One more important tip: the new FAFSA allows you to list up to 20 colleges (up from 10 previously), but I still recommend submitting your application with your brother's most likely schools first. You can always add more schools later. The system has been having issues with processing delays when too many schools are listed initially. Also, watch out for the family contribution section - it now uses what's called "Student Aid Index" (SAI) instead of EFC, and the formula changed significantly. Families with multiple college students saw some of the biggest changes to their expected contributions.

also dont forget about css profile if he's applying to any private colleges!! thats different from fafsa and usually opens earlier like in october. costs money to submit too ugh

Let's try to maintain perspective here. While there have certainly been delays, spreading unverified rumors about processing timelines doesn't help anyone. The Department of Education has been transparent about the challenges with the new system and has committed to the March timeline through official channels.\n\nIf you're concerned about making college decisions without finalized aid offers, here are some helpful steps:\n\n1. Contact each college's financial aid office for their specific approach to the delays\n2. Ask if they can provide an estimated aid package based on your financial information\n3. Request deadline extensions for enrollment deposits if needed\n4. Document all communications with schools and the FSA office\n\nMost institutions want to work with students through this situation and have processes in place to help.

sorry didn't mean to spread rumors! just sharing what i heard. your tips are really helpful tho, thank you!

Here's exactly what you need to know about FSA IDs: 1. Yes, each person needs their own FSA ID (you, your father, and your mother if she's contributing information) 2. Each FSA ID must be linked to a unique email address and phone number 3. Parents CANNOT create an FSA ID for their child, and students CANNOT create FSA IDs for their parents - it's against the rules and can cause major issues 4. Each person's FSA ID is linked to their Social Security Number, which is why they must be separate 5. Save all usernames, passwords, and challenge questions somewhere secure The new FAFSA requires each contributor to individually authenticate their identity and authorize their tax information being used. This is actually more secure than the old system.

When I did my FAFSA I created accounts for my parents because they're not tech savvy AT ALL. I just used different emails and made up their passwords. It worked fine for me but technically you're not supposed to do that lol

That makes sense, thank you for explaining! I'll definitely contact the schools directly about their policies. It's so complicated when these systems change and every school seems to have different approaches.

for the CSS Profile question you asked - only some schools need it, mostly private ones and some competitive public universities. it does cost money like $25 for the first school and $16 for each extra one i think. but they have fee waivers if your income qualifies

After dealing with this exact issue, I discovered a workaround. Log out completely, clear your browser cache and cookies, then log back in using a different browser (if you used Chrome before, try Firefox or Edge). For some reason, this forced a refresh on our application view and suddenly the specific errors appeared in the Next Steps section. They were minor issues that took 5 minutes to fix, and our SAI appeared 3 days later.

Oh wow, I'll definitely try this! It sounds like it might be a technical glitch rather than an actual problem with our application. I'll report back if this works for us!