To address your follow-up question about documents for a special circumstances appeal, here's what you should gather: 1. Personal statement detailing your situation (be specific about financial separation while legally married) 2. Documentation showing you pay household expenses (mortgage/rent, utilities, insurance) 3. Documentation showing you'll be solely responsible for education costs 4. Tax returns with a statement explaining why the joint return doesn't reflect your actual situation 5. Budget worksheet showing your income and expenses separately 6. If applicable, any documentation regarding why your spouse cannot contribute (medical issues, etc.) Regarding Work-Study: Even if it wasn't initially offered, during your appeal process you can request to be considered for it. Many schools have additional work-study funds they can allocate during appeals. One last suggestion - see if your son's school offers any tuition installment plans. These don't reduce the cost, but they break payments into smaller monthly amounts that might be more manageable than lump-sum semester payments.

btw my neighbor's kid got like 5k more in aid after appealing so it def works sometimes! also dont forget to fill out FAFSA again next january, sometimes sophomore yr they give more aid (happened for my daughter).

Has anyone actually received their aid package yet? We submitted in January, got our SAI score three weeks ago, but still no actual aid package from any of the schools. My son's decision deadline is May 1st and we're completely in the dark!

i feel u my scholarship got messed up cuz of fafsa too. ended up having to go to state school instead of private school i wanted. this whole system is trash

WHY are parents like this?!?! My dad was the same way. FAFSA deadline was LITERALLY the next day and he still hadn't done his part. I had to threaten to make him pay the difference in whatever aid I lost before he finally logged in. Parents have NO IDEA how expensive college actually is or how much these deadlines matter for OUR FUTURE.

UPDATE: I finally got through to my dad! I showed him exactly what he needed to do, made an estimate of how much aid I might lose (about $6000 based on last year's institutional grants), and set up a calendar invite with all his login info included. He completed it last night! Thank you all for your advice - especially about not sending another invitation since that could have reset everything. The application now shows "processing" status. So relieved!

BTW make sure you check EVERYTHING else on the old form too while you're at it. If there's one mistake there could be others! Take it from someone who had to redo their entire verification process because of dumb little errors 😫

For anyone else reading this thread with similar issues - here's a quick checklist for handling demographic corrections on prior year FAFSAs: 1. Submit the correction through studentaid.gov ASAP 2. Notify your school's financial aid office in writing 3. Provide supporting documentation if requested 4. Check if verification is needed (usually only if your SAI changes) 5. Review current year application for accuracy before submitting Most biographical corrections don't impact your aid eligibility, but they're important for proper record-keeping in the federal system.

make sure ur son applies for ALL the scholarships!!! my daughter got a weird one for $1500 because her great grandfather was a freemason lol. check with ur employer too, lots have scholarships for employees kids!

That's a great point! I'll definitely look into scholarships through my company. And I'll have him start researching scholarship opportunities soon too. Every little bit helps!