@OP - University of Michigan typically has a very reliable financial aid process, but they're also known to run out of certain institutional grant funds later in the season. Definitely contact them ASAP and express your concerns. If you're an in-state student, their aid tends to be more generous than for out-of-state. One option some families use: commit with the deposit to secure the spot, but continue to work with financial aid and be prepared to withdraw if the package makes attendance impossible. Yes, you might lose the deposit, but it protects your son's spot while you wait for the official numbers.

@OP Most schools process aid packages as they receive FAFSA information and will notify you as soon as your package is determined. However, some schools do batch their notifications, especially for incoming freshmen. The best approach is to call Michigan's financial aid office directly and ask about their specific notification timeline. One more thing to consider: If your son's SAI (Student Aid Index, formerly EFC) is already available on studentaid.gov, you could share that number with Michigan's financial aid office. Sometimes they can provide a rough estimate based on that figure, even if they haven't processed your full package yet.

lol everyone talks bout the data retrevial tool but i couldn't get it to work AT ALL for my kids fafsa. ended up just typing everything manually. good luck with the twins!

After correcting the FAFSA for both twins, expect a 3-5 business day processing time for the changes to reflect in their SAI calculation. Once processed, their schools' financial aid offices will be notified automatically, but as someone mentioned, it's good practice to contact them directly. For your income level of $62k with accurate asset reporting, your twins should likely qualify for some Pell Grant money for the 2025-2026 academic year, especially after removing retirement accounts and home equity from your assets.

did u make sure u enterd all ur w-2 information correctly? my friends daughters application got rejected becuz they made a typo on the father w-2 box. double check all that stuff before your daughter submits!!!

Financial aid professional here. Just to clarify some confusion in this thread: 1. The SSA verification email confirms your identity was successfully matched with Social Security records. This is normal and good. 2. Parents/contributors do NOT need to enter bank account information in the FAFSA. The only financial information required is income/tax data and certain assets. Bank account information is only collected if the student chooses to receive federal aid via direct deposit, and that's entered by the student, not the parent. 3. As a contributor, you completed your section. Now your daughter needs to: - Review all information (including your contribution) - Complete any remaining sections - Submit the final application - Wait for her SAI (Student Aid Index) calculation 4. Parents cannot see the full FAFSA status in their own accounts - the student is the only one who can view the complete application status. 5. After submission, the processing time for receiving an SAI is typically 3-5 business days, though it can take longer during peak periods. Hope this helps clear things up!

Once you find out what the issue is, please come back and update us! It might help others who run into the same problem. The new FAFSA has so many quirks that we're all learning about in real-time.

my daughters school did this and turns out they just needed her to fill out an additional form for their specific financial aid program. had nothing to do with fafsa being wrong

That's great news! Most financial aid offices are well-prepared for these situations, especially since the maintenance affects students nationwide. Glad you got the extension you needed!

So glad it worked out! one less thing to stress about 😌