did ur daughter give him permission to do it? cuz she woulda had to make the FSA ID and approve him as parent, right? or did he make it for her?

UPDATE: I called FSA this morning and finally got through after being on hold for almost an hour. The representative confirmed that since I'm the custodial parent responsible for education expenses, I should be the one completing the FAFSA. They've put a hold on processing the current application and will be sending me instructions for submitting the correct parent information through the correction process. They said it should take 2-3 weeks to process once I submit everything. Thank you all for your help and advice!

have u looked at ur sons SAI number on the FAFSA? that will tell u exactly what theyr expecting u to pay. might be scary but at least u know whats coming

one thing nobody mentioned - check if your state has a 529 plan with tax deductions. even if u start one NOW, u can get state tax benefits while saving for next year. we put in like $8k last year and our state gives tax deduction for it. every little bit helps

One other thing to check before going the paper route - make sure the AGI you're entering matches EXACTLY what's on the tax return line 11. Sometimes people mistakenly enter the taxable income line instead, or they round the number when it needs to be exact to the dollar. Also, if your parents filed separately, remember you need to combine both of their AGIs for FAFSA purposes.

Based on your latest comments, this sounds like a known issue in the current FAFSA processing system. When making corrections for the 2025-2026 cycle, if you modify ANY field, it sometimes triggers re-validation of previously accepted fields. The best solution is to call FSA directly and get them to note your account with an override authorization. Don't waste time with paper corrections - they'll likely run into the same validation issue when manually processing.

Don't overlook community college for the first two years!! My daughter did her gen eds at community college while living at home, then transferred to her dream school for junior/senior years. Saved us over $40,000 and she's graduating with the EXACT SAME DEGREE as her friends who went there all four years. The payment plan was actually manageable for community college because the base cost was so much lower.

After reviewing your situation more carefully, here's what I would recommend: 1. First, check if your school offers an extended payment plan option. Some schools have 5 or 6-month plans that can lower the monthly amount. 2. Consider the hybrid approach someone mentioned - perhaps $1,000/month on the payment plan and a smaller Parent PLUS loan for the remainder. 3. Make sure your daughter has maximized her Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized loan eligibility before you take on any Parent PLUS debt. 4. Remember that Parent PLUS interest begins accruing immediately after disbursement, not after graduation like some student loans. 5. If you do choose the Parent PLUS route, consider making interest-only payments while your daughter is in school to prevent the balance from growing. The most cost-effective approach is usually the payment plan, but it has to be realistically affordable for your monthly budget. No point in committing to payments you can't make.

After dealing with this same FAFSA contributor error for days, I finally got through to an actual FSA agent who fixed it in literally 2 minutes. I used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to connect with FSA without waiting on hold. They got me through to a rep who could see that my contributor link had a system flag on it. They manually reset it, sent a new invitation, and it worked immediately. Worth checking out their video demo: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ - saved me hours of frustration and my daughter almost missed her school's priority deadline because of this glitch.

Just a quick update for anyone finding this thread later: The Department of Education acknowledged this contributor link bug in their latest system update notes. They're supposedly rolling out a fix in the next 2 weeks. Until then, the workarounds mentioned here are your best bet - either having the student enter the information manually or trying to get an agent to reset your contributor access.