Just wait til you see how little aid you get even WITH the corrected SAI 🙄 My daughter got into her dream school, our SAI was 29K, and they still expected us to pay 45K per year after their "generous" aid package. The whole system is broken.

As a newcomer to this community, I'm so grateful to find this thread! I'm currently going through the exact same situation with my son's FAFSA showing an SAI that seems impossibly high for our income level. Reading through everyone's experiences and advice here has been incredibly reassuring - especially seeing @Morita Montoya's update about finding those major errors and getting things corrected. I'm now motivated to go back through our FAFSA line by line to look for similar mistakes. The retirement account confusion seems to be a really common issue based on what I'm reading here. It's also helpful to know that financial aid officers at colleges are used to dealing with these situations and can be supportive. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experiences - it's making what felt like an impossible situation seem much more manageable!

Just want to echo what everyone else is saying about the dependency override - it's definitely the right path for your situation! I went through this exact process two years ago when I was living with my aunt instead of my parents. The documentation seems overwhelming at first, but it's totally doable. One thing that really helped me was calling my financial aid office and asking them to email me their specific checklist for dependency overrides. Every school has slightly different requirements, and having that official list made sure I didn't miss anything important. Also, if you have any old documentation from when you first moved in with your brother (like school enrollment changes, insurance changes, anything showing the change in your living situation), keep those handy - they can be really helpful supporting evidence. Don't get discouraged by the process! It might take a few weeks, but schools deal with these situations more often than you'd think. You're not alone in having a non-traditional family situation.

Hey! I'm dealing with a similar situation right now and this thread has been SO helpful. I'm 20 and have been living with my older sister for the past two years after my parents basically disappeared from my life. The FAFSA system is so confusing when your actual family situation doesn't match their cookie-cutter assumptions! I wanted to add one thing that might help - when I was gathering documentation for my dependency override, my school's financial aid counselor told me that utility bills or lease agreements showing your brother's address as your permanent residence can be really strong supporting evidence. Also, if you've changed your address with any government agencies (like for voting registration or driver's license), those records can help establish the timeline of when you started living with your brother. The whole process is definitely intimidating, but reading everyone's experiences here makes me feel like there's actually hope for people in our situation. Thanks for starting this conversation - I'm bookmarking this thread for reference!

I went through something very similar with my blended family situation. Here's what I learned from experience: 1. You absolutely should update your household size - the FAFSA rules are clear that if you provide more than half support, they count regardless of tax status or legal relationships. 2. However, given that your girlfriend's son already has aid based on her filing separately, you need to be strategic. Changing both FAFSAs simultaneously could create inconsistencies that trigger audits. My recommendation: Start with just your daughter's FAFSA correction first. Update household size to 5 and see how it processes. If you're selected for verification, you'll need documentation showing you support everyone (utility bills, lease agreements, grocery receipts, etc.). Once that's resolved and your daughter gets her revised aid package, then consider whether to address your girlfriend's son's FAFSA for next year. The income inclusion question is tricky - technically if you provide most household support, your income should probably be included on his FAFSA too, but that would likely reduce his aid significantly. Document everything and consider getting a consultation with a financial aid professional who understands unmarried partner situations. The rules exist to help families like yours, but the system isn't always intuitive about how to apply them.

I'm going through a very similar situation right now! Single mom supporting my boyfriend and his two kids for the past 3 years, but I originally filed my FAFSA with just me and my son as household size 2. After reading through all these responses, I'm definitely going to make the correction too. The advice about documenting everything and having proof ready is spot on - I've already started gathering utility bills and our lease agreement that shows all of us living together. One thing I'd add is to screenshot your current FAFSA before making changes, just in case you need to reference the original information later. Also, if your daughter's school has a financial aid workshop or one-on-one counseling available, that might be worth scheduling after you make the correction to make sure they process it properly. Thanks for posting this question - it's helping more families than just yours!

Just want to add one more tip that helped me - when your son creates his FSA ID, make sure he uses an email address that he checks regularly and will have access to throughout college. The FSA ID is what he'll use for all future financial aid applications, loan management, and communications from Federal Student Aid. I made the mistake of using my daughter's high school email for her first FSA ID and then had to go through a whole process to update it when the school email got deactivated after graduation. Save yourself the headache and use a personal email from the start!

One thing I want to emphasize that I learned the hard way - make sure to print or save a PDF copy of each completed FAFSA before you submit it! The system sometimes has glitches where submitted applications show incomplete status even when everything was filled out correctly. Having that backup documentation saved me when my daughter's application mysteriously showed missing parent signatures even though we both signed it. The financial aid office was able to verify everything was complete using my saved copy. With two kids going through this process, you'll definitely want that peace of mind!

Just wanted to chime in as another newcomer who found this thread incredibly valuable! I'm a parent getting ready to help my daughter with her first FAFSA application next year, and honestly, reading through all these technical issues was both terrifying and reassuring at the same time. Terrifying because wow, there are SO many things that can go wrong with the contributor system, but reassuring because this community clearly knows how to troubleshoot these problems step by step. I'm definitely saving all these solutions - the email matching tip, using the direct link from the invitation email, the browser suggestions, and especially the "remove and re-add contributor" fix. Thank you all for sharing your experiences and solutions! It's parents like you who make this overwhelming process feel more manageable.

As someone who's been lurking in this community for a while but just created an account, I had to jump in here because this thread perfectly captures everything I was worried about with the FAFSA process! My twin boys will be seniors next year and I've been dreading dealing with not one but TWO FAFSA applications. Reading about all these contributor dashboard issues has me wondering if I should just plan on doing separate FSA ID accounts for each kid or if that would make things even more complicated? Also, huge thanks to everyone who shared the troubleshooting steps - I'm screenshot-ing this entire conversation and putting it in my "FAFSA survival guide" folder. The tip about saving PDFs and keeping submission IDs is something I never would have thought of but seems absolutely critical given all the technical glitches people are experiencing. You all are lifesavers for sharing your hard-won wisdom!