Welcome to the community! I'm also new here and going through this exact same situation with my daughter who's a senior. Reading through this entire thread has been incredibly helpful - I had no idea about the complexity of the divorced parent rules or the differences between FAFSA and CSS Profile. One thing that really stood out to me from everyone's experiences is how important it is to document everything thoroughly. Like others mentioned, keeping detailed records through co-parenting apps seems crucial in case you get selected for verification. I'm also realizing I need to start having the CSS Profile conversation with my ex much sooner than I originally planned. For those who mentioned calling schools directly about their specific policies - did you find that financial aid offices were generally helpful and willing to explain their divorced parent policies over the phone? I'm wondering if it's better to call now during the less busy season or wait until closer to application time. Thanks to everyone who has shared their experiences here. This thread should honestly be pinned as a resource for other parents dealing with divorced parent financial aid situations!

Welcome to this amazing community! As someone who's been lurking here for a while but just joined, I have to say this thread has been absolutely incredible for understanding divorced parent financial aid situations. I'm facing a very similar scenario with my son who's a junior - divorced parents with shared custody, and I had no idea about the complexity of CSS Profile vs FAFSA requirements until reading all of your experiences here. One thing I wanted to add that our college counselor mentioned recently: make sure to also check if any schools on your list have "early decision" or "early action" financial aid deadlines that are even earlier than their regular CSS Profile deadlines. Some schools want financial aid applications submitted with the early admissions applications, which could be as early as November 1st for some schools. Also, regarding the conversation with your ex about CSS Profile - I'm dreading this too! But reading through everyone's advice about framing it as "required for our child's best aid opportunities" rather than optional has given me a much better approach. I think I'm going to compile a list of each school's specific CSS requirements from their websites to show him it's not negotiable if we want our son to be considered for institutional aid. Thank you to everyone who has shared their real-world experiences here - this has been more helpful than any official guidance I've found elsewhere!

I just wanted to add my experience from this past fall - I completed my FAFSA on my iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard attached and it worked pretty well! The external keyboard definitely made a huge difference for data entry. However, I did run into one specific issue that I haven't seen mentioned yet: the browser would randomly zoom in on certain form fields when I tapped them, and then I couldn't figure out how to zoom back out to see the whole page. It was super annoying and happened like 5-6 times during the process. I had to close and reopen Safari each time. If you do end up using an iPad, here's a tip that saved me: go to Settings > Safari > Page Zoom and set it to 100% before starting. That seemed to reduce (but not eliminate) the zooming issues. But honestly, after reading everyone's experiences here, I think using a laptop is definitely the smarter choice. The iPad *can* work, but why deal with potential headaches when financial aid is on the line? Good luck with your application!

Hey! I'm just starting my FAFSA journey and this thread has been incredibly helpful - thank you all for sharing your experiences! Reading through everyone's stories, it seems like the iPad issues are pretty consistent across different models and iOS versions. The zooming problems, document upload failures, and session timeouts that multiple people mentioned really concern me since I can't afford to have my application get messed up. I was originally planning to use my iPad since it's what I have readily available, but based on all the feedback here, I'm definitely going to find a way to use a laptop instead. My school's library has computers I can use, so I think I'll just go there with all my documents prepared and knock it out in one session. One question for those who've completed it recently - about how long should I expect the whole process to take if I have all my documents organized and ready? I want to make sure I reserve enough time at the library computer so I'm not rushed. Thanks again everyone - this community is awesome! 🙏

I went through this exact same situation two months ago with my second child! The "Transfer My Information" feature is a lifesaver, but here's what nobody mentioned - make sure your first child's FAFSA shows "Processed" status before attempting the transfer. I tried to do it while the first application was still showing "Submitted" and the transfer kept failing with generic error messages. Once I waited for full processing (took about 5 days), the transfer worked perfectly. Also, double-check the "number of family members in college" field after transfer - mine defaulted to 1 instead of updating to 2, which would have significantly impacted our SAI calculation. The whole process took me about 45 minutes instead of the 3+ hours for the first application, so it's definitely worth using!

Just wanted to add another tip that saved me headaches - after you successfully transfer the information, take a screenshot of each completed section before hitting submit! I learned this the hard way when my internet connection dropped during submission and I lost some of the transferred data. Had to re-enter everything manually. Also, if you run into technical issues with the transfer feature (which seems pretty common based on these comments), try using a different browser or clearing your cache. I had issues with Chrome but it worked perfectly in Firefox. The transfer feature isn't perfect, but when it works correctly it's such a time-saver. Good luck with your second application - you've got this!

Update: I called my financial advisor today to double-check, and she confirmed what everyone here said - the 529 should definitely be reported as MY asset since I'm the account owner. She mentioned that this is one of the most common mistakes families make on the FAFSA. I'll be completing my parent portion this weekend and will include the 529 in my assets section. Then I'll follow up with both the Federal Student Aid office and my son's prospective colleges to make sure they're aware of the correction. Thank you all for the help! This community saved us from what could have been a costly mistake.

Great to hear you're getting this sorted out! Just wanted to add one more tip - when you complete your parent section and include the 529, make sure to also remove any reference to it from your son's section if the system allows edits, or note the correction in any "additional information" fields. Also, since you mentioned contacting prospective colleges, I'd recommend doing this sooner rather than later if any of them have early financial aid deadlines. Some schools process aid packages on a rolling basis, so getting the correction in early could help ensure your son gets considered for the maximum aid available. You're absolutely doing the right thing by addressing this quickly. The difference between 20% assessment (student asset) and up to 5.64% assessment (parent asset) on $43,000 could mean thousands more in available aid for your son!

Glad to hear you got your invite! For future reference for anyone else having this issue - I've noticed that contributor invites sent during weekdays tend to arrive faster than weekend submissions. Also, if you're using a work email, some corporate spam filters are extra aggressive with FSA emails. I always recommend parents use a personal email address when possible. The new FAFSA system has definitely had growing pains, but it's getting more stable as they work out the bugs.

Great to see this got resolved! For anyone still waiting on their contributor invite, I'd also recommend checking if your email provider has any "promotions" or "updates" folders where automated emails sometimes get sorted. Gmail especially likes to put government emails in these tabs instead of the main inbox. Also, if you're still having issues after 48 hours, try having your student remove you as a contributor and then re-add you - sometimes this triggers the system to send a fresh invite. The key is not to panic - the FSA system is definitely slower this year but it does work eventually!