When I was dealing with my son's verification last month I called the Federal Student Aid hotline and eventually got through to someone who told me the tax document requests are batched and sometimes go out after initial processing. She said as long as you used the IRS Data Retrieval Tool originally it should transfer automatically without you having to do anything. Took about 10 days for his verification to complete then everything was good. Super annoying but worked out fine in the end.

my brother works in financial aid at a university and he says this is happening to TONS of people this year. the new fafsa system is just a mess tbh

There's something called the "financial aid gap" that many families in your income bracket experience. With an SAI around 21500, you're in a challenging position - not demonstrating enough financial need for significant need-based aid, but still not able to comfortably afford full cost. A few technical points: 1. Your SAI of 21500 means the formula expects your family to contribute about that much per year toward educational costs 2. Pell Grant eligibility for 2025-2026 cuts off around an SAI of 19500, so you're just outside that range 3. Many state schools reserve their institutional grants for SAIs under 10000 4. Merit aid is separate from FAFSA and increasingly competitive I would recommend looking at schools known for generous merit aid, as they often use academic scholarships to attract students in your daughter's position. Also, consider if your financial situation has recently changed - job loss, medical expenses, etc. These can be grounds for a professional judgment review.

I went through this EXACT situation with my son last year. Here's the thing: what financial aid offices tell you over the phone in January/February is often their most conservative estimate. They don't want to promise aid they can't deliver. The actual award letters we received in March were MUCH better than what they initially told us. With your daughter's impressive stats, I'm surprised none of the schools mentioned merit scholarships. Those are often handled by admissions rather than financial aid. Have you checked with the admissions offices as well? Sometimes they have separate scholarship applications that aren't linked directly to FAFSA.

The whole student loan system is designed to confuse people and maximize profits. They WANT the interest to capitalize so they make more money off your kid. That's why they make it hard to figure out how to pay just the interest. The system is RIGGED against students!!!!

I want to thank everyone for their helpful advice! I called Great Lakes today and got it all figured out. They said I can make payments as a guest payer using my daughter's account number, and they added instructions on her account that additional payments should go to the unsubsidized loan interest first. The rep said this is actually pretty common and a smart strategy. Feeling much better about her loan situation now!

FOR THE RECORD: Yes, parents MUST complete their portion of the FAFSA for dependent students under the new system. Each contributor (parent) creates their own FSA ID and submits their section separately. The student portion alone is NOT a complete application for dependent students. This is a major change from previous years and causes a lot of confusion.

UPDATE: My brother finally got through to FSA! They confirmed he answered a dependency question wrong (he clicked yes on the "Are you a veteran?" question by mistake 🤦‍♂️). They're having him wait until the application fully processes (1-3 days) and then submit a correction to fix his dependency status. After that, our mom will get an email invitation to complete her portion. Thanks everyone for the help!

Gracias a todos por su ayuda! I just helped my husband create his own FSA ID with a different email address. We've linked it to the existing FAFSA application, and everything seems to be working now. Hopefully we won't have any more delays with the verification process!

Great! Just remember for next year's FAFSA that you'll now both need to remember your FSA ID login info. I recommend storing it in a password manager or writing it down somewhere safe. And start the application early - I learned that lesson the hard way!