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One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet - Parent PLUS loans can be eligible for Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) if you consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan. This can make monthly payments more manageable if you're struggling. Not a reason to take the loan necessarily, but good to know the option exists.
Update: I called my daughter's school and asked about payment plans. They offer a 10-month interest-free plan that would make our payments around $850/month. That's actually doable for us! So much better than taking on more debt. Thank you all for pointing me in the right direction!
this is y the whole system sucks!! why make it so complicated with so many deadlines?? my brother missed deadlines too and ended up having to take a gap year bc he couldnt afford school. the whole financial aid system is designed to trip people up i swear
Update: I wanted to thank everyone for their advice! We submitted the FAFSA today and I've scheduled a call with the financial aid office tomorrow morning. I also found out his school has a special consideration form for late applicants that we're filling out tonight. There's still hope! I'll let you know how it goes after we talk to the school.
Great news! The special consideration form is exactly what you need in this situation. Be completely honest about why you missed the deadline, and focus on your willingness to complete everything now. Most schools want to help students attend - they just have processes that need to be followed, even if late.
UPDATE: Just spoke to someone at FSA (finally!) who confirmed they ARE processing in order of submission date. They said applications from mid-January are being processed this week. She also mentioned that verification requests are causing additional delays for some applications, so if yours gets selected for verification, it might take longer.
UPDATE: For those still struggling with this issue, I found another workaround. If you can't add schools after signing, try this: 1. Log in with the PARENT'S FSA ID (not the student's) 2. Go to the "FAFSA Status" section 3. Select the student's application 4. Click "Make Correction" 5. Navigate directly to the School Selection page 6. Add schools there 7. Re-submit with electronic signatures This worked for us when nothing else would. It seems there's a bug specifically in the student view of the application but not in the parent correction pathway. Hope this helps someone!
For anyone still having issues, I want to clarify an important point: if you're working on the 2025-2026 FAFSA and experiencing the school selection bug, this is happening because the new SAI formula implementation is still being optimized. The best approach is: 1. Document the error with screenshots 2. Email the financial aid offices at your target schools explaining the technical issue 3. Most schools are well aware of these problems and have provisional processes in place And remember, even if you do get the application submitted with schools listed, your SAI calculation may still be delayed due to processing backlogs. The good news is most schools have adjusted their internal deadlines to accommodate these widespread system issues.
Liam Sullivan
my sister had this issue and it turned out she didn't complete the "additional financial information" section even though it didn't show as incomplete anywhere. check that section maybe? also does your SAI calculation show up anywhere? if not something is definitely still incomplete
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Zoe Stavros
glad u got it fixed!!! this happened to my cousin too last month. the whole system is a mess since they did that "simplification" update lol. made everything worse!
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