my sister did the thing where she deferred but paid the interest monthly and it worked great for her! the loan didn't grow while her kid was in school but she didn't have to stress about full payments either

Based on all the advice here, it sounds like you're leaning toward deferment with voluntary interest payments. That's a smart approach that many parents successfully use. I'd just add that you should get everything in writing from your loan servicer about how to make sure those voluntary payments are applied to interest correctly. Sometimes they need specific instructions to apply payments the way you want.

One thing I didn't see mentioned yet - if you're worried about qualifying for enough loans for your preferred program, you might want to look into an income-driven repayment plan after graduation. Even with higher loan amounts, these plans cap your monthly payments at a percentage of your discretionary income, making repayment more manageable. Also, check if your preferred program qualifies for Public Service Loan Forgiveness if you plan to work in the public sector or for a non-profit after graduation. This could be a huge factor in your long-term financial planning. Best of luck with your decision! Advanced degrees are worth it, but definitely choose the program that aligns with your career goals rather than making a decision based solely on immediate financial concerns.

did u try using a different browser? i heard someone say that internet explorer (lol) actually works for the 2000 birth year glitch

GOOD NEWS! FSA just released an update yesterday that specifically mentioned fixing the birth year issue for people born in 2000. If you update your browser and clear your cache completely, it should work now. I just helped my little brother submit his (he's a 2000 baby too) and it went through fine. They've been rolling out fixes all month for various bugs in the new system.

Has anyone else noticed that the FAFSA system this year is WAY worse than previous years? I've been helping my students complete their FAFSAs for 6 years, and I've NEVER seen so many technical issues. The signature problems, the SAI calculation errors, the contributor section glitches... it's honestly embarrassing how poorly this rollout has gone. And don't even get me started on how they're claiming these problems are fixed when they clearly aren't!!

UPDATE: We finally got this resolved! After trying everything suggested here with no luck, we did end up using Claimyr to reach FSA directly (after 3 days of failed call attempts on our own). The agent confirmed there was a mismatch between my daughter's name on her FSA ID (where she included her middle name) and the FAFSA (where she didn't). They fixed it on their end, and within a few hours, the signature button became active. We've submitted successfully and already received her SAI score! Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions.

To officially answer your question: You have two safe options: 1. Call FSA directly and have them remove the incomplete form (best option) 2. Ignore the emails if the submitted FAFSA shows as "Processing" with a confirmation number What you should NOT do is try to complete the incomplete form or submit a new one. That will definitely cause problems with your existing submission. The system is designed to catch duplicate submissions by the same student for the same aid year.

I spent 2+ hours on hold with FSA last week trying to fix a similar issue. When I finally got through, they told me incomplete applications automatically expire after 45 days anyway. So you could just wait it out if you don't want to deal with their phone system.