engineer major = good choice!! my son did enginering and got a job paying 89k right after college and paid off his loans in 3 yrs. whatever u choose its prolly fine if shes in a field with good job prospecks

One more consideration: if your family might qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness in the future (requires working for government or non-profit), only the Parent PLUS loans would potentially qualify if consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan and repaid on an income-contingent repayment plan. While engineering isn't typically associated with PSLF, many engineers do work for government agencies (DOT, DOE, military, local governments, etc.) Also, the current administration has been exploring targeted loan forgiveness options. While nothing is guaranteed, federal loans have consistently had more relief options than private loans during economic hardships.

To clarify about California aid portability: Most Cal Grants are NOT portable to out-of-state institutions. However, there are some specific programs and scholarships from California that can be used at out-of-state schools. These are typically merit-based rather than need-based programs. The main benefit of independent status will be in the federal aid calculations (Pell Grant, subsidized loans) and potentially in institutional aid from LSU itself, which will now only consider the student's income and assets, not the parents'.

LSU does offer some scholarships specifically for transfer students, including their Tiger Transfer Scholarship that can provide up to $1,500 per year for qualified out-of-state transfer students. However, these typically have early deadlines and specific GPA requirements (usually 3.5+ for competitive consideration). Regarding your original summer FAFSA question, I'd recommend taking these steps: 1. Log into studentaid.gov and verify the summer school is on her school list 2. Check if the FAFSA shows "processed" rather than "processing" status 3. Contact the summer school's financial aid office directly (they can see if they've received the updated FAFSA) 4. If there's still an issue after 5 business days, consider contacting FSA directly For LSU financial aid questions, their Office of Enrollment Management is the best contact for comprehensive information about costs and potential aid as an out-of-state student with independent status.

this happened to me to lol. my fasfa was there but not there if that makes sense?? turns out i put the wrong school code on the 2023 one but the right code on the 2024 one. double check all ur school codes!!

Just wanted to follow up - did you manage to resolve this? The key thing to remember is that the school's financial aid office and studentaid.gov are looking at two different systems. What worked for us was getting the FSA to give us specific confirmation that the ISIR (Institutional Student Information Record) had been transmitted, not just that the FAFSA was processed. The confirmation numbers are what finally got the school to find the applications in their system.

my cousin works in financial aid and she says a lot of ppl get confused about this. parent plus is in parents name ONLY. private loans let cosigners get released sometimes. thats probly what that person at ur workshop was talkin about

One thing to consider with private loans: even though they advertise co-signer release, the requirements to actually qualify can be pretty strict. My daughter made 30 on-time payments with Sallie Mae, but she was denied co-signer release because her debt-to-income ratio wasn't strong enough yet as a recent graduate. Make sure to read all the fine print about what's required beyond just making the payments.

Something else to check - make sure the forms you received are actually federal verification forms and not the CSS Profile verification. Some private schools require both FAFSA and CSS Profile, and they each have their own verification processes. The paperwork looks similar but goes to completely different places.

In response to your question about expecting verification next year: Verification selection is partly random and partly based on certain triggers in your application. Having multiple students in college doesn't automatically trigger verification every year, but it does increase the chances. Some tips to reduce verification chances next year: 1. Use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool when filing FAFSA 2. Double-check all figures before submitting 3. File as early as possible 4. Avoid leaving optional fields blank 5. Be consistent with information across all applications However, even with perfect applications, about 30% get selected randomly each year, so there's always a chance you'll need to go through this again.