Best of luck with your financial aid journey! As someone who's been through the FAFSA process multiple times, I'd recommend creating a timeline for yourself with all the deadlines for both schools. Professional judgment reviews can take several weeks to process, so the earlier you submit everything, the better. Also, don't forget to check if your state has any additional grant programs for married students or career changers - some states have specific funding for people entering high-demand fields like nursing and computer science. Your state's higher education agency website should have info on these programs. You're being really smart by planning ahead and gathering all your documentation now. That preparation will definitely pay off when you're working with the financial aid offices!

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is that you should also look into work-study opportunities once you're enrolled. Even though you're planning to focus on school full-time, many work-study positions are designed to be flexible around class schedules and can provide some income to help with living expenses. Also, don't overlook potential scholarships specifically for non-traditional students or career changers. Many organizations offer scholarships for people returning to school later in life, and there are often specific ones for nursing students and computer science students. Sites like Fastweb, Scholarships.com, and your schools' scholarship databases are good places to start. The fact that you've planned ahead financially and saved up shows you're already thinking strategically about this transition. That same planning approach will serve you well in navigating the financial aid process!

UPDATE: I added the school this morning and checked my account status - it still shows "processed" with the same SAI score! So relieved. Thanks everyone for your help. I'll report back if anything changes with my aid packages.

That's awesome that it worked out so smoothly for you! I'm dealing with a similar situation right now - just got my FAFSA processed last week and realized I want to add two more schools to my list. Your update gives me confidence to go ahead and do it. Did the new school you added show up in your account right away, or did it take a day or two to appear in your school list?

As someone new to navigating FAFSA, this thread has been incredibly eye-opening! I had no idea that SAI numbers could change after the initial calculation, or that there were inflation adjustments happening in the background. My family is still waiting on our initial FAFSA processing (submitted in late February but got caught up in verification), so I'm wondering - should I be proactively checking studentaid.gov regularly to watch for any changes to our SAI once it's finally calculated? It sounds like these updates can happen without much notice, and I definitely don't want to miss out on potential Pell Grant eligibility like what happened with Emma's situation. Are there any other "gotchas" or things to watch out for that newcomers to this process should know about?

Thanks for sharing this Ryan! I'm in a similar boat as a FAFSA newbie - my oldest is starting college next year and I feel like I'm learning a new language. One thing I've picked up from lurking in this community is to screenshot everything on studentaid.gov when you check it. That way if your SAI does change like Emma's did, you have proof of the before and after numbers to show the financial aid office. I've also seen people recommend setting up a simple spreadsheet to track your SAI, EFC (if applicable), and any verification status changes with dates. It seems like having a paper trail is really important when you need to advocate for your student with the schools. Good luck with your verification process!

FAFSA processing is different this year with all the new system changes!! My nephew's took over a month to change from 'submitted' to 'processed' and then schools took anywhere from 2 days to 3 WEEKS to show it in their systems. Just keep checking and don't assume anything!!

One thing I'd add is to make sure you have backup documentation ready just in case. I keep screenshots of our FAFSA confirmation page and the "Processed" status in case any schools claim they didn't receive it. Also, if your daughter applied to any schools after initially submitting the FAFSA, you'll need to add those schools through the "Add or Remove Schools" option in your FAFSA account - they won't automatically receive it. The processed status only applies to schools that were listed when it was originally submitted and processed.

i don't understand why these colleges can't just TELL US ahead of time what our kids' aid will be!!! We have to make decisions about next year NOW but won't know what we're paying until May?? It's insane. Good luck OP hope your change doesn't hurt your wallet too much

I'm going through something similar with my son who's a junior. Our SAI went from -$800 to $400 this year - a bigger jump than yours. I called his school's financial aid office last week and they were actually pretty helpful. They explained that while federal aid (like Pell) has specific SAI thresholds, their institutional grants are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. They said changes under $1000 in SAI typically don't dramatically impact their aid decisions, but they encouraged me to submit any documentation about unchanged circumstances (like medical expenses or job situation) when I turn in the CSS Profile. Maybe worth asking your daughter's school if they have a similar policy?