My daughter just got back from studying in Florence last semester! One thing to keep in mind is that there are special study abroad scholarships that aren't part of FAFSA but can help with that extra cost. Have her check with: 1. The study abroad office at her school 2. The specific Rome program she's applying to 3. External scholarships like Gilman (if she receives Pell Grant) 4. Sometimes academic departments have travel grants My daughter got a $3,500 scholarship just for writing an essay about why she wanted to study in Italy. Definitely explore all options beyond just the regular financial aid.

so like when i went to spain for a semester my fafsa was the same but i had to do a bunch of extra paperwork with my school. but then i still had a gap of like $5000 that my regular aid didnt cover. ended up having to take an extra loan just for the study abroad. make sure ur daughter knows all the costs including spending money and weekend trips cause everyone does those and its not in the program price lol. i spent wayyyy more than i planned.

One more thing to consider - since your parents are divorced, FAFSA only requires information from the parent who provided more financial support during the past 12 months. So if your situation changes and you start living more with your other parent or they provide more support, you could switch which parent you use for FAFSA in future years. Also, if the parent completing your FAFSA remarries, you'll need to include your step-parent's information too, which could either help or hurt your aid eligibility depending on their financial situation. Document everything related to which parent provides support - this might be important if there's ever a question about which parent should be completing the FAFSA.

When I was in school I had a similar issue with divorced parents. Ended up having to take out more loans than I wanted, but I also applied for like 50 scholarships each year and that helped a lot. Don't forget to look for scholarships specifically for students from divorced families - they exist!

It's definitely overwhelming! We're hoping their SAI scores will qualify them for decent aid packages. We've also had them apply to schools with good merit scholarship options, and they're all applying for every external scholarship they can find. I wish the FAFSA had better accommodations for multiple children attending simultaneously.

UPDATE: I finally got through to FSA this morning! The agent confirmed there IS a system bug affecting applications with multiple students from the same household. They're unlocking the specific sections we need to fix and putting a note in our file about the system error. For anyone else experiencing this, they said to specifically mention \

Great to hear you got it resolved! For anyone else seeing strange dates in their loan portal, here's a quick checklist: 1. Always verify directly with your loan servicer by phone 2. Check if you've been automatically enrolled in any new repayment plans 3. Confirm if your loans are in administrative forbearance during system updates 4. Make sure your contact information is updated so you receive notifications 5. Consider setting up autopay once your actual repayment date is confirmed (often comes with a 0.25% interest rate reduction) The transition to the SAVE plan is creating a lot of temporary confusion, but most borrowers will benefit from the new terms once everything is implemented.

To answer your question about making voluntary payments during forbearance - it's generally a good financial move, especially if your son can afford it. During most administrative forbearances, interest isn't accruing, so any payments made go directly toward reducing the principal balance. This can save significant money in the long run since he'll have less principal to accrue interest once regular repayment begins. Just make sure he keeps documentation of all voluntary payments made. Sometimes these don't get properly recorded during administrative periods, so keeping your own records is essential. Also, he should specify with the servicer that he wants these payments applied to principal rather than just advancing future payment due dates.

Final update: It worked! I waited about 36 hours after updating my FSA ID, and then my son sent a new invitation using my maiden name. This time it went through without any error messages. I was able to complete my contributor section, and now his FAFSA shows

Awesome!! So glad it worked out! The 2025-2026 FAFSA has been such a headache with all these little technical issues.