contact the financial aid offices at my daughter's target schools to let them know we're working on resolving the verification issue. I'm also going to do that letter-by-letter comparison of her birth certificate and Social Security card that several people mentioned - it's amazing how tiny discrepancies can cause such big problems! Thank you to everyone who shared their solutions and timelines. It's given me so much confidence that we'll get this sorted out without it affecting her financial aid. I'll make sure to update this thread once we figure out what the root cause was in our case!

I'm a new member here and currently going through this exact same SSA verification nightmare with my son's FAFSA! This thread has been absolutely invaluable - I had no idea so many families were dealing with identical issues. It's both frustrating and reassuring to know this is so common. What really stands out to me from reading everyone's experiences is how many different root causes there can be - hospital data entry errors, tiny spelling variations, missing punctuation, database timing issues, etc. It makes me realize we need to be really thorough in checking every possible angle. I'm planning to follow the comprehensive approach that several people have outlined: calling FSA at 8 AM sharp, scheduling an SSA office appointment, doing the letter-by-letter document comparison, and proactively contacting financial aid offices at his target schools. I'm also going to reach out to our high school guidance counselor as suggested - that's such a smart resource I wouldn't have thought of. One question for those who successfully resolved this - approximately how long did it take from when you first encountered the error to when the FAFSA verification finally worked? I'm trying to gauge if this is something that typically gets resolved in days, weeks, or longer. Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences and solutions!

I'm going through this exact same nightmare! Been stuck at the SSA verification step for about a week now and it's so incredibly frustrating. Like everyone else here, I've checked my SSN, DOB, and name spelling probably 50+ times against my Social Security card - everything is 100% correct but FAFSA keeps rejecting it. Reading through all these experiences has been both terrifying (seeing how many people are affected) and reassuring (knowing it's definitely not something I'm doing wrong). The fact that multiple people have called SSA directly and confirmed their info is correct really drives home that this is a system integration problem between FSA and SSA. My priority deadline is in less than 3 weeks and I was starting to panic, but seeing all the success stories with Claimyr is giving me hope. The fee seems totally worth it at this point to avoid potentially missing out on financial aid over a technical glitch that's completely out of my control. Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences and solutions - especially those who came back with updates after getting it resolved! This thread has been a sanity saver knowing there are actual working solutions out there.

I'm experiencing this EXACT same verification nightmare! Been stuck for about 10 days now trying to get past the SSA verification step and it's driving me absolutely crazy. Like everyone else here, I've verified my SSN, DOB, and name spelling against my Social Security card probably 100 times - everything is completely accurate but FAFSA keeps throwing that "can't verify" error. What's really frustrating is seeing how widespread this issue is affecting so many students, yet there seems to be limited communication from FSA about timeline for fixes or clear workarounds. My financial aid priority deadline is coming up in just over 2 weeks and I was starting to seriously panic thinking I was somehow doing something wrong. This thread has been an absolute lifesaver - both for my sanity (realizing it's definitely not user error) and for finding actual solutions that work. Based on all the success stories shared here, I'm definitely going to try the Claimyr approach to get through to an FSA agent who can manually override this verification block. The fee seems totally worth it at this point compared to potentially missing out on financial aid over a technical glitch that's completely beyond our control. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences and solutions - especially those who came back with updates after getting it resolved! It's so reassuring to know we're all navigating this mess together and that there are proven ways to get it fixed.