Also check if you accidentally entered income or assets in the wrong sections. My friend entered her parents' income as her own student income AND as parent income. Doubled everything and made their SAI crazy high!

After you review and correct any errors, remember to notify all the schools on your FAFSA list about the corrections. Sometimes they don't automatically get updated SAI information in a timely manner. A quick email to each financial aid office can ensure they're working with your current information.

happened 2 my nephew also. no email from fafsa but $$$ showed up at the school. weird system but it works i guess lol. congrats on the pell grant btw!!!

To answer your follow-up question - no, if the aid is already showing in her college portal, not having the SAR email shouldn't cause problems with receiving the aid. The school has clearly received all the necessary FAFSA information. However, it's still good practice to locate your SAR and check your SAI score. This helps you understand exactly why you qualified for the aid package you received. It's also useful documentation to have if you need to appeal for additional aid or if there are any questions later in the academic year.

One more tip about the parent FSA ID process: choose a memorable username that you'll remember year after year. Many parents forget their FSA ID details between annual applications, which causes massive headaches. I recommend storing your FSA ID username (not password) in a secure note on your phone or computer so you can easily access it next year.

to the person who asked about divorced parents - yes both parents need seperate FSA IDs if both are contributing. my ex and i both had to make accounts for our daughters application and we each got separate emails from her. its actually better this way because neither of us can see the others financial info

my cousins kid got more money when they had 2 in college then when it was just 1. something about the family contribution being split between them. but idk if thats still how it works with all the fafsa changes lately

Thank you all SO MUCH for the helpful advice! I'm definitely going to include both children on the FAFSA now. I had no idea that having multiple students could actually HELP with financial aid rather than hurt it. I feel much better about the whole situation. I'll make sure to update everything if my youngest decides not to attend college after all, but at least now I know I'm not risking my oldest's aid by including both. This community is amazing!

UPDATE: I finally got this resolved! I used that Claimyr service to get through to an actual person at FSA yesterday. The agent was able to verify my identity using my SSN and date of birth, then manually changed my email address in their system. I had to wait about 24 hours, but I now have access to my FSA ID again! My son and I finished his FAFSA application last night. Just wanted to update in case anyone else runs into this problem. The key is getting to an actual human who can help with account recovery.

That's great news! For anyone else dealing with similar issues, here's a quick summary of options for FSA ID email recovery: 1. Try the standard recovery options on studentaid.gov first 2. Call the dedicated FSA ID technical support line (not the general FAFSA helpline) 3. Use a call connection service if you keep getting disconnected 4. Ask your student's school counselor for assistance 5. As a last resort, create a new FSA ID (but be prepared for potential verification issues) And remember that with the 2025-2026 FAFSA, parents can now create separate contributor accounts rather than using their original FSA ID. This new system is specifically designed to address situations like this, though it's still having some growing pains.