Update: We got it all figured out! The parent invite finally came through (was in my Promotions tab in Gmail, not spam). My son signed his part first as suggested, I completed the parent section last night, and we submitted the whole application. Thanks everyone for your help! We received the confirmation email this morning, so now we're just waiting for the SAI calculation. This community has been so helpful for navigating our first FAFSA experience!

Congratulations on getting through the process successfully! It's so relieving when everything finally comes together. For other parents reading this thread who might be in a similar situation - the Gmail Promotions tab is definitely a common place for the parent invite to land, so that's a great tip to share. Also wanted to mention that once you get your SAI, it's worth comparing it to any early estimates you might have gotten from college net price calculators. Sometimes there can be discrepancies that are worth investigating, especially if your family financial situation changed between when you did those estimates and when you filed the actual FAFSA. Best of luck with the rest of the financial aid process!

one thing no one mentioned yet is to check each schools financial aid portal too, not just waiting for them to email. sometimse they post the aid package on the portal before sending the official email. my son almost missed a scholarship deadline because we were waiting for an email but the info was already in his school account for like 2 weeks! 😬

Great advice from everyone here! As a newcomer to this process myself, I wanted to add that it's also worth bookmarking each school's financial aid webpage and checking for any FAFSA processing updates they might post. Some schools are being really transparent about their timeline delays this year and posting estimated dates for when aid packages will be ready. Also, if your son is considering any schools that require CSS Profile or additional institutional forms beyond FAFSA, make sure those are submitted too - some schools won't release aid packages until they have ALL required documents. The waiting is definitely nerve-wracking but sounds like it's normal!

FAFSA is COMPLETE GARBAGE this year. My son's application has been "processing" for 5 WEEKS with NO SAI score yet. We called 16 TIMES and got disconnected EVERY TIME. The one time we got through, they said there's a "system-wide issue with signatures" affecting THOUSANDS of applications. They're supposedly fixing it but WHO KNOWS when. My son might lose his scholarship because of their incompetence. I'm LIVID.

Just checking in - did you manage to resolve this issue? If it's been 72 hours, you should definitely see something in one of your accounts by now. If not, there are still options to fix it before deadlines.

the whole FAFSA system is designed to CONFUSE us normal people so we give up and just take private loans with higher interest its all a SCAM

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses! I successfully completed both the credit check AND the MPN using my FSA ID. My daughter also completed her own MPN for her Direct loans. The financial aid office confirmed everything is now in order, and we should see the aid disbursed when classes start next month. What a relief!

my sister had almost the same SAI last year an she got like $1200 in pell. her school also gave her some grant money that covered almost half of tuition so def wait for the full packages before worrying too much

As a newcomer to this process, I'm finding this thread incredibly helpful! My daughter is in a similar situation with her SAI, and I had no idea there were so many different types of aid beyond just the Pell Grant. Reading about the MAP grant for Illinois residents and how different schools might offer varying amounts of institutional aid is really eye-opening. It sounds like the key takeaway is to wait for all the financial aid packages before making any decisions, since the final cost can vary so much between schools. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - it's making this whole process feel less overwhelming!