One thing I always tell the first-gen families I work with: start a dedicated email folder to save ALL communications from the financial aid office. Also, take notes during every phone call with the date, time, and name of who you spoke with. The financial aid process often involves multiple follow-ups, and good documentation will save you headaches later. Also, does your daughter's high school have a college counselor? They often have experience helping families in similar situations and might have school-specific insights about the college she's considering.

Yeah and DONT FORGET to list the correct school codes on your FAFSA!!! This was our biggest mistake. You can list up to 10 schools, so make sure all the places your daughter applied are included. If you need to add more than 10, you can go back later and swap some out. Also, double-check if they need the CSS Profile!! Not all schools require it but if they do and you miss it, you might lose out on institutional aid. The CSS Profile costs money to submit though unlike FAFSA which is free.

The system is LITERALLY designed to make this difficult. They don't want to give out aid so they create these impossible bureaucratic mazes. I bet they processed the wrong application ON PURPOSE knowing most families will give up fighting it. All these "errors" just mean more money they don't have to pay out in grants!!!!!

UPDATE: I finally got through to FSA after using that Claimyr service someone recommended! The agent confirmed exactly what you all suspected - they processed the online application with the incorrect SSN and flagged my son as independent because my information wasn't linked correctly. The agent submitted an urgent correction to link our accounts properly and update his dependency status. They said it will take 3-5 days to process, and then both the school and state aid office will automatically receive the updated information. I've also emailed my son's financial aid officer with a summary of the call including the confirmation number the FSA agent gave me. Fingers crossed this gets resolved before tuition is due! Thank you all SO MUCH for your help. I was going in circles with the school and state aid office before posting here.

The transfer system is ANOTHER SCAM! My daughter lost a FULL SEMESTER when she transferred because the schools have these ridiculous arbitrary rules about which credits they'll accept. It's all designed to squeeze more money out of families!

That's awful! Did you try appealing? My son had to submit syllabi from two courses for review and eventually got them approved after initially being denied. But yeah, the system is definitely not designed to be student-friendly.

Just to clarify one more important point - you absolutely NEED your own FSA ID as a parent contributor. The FSA ID you created is correct and necessary. You'll use it to electronically sign the FAFSA after completing your section. Just make sure the email associated with your FSA ID matches the email your daughter entered when adding you as a contributor.

UPDATE: I finally got the contributor email! It actually came through this morning. My daughter had to go back into her FAFSA and re-send the invitation. Make sure she clicks on the "Contributor" section in her FAFSA and checks that your status is "Invited" and not something else. The parent section wasn't too bad - took me about 30 minutes to complete once I had all our tax info ready.

Update: Just got off the phone with the financial aid office at my son's college. They were actually super helpful (which surprised me after all the FAFSA frustration). They explained that we can submit an appeal for our SAI score because of my husband's one-time bonus situation. They're sending us the forms today. The counselor also mentioned that LOTS of families are appealing this year because of the FAFSA delays and calculation changes. So if anyone else thinks their SAI doesn't accurately reflect their situation, definitely reach out to your schools!

my daughters fafsa was submitted same week as yours and we just got her award yesterday too!! such a relief but now im panicking about the may 1 deadline since we have to compare offers from 3 schools lol why do they make this process so stressful every single year??