Just to follow up on my earlier comment - make sure when you contact your son's financial aid office that you specifically ask about an \

Thank you for the follow-up! I just spoke with my son, and we're going to his financial aid office first thing Monday morning with all his documentation about the retirement account. I'll specifically ask for an \

i'm a student who just went through this mess last year. don't forget to look for additional scholarships outside your school! i found about $2500 from local organizations and random places like my dad's credit union and my mom's professional association. even small scholarships add up.

Another important point: if your daughter's school has a financial aid priority deadline that's passed, make sure you contact them directly. Many schools are being flexible with their internal deadlines because of the FAFSA delays, but you need to be proactive in communicating with them. Don't just assume they'll automatically consider her for all available aid if the application comes in late due to FAFSA processing issues.

whats ur SAI number? if its right on the border for pell eligibility maybe different schools interpret it differently????

UPDATE: Finally got through to Monmouth's financial aid office! You all were right - it was an error on their part. They said with the new FAFSA system this year, some of the federal aid wasn't automatically populating in their award letters. They're sending me a revised package that includes the $740 Pell Grant. The Green Lawn Grant is staying too - it's their institutional aid. Thanks everyone for your help and encouragement to follow up on this!

Yes, schools are absolutely still reviewing special circumstances appeals! In fact, this is more important than ever given that the FAFSA is using older tax data (2022) that may not reflect current situations. Document your changed circumstances thoroughly (termination letter, unemployment benefits statement, etc.) and contact each school's financial aid office about their specific appeal process. Many schools have streamlined their appeals process this year knowing these issues would arise.

omg thank you so much!! ill tell my parents to start collecting all that paperwork now. this gives me hope!

Has anyone mentioned that they now want MUCH more investment information???? Like literally every single account. We had to report my husband's small employee stock purchase plan that we'd completely forgotten about and it delayed our whole application by THREE WEEKS because we had to get special valuation statements. They even wanted information about a tiny inheritance my husband received that was only $5,400! Ridiculous how they penalize families who save responsibly while giving massive aid to families who never bothered to save a cent for college.

Just went through this with my kid who's a freshman now. I recommend taking screenshots of EVERYTHING during the FAFSA submission process. Our confirmation page never arrived by email even though the system said it sent it. Also, make sure your daughter lists all potential schools on the FAFSA when she first submits it - adding schools later triggers additional verification steps sometimes. And weirdest thing - after submitting, login to the studentaid.gov account every few days to check status. They don't always send notifications when there are problems or if they need more info. We almost missed a verification request because the email went to spam.