So glad to see this positive update! I've been following this thread because I'm in a similar situation - submitted a correction for my parent's asset information about a week ago and have been anxiously waiting. Your experience gives me hope that everything will work out fine. It's really reassuring to know that the schools are understanding about these situations and will work with students who proactively communicate about corrections. Thanks for taking the time to update everyone!

I'm a first-time FAFSA filer and this whole thread has been incredibly helpful! I submitted mine last week but now I'm second-guessing everything. It's reassuring to see that corrections don't completely restart the process and that schools are understanding about these situations. @ec89ffba57e6 your update about everything working out is exactly what I needed to hear - gives me confidence that even if I need to make corrections later, it won't be the end of the world. Thanks to everyone sharing their experiences, especially the financial aid professionals who explained the process so clearly!

I just want to say how grateful I am for this entire thread! As someone who's been panicking about this exact situation for weeks, reading all these responses has been like a weight lifted off my shoulders. My ex has been completely unhelpful throughout this process, and I was convinced that him claiming our son on his taxes was going to ruin our financial aid chances. But hearing from actual financial aid professionals and parents who've successfully navigated this gives me so much hope. I'm going to follow everyone's advice here: gather all my expense documentation, call the college financial aid office directly, and stop stressing about the tax dependency issue since it's separate from the FAFSA contributor determination. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and expertise. This community is amazing, and you've all helped a stressed single mom feel like she can actually handle this FAFSA nightmare! 💕

This thread has been such a lifesaver! I'm dealing with almost the exact same situation with my daughter's FAFSA. My ex claimed her on his taxes but has made it clear he won't contribute a penny to college costs, and I've been losing sleep over how this would affect her financial aid. Reading all these responses from financial aid professionals and parents who've been through this successfully has given me so much relief. I had no idea that the new SAI system separates tax dependency from the FAFSA contributor determination - that changes everything! I'm definitely going to follow the advice here about gathering expense documentation and calling the college financial aid office proactively. It's such a comfort to know that divorced parent situations like ours are common and that there are established processes to handle them. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and expertise. You've helped another stressed single parent feel like this FAFSA process is actually manageable! Sometimes you just need to know you're not fighting this battle alone.

Just want to echo what everyone's saying about following up directly with schools! I'm a current college junior who went through this stress freshman year. My FAFSA got processed right before spring break and I was convinced everything was fine until I logged into my dream school's portal two weeks later and saw a big red "MISSING FAFSA" warning. Turns out their system had some glitch and didn't receive my data even though 4 other schools got it just fine. The financial aid office was amazing though - they had me email them my confirmation page screenshot and they manually requested my data from Federal Student Aid. Got resolved in 3 days. Pro tip that saved me: create a simple spreadsheet with all your schools, their financial aid office phone numbers, and deadline dates. Then systematically call each one about a week after your processing date to confirm receipt. I also took screenshots of each school's portal showing they received my FAFSA - sounds paranoid but it gave me peace of mind! Sean, you're honestly in great shape since yours is already processed. Just be proactive about confirming with each school and you'll be totally fine. The financial aid offices deal with this stuff constantly and they're usually really helpful about transmission delays.

I'm a senior going through this exact same process right now! My FAFSA just got processed yesterday after dealing with two verification requests (so frustrating), and I'm also stressing about transmission times to my schools. Reading through everyone's advice here has been incredibly helpful - I had no idea that schools batch process these transmissions rather than receiving them instantly. The spreadsheet idea from @Malik Jenkins is genius, I'm definitely setting that up today with all my school contact info and deadlines. One thing I'm curious about - has anyone had experience with how transmission times might be affected by the volume of applications during peak season? I know we're getting closer to a lot of priority deadlines, so I'm wondering if that might slow things down even more. Planning to start calling my schools tomorrow just to be safe, but trying to manage my anxiety about the whole process! Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - it's so reassuring to know other people have navigated this successfully even with delays and technical issues.

This thread has been incredibly eye-opening! As someone new to the college financial aid world, I had no idea about this "financial aid cliff" effect where earning more money could actually leave you worse off. Reading everyone's experiences and strategies has been so valuable. I'm particularly interested in the retirement account strategy that several people mentioned - using 401k contributions to lower your AGI for FAFSA purposes while still building savings seems like such a smart approach. The idea of timing income strategically around the two-year lookback period is also something I never would have considered. One question I have - for those who chose NOT to take the second job and focused on scholarship applications instead, how much time did you typically spend on scholarship searches and applications? I'm trying to figure out if the time investment in scholarships might be more worthwhile than working extra hours, but I'd love to hear more about the actual time commitment involved. Thanks to everyone for sharing such detailed, practical advice. This community is amazing for breaking down these complex financial aid decisions!

This whole thread has been such a lifesaver! I'm in almost the exact same boat as the original poster - single parent, son heading to college next fall, and sitting right at that frustrating income threshold where we qualify for some federal aid but not much. Reading through everyone's experiences and strategies has given me so much clarity on what I need to do. The idea of calculating the exact break-even point really resonates with me - I think I was getting caught up in the emotional stress of "I need to work more to afford college" without actually running the numbers to see if that would help or hurt us. I'm definitely going to start by using that Federal Student Aid Estimator tool to model different income scenarios, and I love the suggestion about maximizing 401k contributions to reduce our AGI. The gig work idea is brilliant too - having that flexibility to control exactly how much I earn gives me so much more power over staying under the threshold. For those who went the scholarship route instead of extra work - did you find it helpful to set aside specific days/times each week for scholarship applications, or did you approach it more sporadically? I'm trying to figure out the best way to make this a manageable process alongside everything else. Thanks to everyone for sharing such practical, real-world advice!

I'm dealing with this exact same issue! My contributor link has been broken for over a week now. What's really frustrating is that I completed my daughter's FAFSA as a contributor just fine last year, but now with my son's application, the system seems to have completely forgotten that I'm supposed to have contributor access. I've tried everything - different browsers, clearing cache, even tried accessing it from my phone. Nothing works. The link just takes me to a generic page or shows an error. I'm going to try the approach that @Marcus Patterson and @Leila Haddad mentioned about deleting the original invitation and creating a completely new FSA ID specifically for contributor purposes. It's ridiculous that we have to work around the system like this, but I'm desperate at this point with deadlines approaching. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - at least I know I'm not the only one dealing with this nightmare!

I'm new to this community but dealing with the exact same broken contributor link problem! My daughter sent me the invitation three days ago and every time I click the link, it either goes to a blank page or shows some generic error message. What's really frustrating is that I have an existing FSA ID from when I took out parent PLUS loans for my older son, but the system doesn't seem to recognize that I should have contributor access. Reading through all these responses has been so helpful - I had no idea this was such a widespread issue with the new FAFSA system! I'm definitely going to try the approach that several people mentioned about having my daughter delete my current invitation and resend it so I can create a brand new FSA ID specifically for contributor purposes. It seems counterintuitive to have multiple FSA IDs, but if that's what works with this broken system, I'm willing to try anything. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences and workarounds - it's reassuring to know I'm not the only parent struggling with this technical nightmare!