The FAFSA system this year is COMPLETE GARBAGE. My daughter's application has been "under review" for TWO WEEKS after I corrected my signature issue. Meanwhile her priority scholarship deadline passed and they wouldn't extend it!!! $7000 down the drain because this stupid broken system can't process a signature in a reasonable timeframe. I've called FSA six times and get different answers every time. One agent told me there's a huge backlog, another said there was an "issue" but wouldn't tell me what it was, a third said everything looked fine and to just keep waiting. I HATE THIS SYSTEM.

Update: Just wanted to share that our application moved from "review" to "processed" this morning! It took exactly 3 business days after my dad's signature was added. My daughter was able to add all her schools. We also followed the advice to contact the financial aid offices at the schools with close deadlines, and they were very understanding. Both granted us extensions since we could prove we had submitted the FAFSA and were just waiting for processing. Thanks everyone for your help!

One additional consideration: if your student will be living on campus, the financial aid formula already factors in that they won't be living at home, which partially (though not completely) accounts for the reduction in household expenses. The real issue is that your household income has decreased while your expenses may not have decreased proportionally.\n\nWhen speaking with financial aid officers, emphasize how this unexpected income reduction affects your ability to pay the Expected Family Contribution. Most financial aid offices have discretionary funds specifically for situations like this, but they're limited, so being clear and specific about the financial impact helps your case.

That makes a lot of sense. I'll make sure to clearly explain how our household finances are affected overall, not just the dollar amount of the lost support. This thread has been so helpful - I feel much more prepared to advocate for my son now!

Submit a correction immediately. The sooner you fix errors, the less likely they'll cause issues with your financial aid packaging. Yes, corrections can sometimes trigger verification, but it's far better to trigger verification for a correction than to have incorrect information that's discovered later.\n\nSimply log back into studentaid.gov, select \

Thank you! Just submitted the correction. The difference is about $3,200 (reported $24,700 initially but my AGI was actually $21,500). Hopefully this won't delay my aid offer too much.

My twins are graduating in 2025 too. Their college counselor told us to attend a FAFSA workshop in September (school is hosting one) because the new version has so many changes. Maybe check if your daughter's school offers something similar? Also wondering about the 10 school limit - what happens if your kid is applying to more than 10 schools?

Thank you all SO much! This has been incredibly helpful. I'm going to check if my daughter's school offers a FAFSA workshop like someone mentioned. I'll definitely set up our FSA IDs this summer so we're prepared when the FAFSA opens in December. I'm relieved to know we can list schools before she applies - that was really confusing me. Sounds like the best approach is to get the FAFSA done early in December. Now I need to research which schools require the CSS Profile too!

Has anyone noticed that sometimes the system glitches when you're doing multiple student apps from the same parent account? I swear when I did my second child's FAFSA, some of the parent data randomly disappeared from my first child's application. We ended up having to correct her info after submitting the second kid's form. Just a warning to double-check BOTH applications after you're done!

Quick update on this topic: The Department of Education announced they're working on a "family transfer" feature for the 2026-2027 FAFSA that would allow parent information to be copied between siblings' applications. Unfortunately, that doesn't help for this application cycle, but it's coming in the future. In the meantime, I recommend having both your tax return and your first child's completed FAFSA in front of you while completing the second application. Being methodical about transferring the exact same information will help prevent any verification issues later.