That's good progress! The payment plan is a smart backup. One additional suggestion - make sure to check if your school has emergency grants available. Many institutions have funds specifically for situations like yours where there's a gap between expected aid and current charges. These grants often don't need to be repaid and can help bridge the timing gap while your reevaluation is being processed. Also, verify that your reevaluation will actually make a significant difference in your SAI score. With the new FAFSA formula for 2025-2026, income changes affect your aid differently than in previous years. The financial aid office should be able to give you an estimate of how your revised SAI might impact your total aid package.

When my cousin had this happen, his mom went to the Dean of Students office and explained the situation. Apparently they have some power to intervene in these cases and can put a hold on the administrative drop while things get sorted out. Might be worth trying that angle too.

one more thing!!!! make sure you check your junk mail folders for emails from the schools!!! my daughters college actually DID get her fafsa but the email telling us they got it went to spam lol 🤦‍♀️

I'd love to know what ends up working for you. This seems to be a widespread issue this year with the new FAFSA system rollout. Please update us when you get it resolved!

UPDATE: We logged in last night and found the signature page. You were right @profile2 - it was because we made that correction to the W-2 info. We both signed again and got confirmation numbers. I also called my daughter's school this morning to let them know we fixed the signature issue. They said they'd make a note in her file and that her financial aid package should be processed within 7-10 days once they receive the completed FAFSA. Thanks everyone for your help!

Excellent! That timeline sounds accurate. The school can't finalize her financial aid package until they receive her SAI from the Department of Education, but having that note in her file helps. If you don't see any updates in your studentaid.gov account within 5 business days, I'd recommend checking back in with them.

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions! I'm going to try negotiating with the financial aid office and will check out those resources for finding schools with better aid policies. My son and I are sitting down this weekend to look at all his options, including potentially starting at community college. It's frustrating that the system is so complicated, but at least I feel like we have some paths forward now.

The student loan forgiveness you're seeing is ONE TIME relief for people who've been paying for DECADES on predatory loans with interest rates that meant they owed MORE than they borrowed even after years of payments. It's not like people are just getting free money while your son gets nothing. But yeah, the FAFSA this year is a DISASTER. My daughter's application has been "processing" for over 2 months with no explanation. The schools can't package aid without the FAFSA data and the May 1 deposit deadline is coming up fast. HOW are families supposed to make decisions with no financial information??? The whole system needs to be rebuilt from scratch. Until then, we're all just trying to navigate a broken system the best we can.

To answer your follow-up question - yes, her aid was delayed by about 3 weeks while verification was processed. But because we submitted everything quickly, it was still processed before the tuition due date. The financial aid office gave her a temporary hold on the account so she didn't have to pay out of pocket while waiting. Definitely talk to your school's financial aid office about your situation - they can often put notes in your file and help if there are delays.

wait, i just realized something important - make sure your mom's name is EXACTLY the same on everything. my mom's middle name was spelled differently on her SSN card vs green card and that caused so many problems!!