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whatever u do DONT cosign private loans for ur kid!! my friends daughter dropped out and now shes stuck paying them all herself
This is an important point. With Parent PLUS, the parent is the only borrower - the student has no legal responsibility. With private loans, if you co-sign, both you AND your student are legally responsible. If you want your student to have some "skin in the game," consider having them take out the federal Direct loans in their name (which have lower interest rates than PLUS), and then you take the PLUS loans for the remainder.
Thanks everyone for the great advice! I think I'm leaning toward PLUS loans now, mainly for the federal protections and simplicity. The income-contingent repayment options make me feel better about my variable income. I'll probably apply this weekend. Has anyone had any issues with the credit check part of the PLUS application?
The PLUS loan credit check is much less stringent than private loans. They're only looking for major adverse credit events in the past 5 years: defaults, bankruptcies, foreclosures, tax liens, wage garnishments, or accounts over 90 days delinquent. They don't consider debt-to-income ratio or credit score numbers. If you don't have those major adverse events, you'll likely be approved without issue.
might sound dumb but did u check ur email? sometimes they send a special link to complete signatures that bypasses the regular login process. i ignored mine for like a week then finally found it lol
Not dumb at all! Checking email folders now... you never know! These days I'm willing to try absolutely anything to get this resolved.
UPDATE: We finally got it working!! It was actually a combination of things: 1) Having my parent use the "Fill out a parent form for a student who has already started a FAFSA form" option 2) Using incognito mode to prevent cookie issues 3) Making sure the email address matched exactly what was on the initial application. Thanks everyone for your help! The new FAFSA system is such a maze to navigate.
Glad you got it resolved! For anyone else reading this thread with similar issues, I recommend taking screenshots of each step of the FAFSA process in case you need to backtrack later. The new system sometimes loses information between sections.
Congrats! Now prepare yourself for the verification process - that's a whole new level of paperwork fun 🙃
One more thing to keep in mind - if you're eligible for renewal but choose to start a new application instead, the system will still recognize your FSA ID and may flag the application for additional review to verify why you're submitting a completely new form instead of renewing. This isn't always an issue, but it can add processing time in some cases.
has anyone had their application go from "processing" to "action required" after waiting for weeks? mine just did this and idk what to do
Yes! That happened to me too. You need to log in and check what information they're requesting. In my case, they needed verification of my parents' marital status because there was some discrepancy between their tax filing status and what we reported on the FAFSA. Once I uploaded the requested document, it went back to processing for another week before I got my SAI.
UPDATE: I finally got my SAI calculation today - exactly 24 days after submitting. For anyone else waiting, hang in there! And big thanks to everyone who responded with advice and shared their experiences. It really helped keep me sane during the wait! For those still waiting: 1. Double check that you don't have any "action required" notifications in your account 2. Contact your school's financial aid office about deadline extensions 3. Keep your confirmation number handy as proof you submitted on time Good luck everyone!
Congratulations! Thanks for updating the thread. This is helpful information for others in the same situation.
Cass Green
Update: I was able to add University of Tampa to my daughter's FAFSA! It was actually pretty simple. I logged in with my parent FSA ID, clicked on "Make FAFSA Corrections" and then went to the school selection page. Tampa's school code is 001538. The FAFSA is now reprocessing but should be sent to Tampa in 3-5 days according to the confirmation page. Also, I checked their financial aid website and they do require the CSS Profile for merit scholarships, but not for need-based aid. Now I just need to figure out if we need to submit that too since she has pretty good grades. Thanks everyone for your help!
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Finley Garrett
•That's great news! Glad to hear it worked out smoothly. For the CSS Profile, if your daughter's GPA and test scores are competitive for Tampa's merit scholarships, it's probably worth completing. Merit aid can significantly reduce costs at private universities, sometimes making them comparable to state schools. The CSS Profile is more detailed but not terribly difficult if you have all your financial information handy.
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Madison Tipne
good job mama!!! college stuff is so complicated these days, way harder than when we went to school lol. my son ended up at his 5th choice school and loves it, so sometimes things work out in unexpected ways!
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