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Anyone else finding the whole parent vs contributor thing confusing in the new FAFSA? Like I'm divorced and my ex has to fill out stuff too but he's not really a "contributor" financially if you know what I mean lol
Great question about the contributor situation! For divorced parents, the FAFSA now requires information from the parent who provides the most financial support to the student, regardless of who the student lives with. The other parent is not required to provide information unless they're still married to the providing parent. This is different from the CSS Profile (used by some private schools), which often requires information from both biological parents regardless of marital status.
Thank you all SO MUCH for the helpful advice! I've created our FSA IDs (still waiting on the verification email for my son's account), downloaded the worksheet PDF, and started gathering our 2023 tax documents. I feel much more prepared now. I'll definitely be trying to submit early on December 1st, but it's good to know about that Claimyr service if we run into technical issues. And I appreciate the clarification about the contributor vs parent situation - that could have been confusing! One last question - does anyone know if scholarships my son already won (a $5,000 merit scholarship from his top choice school) need to be reported on the FAFSA?
The merit scholarship from the school doesn't need to be reported on your FAFSA. The school already knows about it since they awarded it, and they'll factor it into your overall financial aid package. You only need to report external scholarships (like from community organizations, private companies, etc.) to the school directly, not on the FAFSA. Congratulations to your son on earning that scholarship!
my parents wouldnt give me their tax info for fafsa and i couldnt get financial aid. sucked big time. dont be that parent.
something nobody mentioned - the new FAFSA for 2025-2026 is way different from previous years. they changed a lot of stuff and now use something called the SAI instead of EFC. plus there's different rules about which parents need to provide info depending on if they're married or divorced. maybe double check the new requirements?
Good point about the changes! The 2025-2026 FAFSA uses the Student Aid Index (SAI) instead of the old EFC. However, the basic rule about married parents filing jointly hasn't changed - if you're married to a student's legal parent and file taxes jointly, your income is included in the calculation. The process for protecting privacy is still the same too - parents create their own FSA ID and handle entering their financial information.
Just wanted to update - I checked back and saw your responses. If you haven't tried Claimyr yet, I really suggest giving it a shot. The regular FSA phone lines are completely overwhelmed this year with all the FAFSA changes. When I finally got through, the agent told me they were handling 3x the normal call volume. Also, sometimes the SAI will suddenly appear without explanation after 6-8 weeks. The system seems to run batch processes that eventually catch stuck applications. But with your daughter's financial aid deadlines coming up in just 3 weeks, you probably don't have time to wait for that.
Thanks for checking back. We've tried everything suggested here with no luck. I think I'm going to try that Claimyr service tomorrow. At this point, I'll try anything because we're running out of time before her deadlines. I'll update here if we get it resolved!
I had a similar situation last month and what fixed it for me was contacting my daughter's college financial aid office directly. They were able to submit some kind of override request to FSA that unstuck the application. Worth trying alongside the other suggestions here.
Hi there! I work in a college financial aid office, and I can tell you we're seeing this exact issue quite frequently. The email system sending incorrect year references is a known bug. What matters most is what's in the actual FAFSA processing system. The best verification is to check your Student Aid Report (SAR) when it becomes available. That will explicitly state which award year it applies to. Also, if your dashboard shows the 2024/25 application as submitted/processing with both signatures, that's definitive confirmation that the correct application year is in process regardless of email glitches.
The SAR should be available within 3-7 days after submission in normal circumstances. However, with the current processing delays in the new system, we're seeing it take 7-14 days for some students. You'll receive another email when the SAR is ready (hopefully with the correct year this time!). You can then view it by logging into studentaid.gov and going to "My Documents." One important thing to note: make sure your daughter checks both her email AND her spam/junk folders for communications from Federal Student Aid. We've seen many important emails getting filtered there.
PixelPioneer
my sister got a nursing scholarship from our local hospital foundation mid-year when she was struggling her sophomore year too. she had to write an essay and get a letter from one of her clinical instructors. maybe check if hospitals in your area have something similar?
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Dylan Cooper
•I hadn't thought about local hospital foundations! There are three major hospital systems in our city, so I'll definitely have her look into this. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Sofia Perez
also forgot to mention check with your employer!! my company offers dependent scholarships even for part time workers. its not huge (like $2500/yr) but everything helps!!! and my husband's union has scholarships for kids of members
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Dylan Cooper
•My company doesn't offer this benefit (I've checked), but my husband works for a large manufacturing company that might. I'll have him check with HR tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder!
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