One final note - make sure your son completes his contributor information promptly. All contributors must submit their information before the FAFSA can be processed. If he delays, it will hold up your daughter's entire financial aid package. The school's priority deadlines for financial aid are important - missing them can mean less aid for your daughter.

Just went through this exact situation last month! Had the same confusion with my 20-year-old who works but lives at home. Here's what I learned: if you're providing free housing, you're almost certainly providing more than 50% support even if he pays for other things. Housing costs are usually the biggest expense when you calculate fair market rent value. I ended up including my son (household size 4 in your case) and yes, he had to provide his tax info as a contributor. It was awkward but necessary. Don't risk verification by trying to exclude him if you truly provide majority support - the delays aren't worth it!

One additional consideration: the timing of asset reallocation matters. The 2025-2026 FAFSA (which would likely be when your student transfers to a university) will use your family's financial information from 2023 tax year. So any strategic financial moves should ideally be completed before the relevant tax year. Also, don't overlook merit aid opportunities. Many universities offer specific transfer student scholarships that are based on academic performance rather than financial need. By maintaining a high GPA at community college, your student could qualify for significant merit-based funds that aren't affected by your asset positioning. One final note: The Asset Protection Allowance has been dramatically reduced in recent years, so strategic asset positioning is more important than ever for middle-income families.

Great strategy! I'm in a similar boat with my son who's halfway through CC right now. One thing that's worked well for us is splitting our savings between maxing out my Roth IRA contributions and paying extra toward our mortgage principal. The Roth gives us flexibility since we can withdraw contributions penalty-free for education if needed, plus it doesn't count on FAFSA. Also wanted to mention - check if your state has any special college savings incentives beyond 529s. Some states have programs that offer tax benefits for certain types of education savings that might work better for your timeline. And definitely start researching transfer agreements between your local CC and target universities early - some have guaranteed admission programs if your daughter meets certain GPA requirements, which could save you stress later! The community college route is such a smart financial move. You're setting your daughter up for success without the crushing debt load.

This doesn't solve your immediate issue, but for anyone else reading this - if you have to make corrections to your FAFSA, make sure you're extremely careful. Many students are finding that correcting one thing is causing their entire application to get pushed to the back of the line for processing. Only make absolutely necessary corrections right now!

I'm so sorry you're going through this - it sounds absolutely exhausting! I'm a new member here but dealing with similar FAFSA nightmares. One thing that helped me was creating a detailed log of every call attempt (date, time, how long on hold, outcome) and sending that to both my school's financial aid office and my congressman's office. It shows the severity of the situation and some schools are being more flexible when they see documented proof of the system failures. Also, if your school has a student ombudsman or dean of students office, they might be able to advocate for you with enrollment services about the deposit deadline. Sometimes they have more pull than regular financial aid staff. Hang in there - this isn't your fault and you're definitely not alone in this mess!

That's a perfect checklist! One last tip: when the FAFSA first opens on December 1st, the system is usually overwhelmed. Unless you need to meet a December deadline for a specific scholarship, consider waiting a few days to apply. The system tends to run much smoother by December 5th or 6th, and you'll have a better experience. Early January is still considered "early" for most financial aid purposes.

As someone who just went through this process with my oldest, I can't stress enough how important it is to double-check your Social Security numbers! I made a typo in my daughter's SSN and it caused a 3-week delay while we sorted it out with the school's financial aid office. Also, if you have any 1099s from freelance work or side gigs, make sure you have those ready too - they're easy to forget but the FAFSA will ask about all income sources. One more thing: take screenshots of each page as you complete them, just in case the system glitches and you lose your progress. Good luck!

This is such helpful information! I'm in a similar situation with my first Parent Plus loan and was starting to panic. Question for everyone - once MOHELA (or whatever servicer) finally contacts you, do they give you flexibility on when payments start? My daughter's tuition is due again in January and I'm worried about having two big expenses hitting at the same time. Can you request to delay the first payment by a month or two to spread things out better?

I'm going through the exact same thing right now with my son's Parent Plus loan! It's been about 4 weeks since disbursement and I was getting really anxious about not hearing anything. This thread is so reassuring - sounds like the 6-8 week timeline is totally normal. I'm definitely going to check studentaid.gov tonight to see if a servicer has been assigned yet. Has anyone had experience with getting email notifications when your servicer info gets updated, or do you just have to keep checking manually?