Update: I finally spoke with my daughter's financial aid office, and they were actually super helpful! They confirmed that for her school, the off-campus housing allowance is about $1100/month (including utilities), which is more than enough for the apartment she found. They also said I could request to have the Parent PLUS loan refund sent directly to me instead of her by filling out a form. Thank you all for your help! This was so much easier than I expected.

That's awesome that everything worked out! Just wanted to add one more tip for other parents reading this - make sure to keep good records of all housing expenses (rent, utilities, groceries) even though you don't technically need to "prove" them to the school. If you ever get selected for verification or need to appeal aid decisions, having documentation of your actual costs vs. the school's estimates can be really helpful. Plus it makes tax time easier if any of the education credits apply to your situation!

One last thing to check - did you file as head of household on your taxes? The new FAFSA formula treats HOH filing status differently than before. Also, did your son have any income that might have been reported differently? Even a small student job can have a surprisingly large impact on the SAI calculation now.

I'm new to this community but dealing with a very similar situation! My daughter also lost her Pell Grant eligibility this year despite our income only increasing slightly. Reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful - I had no idea about the major formula changes or how differently they're treating retirement accounts and student income now. The most frustrating part is that we planned our finances around her having Pell Grant support for her final year, just like you did. I'm definitely going to try calling the financial aid office for a professional judgment review based on the advice here. Has anyone successfully gotten their Pell eligibility restored through the appeal process? I'd love to hear if any of these strategies actually worked for getting the aid back.

One more thing: If your daughter received Cal Grant A but is attending a community college first (which wasn't clear from your post), the Cal Grant A will be held in reserve for up to 2 years until she transfers to a 4-year school. Community colleges use Cal Grant B instead (which has a lower GPA requirement but covers living expenses).

Welcome to the financial aid journey! As someone who just went through this with my freshman daughter, I wanted to add a few practical tips that helped us navigate the Cal Grant A process: 1. Set up your student portal access at UC Davis ASAP if you haven't already - this is where you'll see all aid postings and payment deadlines 2. Screenshot/save the Cal Grant award notification - you'll reference this multiple times 3. Consider setting up a payment plan with the school even if you expect the Cal Grant to cover tuition - it gives you flexibility if there are any delays 4. Sign up for text/email alerts from both the school's billing office AND financial aid office - they often send different notifications The stress is totally normal! Once everything processes (usually by late August for fall semester), it becomes much more routine. UC Davis really is good about working with families on aid timing, so don't hesitate to reach out to them early and often. Congratulations to your daughter on her acceptance and the Cal Grant - that's a huge accomplishment!

Update for anyone who finds this thread later: After updating Chrome and clearing my cache/cookies, I'm STILL getting the emails. But based on everyone's responses here, I'm not going to worry about it anymore. Just a system bug that will hopefully be fixed soon. Thanks for all the help!

I'm so glad I found this thread! I've been getting these same "FSA ID changed" emails for the past two weeks and was convinced someone had hacked my account. I even called my bank to make sure no one was trying to access my financial information through my FAFSA. It's such a relief to know it's just a system bug and not a security breach. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this community is so helpful for navigating all these FAFSA issues!

just wondering did u finally get it to work?? im about to start mine and now im scared lol

So glad you got it resolved! For anyone else dealing with this issue, here are some additional tips that might help: 1. Make sure you're using the most up-to-date version of your browser 2. If you're married and filing taxes jointly, be very explicit about selecting "Married filing jointly" - the system seems to have trouble with this step 3. Don't rush through the parent information section - take your time with each question 4. If you get stuck, screenshot where the system stops asking for information so you can reference it when calling FSA The new FAFSA has definitely been a learning curve for everyone. Thanks for sharing your experience - it'll help other families in similar situations!