Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm going to contact each school's financial aid office this week. I'll be honest about both the job loss and settlement, but will specifically ask if they can consider prorating the settlement over multiple years since it's meant to help until I find new employment. I appreciate all the insights!

As someone who went through a similar situation last year, I can't stress enough how important it is to be completely transparent with the financial aid offices. I initially hesitated to report my severance package after a job loss, but I'm so glad I did. While it did impact our aid calculation initially, the financial aid counselor at my daughter's school was incredibly helpful and worked with us to spread the severance over two years instead of counting it all as income for one year. This made a huge difference in our aid package. The key is to contact each school individually since they all have different policies for professional judgment reviews. Also, make sure to emphasize that the settlement is meant to bridge you until you find new employment - this context really matters to aid officers. Wishing you the best with your son's college journey!

Good news! Since you already accepted the loans in your school portal, you're definitely on the right track. At this point, it's really just a waiting game for the school to finish processing. Most schools disburse funds right around the first day of classes (sometimes 1-3 days before). If your tuition payment deadline is before your disbursement date, you might want to ask your school's billing office about a temporary deferment based on your pending financial aid.

Just wanted to add one more tip that helped me - if you're still worried about timing, you can also check your loan history on studentaid.gov to see the status of your loans. Once your school certifies them, they'll show up there with disbursement dates. It's another way to track progress besides just checking your school portal. Also, if you do end up with any leftover loan money after tuition/fees are paid, make sure you understand your school's refund timeline - some schools take a few days to process refunds even after disbursement. Sounds like you're doing everything right though!

thx everyone this thread was super helpful! gonna fix my fafsa 2nite

As someone who just went through this nightmare with my own kids, I can confirm what others have said - assets are CURRENT values as of when you submit the FAFSA, while income uses 2022 tax data. It's counterintuitive but that's how the formula works. One tip that helped me: take screenshots of your bank/investment account balances on the day you submit, because if you need to provide verification later, schools sometimes ask for proof of the asset values you reported. Also, don't stress too much about minor day-to-day fluctuations in investment accounts - they understand market values change daily. The key is being consistent and honest about what you have RIGHT NOW. Good luck!

Regarding your son's savings - student assets are assessed at 20% on the FAFSA, while parent assets are assessed at a maximum of 5.64%. However, $3,000 isn't going to make a dramatic difference in his overall aid eligibility. And there's a protection allowance for student assets now, so some of that may not even be counted. The most important thing is not to let perfect be the enemy of good. Complete the FAFSA, apply to a range of schools, and see what offers come in. You might be pleasantly surprised!

As someone who just went through this process with my daughter last year, I want to echo what others have said - definitely complete the FAFSA! Our situation was eerily similar to yours. My husband (stepdad) makes around $140k but works crazy hours in construction, and my daughter's bio dad has been MIA for years. Here's what we learned: Even though we didn't qualify for Pell grants, my daughter still got about $8,000 in combined federal and state aid, plus she was eligible for subsidized loans at better rates than private loans. More importantly, two of the schools she applied to gave her merit scholarships that required FAFSA completion - we would have missed out on $12,000 just because we didn't file! The process itself was way easier than I expected. Took maybe 90 minutes total using the IRS data retrieval tool. And honestly, even if you get zero aid, you'll have peace of mind knowing you tried everything possible. The "what if" would have eaten me alive if we hadn't applied. One last thing - make sure to apply for scholarships through the schools directly too. Many of them stack with whatever aid you might get from FAFSA. Good luck!

I'm new to this whole FAFSA process and honestly finding it pretty overwhelming! Reading through everyone's experiences here is both reassuring and terrifying at the same time. It sounds like these SAI changes during processing are more common than I thought. For those of you who've been through this before - is there anything you wish you had known going into your first FAFSA submission? I'm planning to submit mine soon and want to avoid any surprises if possible. Should I just expect my preliminary SAI to change, or are there ways to get a more accurate estimate upfront? Also, @Sayid Hassan - thanks for sharing your professional insight throughout this thread! It's really helpful to get perspective from someone who works in financial aid.

As someone who just went through this exact situation last year, I can totally relate to that initial panic! My SAI jumped by about 180 points between submission and final processing, and I was convinced I'd made some major error. What I learned from my financial aid counselor is that the Department of Education uses different calculation engines for the preliminary vs. final SAI. The preliminary one is designed to give you a "ballpark" estimate quickly, while the final processing runs through all the detailed federal methodology formulas. One thing that really helped me was using the Federal Student Aid Estimator tool (studentaid.gov/aid-estimator) before submitting my FAFSA. It's not perfect, but it tends to be closer to the final SAI than the preliminary one you see during submission. Might be worth checking that out for future years! The silver lining is that once you understand this is just how the system works, it's way less stressful. Your SAI is still well within Pell Grant range, so you should be good to go for aid. Just one of those FAFSA quirks we all have to deal with unfortunately!