One strategy that hasn't been mentioned: your daughter could attend the school offering the scholarship for 1-2 years, then transfer to her preferred school for the remainder of her program. She'd need to be careful about credit transfers, but this could significantly reduce the overall cost while still giving her the preferred degree. Many students take this approach, particularly with prerequisite and general education courses. This might be a good compromise that acknowledges her preferences while being financially responsible.

As a parent who went through this exact situation 5 years ago, I feel for you so much. My daughter was torn between her dream school (no aid) and a state school with a full ride. We spent weeks going back and forth. Here's what helped us decide: I made her calculate the actual monthly loan payments she'd have after graduation - not just the total amount, but the real monthly impact on her budget for 10+ years. When she saw that $800+ monthly payment would mean she couldn't afford her own apartment or save for anything else, it became real. She chose the scholarship school and honestly? She LOVES it there. The "better program" at her dream school wouldn't have been worth the financial stress. Sometimes the practical choice turns out to be the best choice. Trust your instincts - you're not crushing her dreams, you're protecting her future.

Update: I called my top choice school today and they confirmed my negative SAI means I'll qualify for their need-based grants in addition to the Pell Grant! They said I should receive my complete aid package within 3 weeks. Thanks everyone for helping explain this - honestly was so confused and worried at first but now I'm actually excited to see my awards!

Congratulations on your negative SAI! As others have mentioned, this is excellent news for your financial aid eligibility. One thing I'd add is to make sure you submit your FAFSA to all the schools you're considering as soon as possible if you haven't already. Even with a great SAI like yours, some schools distribute aid on a first-come, first-served basis for their institutional grants. Also, keep an eye out for any scholarship opportunities at your schools - with your financial need profile, you might be eligible for additional merit-based aid that considers need as a factor. Best of luck with your aid packages!

I'm a financial aid counselor and I see this exact scenario SO often after divorces! The retirement account mistake is definitely the most common culprit - that $42k 401k being counted as an investment would absolutely cause your SAI to skyrocket like that. One additional thing to check that I haven't seen mentioned yet: make sure you're using the correct tax filing status. After divorce, you should likely be filing as "Head of Household" rather than "Single" if your daughter is your dependent. This can make a significant difference in the SAI calculation. Also, when you make your correction, be patient with the processing time - it can take 3-5 business days for the new SAI to be calculated and appear in your account. Don't panic if it doesn't update immediately! You're definitely on the right track now with everyone's help. The fact that your SAI was reasonable last year tells me your financial situation hasn't dramatically changed, so this is almost certainly a data entry error that can be fixed.

I went through this exact same nightmare two years ago! My SAI jumped from around 2,000 to over 80,000 after my divorce, and I was absolutely panicking. Just like everyone else has mentioned, it was the retirement accounts that got me - I had included my 401k and Roth IRA values in the investment section when they should have been completely excluded. A few additional tips from my experience: - When you submit your correction, print out a copy for your records before hitting submit - If you have any 529 college savings accounts, those DO count as parent assets (learned that the hard way) - Make sure your bank account balances are accurate as of the day you're filing, not some random date It took about a week for my corrected SAI to process, but it went back down to a reasonable number. The whole experience taught me to be extra careful with every single field on that form. You've got this - sounds like you've identified the main issues and have a solid plan to fix them!

That's such great news! I'm so glad you got it resolved. Your update gives me hope for my own similar situation. I've been dealing with a "parent tax information incomplete" error for weeks even though FSA shows everything as processed correctly. I'm definitely going to follow your approach - get my SAR report and schedule an in-person meeting with a senior counselor instead of just calling the general number. Thanks for taking the time to update us on what worked!

This is such a frustrating but unfortunately common issue with the new FAFSA system! I'm a financial aid advisor and I see this "parent critical data" error probably 2-3 times a week. The problem is usually that the school's financial aid software is interpreting certain parent data fields differently than the federal system. A few additional tips that might help others facing this: - If you can't get an in-person meeting right away, ask your school to email you a screenshot of exactly what error message they're seeing in their system. Sometimes this helps FSA agents understand the disconnect better. - Keep detailed records of every conversation - dates, names, what was said. This documentation becomes crucial if you need to escalate. - If your school has a financial aid appeals committee, you can formally request a manual review of your case. They have the authority to override system errors when there's clear documentation that your FAFSA is complete. - As a last resort, contact your congressional representative's office. They have staff specifically trained to help constituents with federal agency issues like this. The good news is that these issues almost always get resolved eventually, but I know that doesn't help when you're panicking about tuition deadlines. Stay persistent and don't let either side brush you off!

This is exactly why I always recommend having your tax documents ready as a backup! I went through something similar last year - the IRS DRT kept timing out during peak application season. What saved me was having all my W-2s and 1040 forms organized beforehand. Even though manual entry takes longer, at least you're not at the mercy of system glitches. For anyone still dealing with this issue, don't wait too long before switching to manual entry, especially with school deadlines approaching. Better to have an accurately completed FAFSA than to miss your priority deadline waiting for the DRT to work!

I'm so glad I found this thread! I've been having the exact same IRS Data Retrieval Tool issue for the past 5 days and was starting to panic about missing my school's deadline. Reading through everyone's experiences here has been really helpful - it sounds like this is a widespread problem with the new FAFSA system this year. I'm going to try the suggestion about double-checking that my name matches exactly between my FSA ID and tax return, and if that doesn't work, I'll probably go with manual entry since so many of you had success with that approach. Thanks for sharing your solutions and making me feel less alone in this frustrating process!