I'm new to this community but wanted to add my perspective as someone who just went through this exact situation. My husband filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in early 2023, and our daughter applied for college financial aid for fall 2024. I was terrified about how it would affect her chances. The reality was much better than I feared. Our FAFSA was actually processed smoothly, and because our 2022 tax return (used for 2024-2025 FAFSA) showed lower income due to the financial crisis that led to bankruptcy, our daughter qualified for significantly more aid than we initially expected. She received nearly the full Pell Grant plus substantial state grants. The only "extra" step was that two of the colleges she applied to requested verification documents, including our bankruptcy discharge papers. But the financial aid offices were completely professional about it - they explained it was routine for families reporting significant income changes. One thing that really helped was being upfront about our situation from the beginning. When we toured colleges, I asked financial aid counselors directly about how they handle families recovering from bankruptcy. Every single one assured us that it wouldn't hurt her eligibility and might actually help. Don't let fear of the unknown stop you from making the financial decision that's best for your family's stability. Your daughter's future will be brighter with a financially stable parent, and the aid system is actually designed to help families exactly like yours.

I'm new to this community but wanted to share some encouragement as someone currently going through bankruptcy proceedings with a college-bound daughter. Reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful and reassuring - thank you to everyone who shared their experiences! What strikes me most is how many people have said that bankruptcy actually HELPED their financial aid situation rather than hurt it. That's completely the opposite of what I was expecting when I started researching this. The explanation about FAFSA using tax year data makes so much sense - if your income drops due to the circumstances leading to bankruptcy, that lower income gets reflected in the aid calculations. I'm particularly grateful for the advice from the financial aid professionals in this thread about being proactive and honest, keeping documentation organized, and knowing about the professional judgment review process. It's clear that colleges deal with families in financial crisis regularly and have systems in place to help. One thing I'm taking away is that I should stop viewing this as something that might hurt my daughter's opportunities and start seeing it as potentially opening doors to aid we might not have qualified for otherwise. The focus should be on getting our family financially stable so we can actually support her through college. Has anyone here had experience with how bankruptcy affects parent PLUS loans specifically? I'm wondering if there are any restrictions there that might be different from student aid eligibility.

Just a heads up - make sure you complete everything well before your daughter's priority deadline. Even after fixing the technical issues, the processing times for SAI calculations are taking 7-10 days for many students this year, and she'll need that SAI score to complete her college financial aid applications. Don't cut it too close!

As a newcomer to this community, I'm so grateful to find this discussion! I'm currently dealing with a very similar issue where the FAFSA system keeps rejecting my tax information even though I've triple-checked everything against my 1040. Reading through all these solutions gives me hope that there's a way forward. The suggestion about using the specific workflow to add a spouse contributor seems particularly helpful - I had no idea there was a bug in the "Add Spouse" function. For anyone still struggling with technical issues, I've found that sometimes these government systems work better during off-peak hours (like early morning or late evening) when fewer people are accessing them. The servers seem less overwhelmed then. Also, if you're using any VPN or security software, try temporarily disabling it - I've seen that cause form submission problems on other federal websites. Thanks to everyone sharing their experiences and solutions here. It's reassuring to know we're all in this together navigating these FAFSA challenges!

As a newcomer to this community, I wanted to thank everyone for sharing such detailed and helpful experiences! Reading through this thread has been incredibly enlightening. I'm in a similar situation with my son who received a partial merit scholarship, and I was on the fence about completing the FAFSA due to all the technical issues this year. Seeing real examples like @QuantumQuester's daughter getting an additional $8k in grants on top of her merit award, and @Mei Chen's experience with subsidized loans, really drives home that these aid sources truly are separate pools. The insider perspective from @Andre Moreau about institutional policies and @Zoe Stavros's point about FAFSA potentially being required for merit renewal are exactly the kind of details you don't find in the official guidance. I'm definitely going to push through and complete our FAFSA now. Thanks for creating such a supportive space to navigate this confusing process!

As someone new to this financial aid journey, I just want to echo what others have said about the importance of completing the FAFSA even with merit scholarships! My daughter is a junior in high school with strong grades, so we're starting to research this process early. What really stands out to me from this discussion is how the merit and need-based aid systems work independently. The fact that @QuantumQuester's daughter received an additional $8k in grants on top of her merit scholarship is incredibly encouraging. And @Andre Moreau's insider perspective about different funding pools really helps explain why both types of aid can stack. I'm definitely bookmarking this thread for when we go through this process next year. The tip about contacting financial aid offices directly about deadlines and the reminder to list all schools on the FAFSA are exactly the kind of practical advice that makes this community so valuable. Thanks to @Yuki Kobayashi for asking this question - it's helped so many of us understand how this process really works!

FAFSA update: I finally got through to someone on the phone (after being disconnected 3 times). The agent confirmed what many of you said - it's a known system issue with their email notifications. My application is definitely complete and processed! She said they're aware of the problem and working on fixing it, but couldn't give me a timeline. Thanks everyone for your help and confirming I wasn't going crazy!

Just wanted to add my experience to help others - I got the same confusing email last week! Like everyone else, I had already completed my FAFSA in February and received my SAI. I was totally stressed until I read through all these comments. I checked my studentaid.gov account and everything showed "Processed" with my SAI displayed, so I followed the advice here and ignored the email. My daughter's college financial aid office also confirmed they have all our information and are processing her aid package. It's really frustrating that FAFSA can't get their notification system working properly - these emails are causing so much unnecessary panic for families during an already stressful time. But at least now I know it's a widespread glitch and not just me!

I'm in a similar boat with one kid potentially starting grad school and another still in undergrad! Reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful. One thing I'm still trying to wrap my head around is the timing - it seems like we're supposed to predict support for July 2025-June 2026, but most grad school decisions and funding packages don't come out until March/April 2025. Has anyone dealt with needing to file corrections after initially submitting? I'm wondering if it's better to be conservative initially (not count the grad student) and then correct later if needed, or if corrections create more headaches than they're worth. Also, for those who've been through verification for household size - what kind of documentation did they actually ask for?

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm in a very similar situation with twin kids - one finishing undergrad this spring who got accepted to a master's program, and the other who will be a junior next year. What's making this extra complicated for us is that the twins have always shared expenses (car insurance, family phone plan, etc.) so it's hard to separate out exactly what we're contributing to each one individually. Has anyone dealt with shared family expenses when calculating the 50% support test? Do you just split those costs evenly, or is there a more specific way the FAFSA expects you to handle it? Also, I'm wondering if anyone knows whether summer support counts toward the July 2025-June 2026 period? Our grad student will definitely need help with rent/expenses over summer 2025 before their program officially starts in the fall, but I'm not sure if that should be factored into our calculation. The documentation aspect that @Camila Castillo mentioned is really helpful to know about in advance - I'm going to start keeping better records now just in case!