UPDATE: We figured it out! My daughter logged into studentaid.gov and found her SAI score right on her dashboard under 'Your FAFSA Status.' We also confirmed which schools received her information. Turns out she was confused about the difference between the FAFSA results and actual financial aid award letters from schools (which will come separately). For anyone else with this issue - definitely have your student check their actual account rather than waiting for emails. Thanks everyone for your help!

So glad to see this got resolved! This is exactly the kind of confusion I've been seeing with families this year. The new FAFSA system really doesn't do a great job of explaining the difference between getting your SAI processed vs. receiving actual financial aid awards from schools. For future reference for anyone reading this - once you have your SAI, you can also use the Federal Student Aid estimator tools to get a rough idea of what types of aid you might qualify for while you're waiting for official award letters from colleges. The timing this year has been particularly challenging with all the FAFSA delays, so don't panic if things seem to be taking longer than expected!

I'm so sorry you're going through this nightmare. Reading through all these responses, it's clear you're not alone but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. Based on what everyone has shared, I'd suggest tackling this on multiple fronts simultaneously: 1) Use that Claimyr service to actually get through to Mohela, 2) File complaints with both the FSA Ombudsman and CFPB about the interest rate issue, and 3) Contact your congressional representative's office for help navigating the bureaucracy. The fact that your loan doubled despite 12 years of payments is absolutely unacceptable and suggests serious errors in how your account has been managed. Don't give up - you have more options than you realize, and there are people (like the financial aid advisors in this thread) who genuinely want to help you get this resolved.

I've been following this thread closely and wanted to add one more resource that might help. If you're still having trouble getting through to Mohela even with the queue services, try calling their "vulnerable borrower" line if you qualify (it's for borrowers experiencing financial hardship). The wait times are often shorter and the representatives tend to be more experienced with complex account issues. Also, when you do get through, immediately ask to speak with a "loan resolution specialist" rather than general customer service - they have more authority to investigate payment application errors and can put holds on your account while issues are being resolved. Document everything with dates, times, and rep names. Your situation sounds like it involves multiple systemic errors that should absolutely be fixable once you get the right person looking at your account.

im so confused about all this FAFSA stuff... so are they changing the rules for next year or for this year or both?? and whats the difference between EFC and SAI anyway?? sorry if thats a dumb question lol

This has been happening to me too! I've gotten 4 of these emails in the past few days and was starting to panic thinking something was wrong with my financial aid. Thank you everyone for the explanations - it's so reassuring to know this is just a system-wide issue and not something I need to worry about. I did check my SAR like others suggested and nothing changed, so I'm going to stop stressing about it. Really wish the Department of Education would just send out a mass email explaining what's happening instead of leaving thousands of students confused and worried!

Update: We found the problem! My daughter went back through the application and discovered she accidentally marked 'yes' to the question about being in legal guardianship. She was confused by the wording. We've submitted the correction and now I can see the parent portion is available for me to complete. Thank you everyone for your help!

Glad you were able to resolve this! This is such a common issue - the FAFSA dependency questions really need clearer wording. For anyone else reading this thread who might face similar issues, it's worth double-checking all the dependency questions before submitting. Even one misclick can completely change your aid eligibility. The legal guardianship question in particular seems to trip up a lot of students. Best of luck with the rest of your financial aid process!

UPDATE: Problem solved! Dad checked and he had accidentally started the process from his 2024-2025 dashboard. He sent a new invitation from the correct 2025-2026 application, and now I can see and access the right form. Thanks everyone for your help!

So glad to see this got resolved! This seems to be a really common issue this year. For anyone else running into this problem, the key takeaway is to make sure the parent starts from the correct year's application when sending the invitation. The FAFSA system doesn't seem to give clear error messages when there's a year mismatch, so it's easy to get stuck in the wrong application cycle. Definitely worth double-checking before spending hours troubleshooting!