You made absolutely the right decision correcting this! As someone who's helped several families through the FAFSA process, I can tell you that the household size vs tax dependents confusion is probably the #1 mistake I see every year. The wording is genuinely confusing and the system definitely doesn't automatically know your family composition. Your correction from 3 to 4 people is spot-on for your situation. With twins both in college, you should see a meaningful improvement in your SAI calculation. The formula accounts for both the larger household size AND the fact that your income needs to cover two college students simultaneously - it's actually one of the few ways the FAFSA works in families' favor! Don't stress about the timing either. Making corrections during the application window is completely normal and much better than discovering this error after everything is processed. You caught it at exactly the right time to benefit your daughters' aid eligibility.

You absolutely made the right call fixing this! As a parent who went through the exact same panic last year, I can tell you that correcting household size is one of the most common FAFSA fixes families make. The system really doesn't make it intuitive that you need to manually input your complete family composition. What you corrected - going from 3 to 4 people - is crucial for your aid calculation. With twins both attending college, you've actually positioned yourself for what financial aid folks call the "multiple student benefit." The formula recognizes that your family income has to stretch across two tuitions simultaneously and adjusts your expected contribution accordingly. I was terrified about making corrections too, but it turned out to be completely routine. The system is designed to handle updates during the application period, and yours was caught at the perfect time. Don't let verification horror stories scare you - most straightforward household corrections like yours process smoothly without additional review. Your daughters should see much better aid eligibility with the corrected SAI calculation. Sometimes the scariest FAFSA mistakes are actually the ones that save you the most money when you fix them!

I've been following this thread closely since I'm dealing with a similar situation after my SAVE plan got rejected too. What really struck me from reading everyone's experiences is how much the numbers can vary from person to person - some saved money overall, others lost thousands. One thing I wanted to add that I learned from my tax preparer: if you do decide to file separately, make sure you understand how it affects your standard deduction. For 2024, if one spouse itemizes deductions, the other spouse MUST itemize too (they can't take the standard deduction). This could potentially increase your tax prep complexity and costs. Also, has anyone mentioned the impact on health insurance premiums if you get coverage through the ACA marketplace? Filing separately can affect your eligibility for premium tax credits since they look at household income differently. @Kendrick Webb - given all the complexity everyone's outlined here, you might want to consider consulting with a tax professional who has experience with student loan repayment strategies. The cost of that consultation could easily pay for itself if it helps you avoid a costly mistake. Some CPAs even offer free consultations during tax season.

I went through this exact decision last year and wanted to share what worked for me. Like you, I was paying over $600/month and it was brutal. I ended up filing separately and it dropped my IBR payment to about $380/month - so roughly $220/month savings. BUT (and this is important) our tax bill went up by about $2,400 for the year. So my annual savings on loan payments was $2,640, minus the $2,400 extra in taxes = only $240 net benefit for the entire year. Hardly worth the hassle. The real game-changer for me was what someone else mentioned - maxing out my 401k contribution. I increased it from 6% to 15% of my salary, which lowered my AGI significantly. This reduced my IBR payment to around $420/month even when filing jointly. So I got most of the payment reduction without the tax penalties. If you haven't already, definitely look at increasing retirement contributions first. It's a much cleaner way to reduce your discretionary income for the IBR calculation, and you're actually building wealth for your future instead of just shuffling money around between loan payments and taxes.

Schools are INCREDIBLY slow this year because of the new FAFSA system!!!!! My niece is in the same boat - some schools already sent packages, others are saying it could be APRIL before they finalize!!!! It's ridiculous how they expect students to make decisions by May 1 when they might not get financial info until a few weeks before!!!!

As a newcomer to this community, I'm finding this thread incredibly helpful! My son is a junior and we're just starting to learn about the FAFSA process. Reading about everyone's experiences with the delays and the need to check multiple portals is eye-opening. I had no idea about the CSS Profile requirement for some schools - that's definitely something we'll need to research early. One question: for those who have been through this before, what's the earliest you can submit FAFSA for the following academic year? I want to make sure we get ahead of any potential delays when it's our turn next year.

Just went through this exact same situation last year! My oldest is now a sophomore and my daughter started her freshman year this fall. You definitely want to use the same parent FSA ID for both kids - it's designed to work that way and will save you so much hassle. One tip that really helped me: when your middle child creates their FSA ID, have them do it on a different device or browser session than yours to avoid any login confusion. Also, make sure to bookmark the FAFSA website with your saved login info - you'll be using it for years with multiple kids and it's easy to forget which variation of your password you used! The good news is that once you've been through the process once, the second time feels much more manageable even though you're doing it for a different kid. You already know what documents you need and what to expect. Hoping the 2025-2026 version is actually as smooth as they're promising!

New parent here and this thread is SO helpful! My oldest just got accepted to her first choice school and I'm completely overwhelmed by the FAFSA process. Reading through all these responses has cleared up so much confusion - I was definitely overthinking the whole FSA ID situation. It's reassuring to know that once I create my parent FSA ID, I can use it for all my kids (I have two more who'll be hitting college age in the next few years). Quick question though - when my daughter creates her own FSA ID, does she need to wait for me to finish setting up my parent account first, or can we both create our FSA IDs at the same time? I want to make sure we don't accidentally create any conflicts in the system before we even start the actual application process. Also, huge thanks to everyone sharing their real experiences and practical tips - this is exactly the kind of insider knowledge that makes all the difference when navigating something this complicated for the first time!

Welcome to the community! As someone who's navigating FAFSA complexities myself, this thread has been incredibly educational. I'm dealing with a slightly different blended family situation - my partner and I are unmarried but living together, and we're trying to figure out the best approach for his daughter's FAFSA (she lives with us full-time but her mom is still in the picture financially). Reading through everyone's experiences here, it's clear that running the numbers through the Federal Student Aid Estimator really is the key first step. The consistent advice about income differences typically outweighing the multiple student benefit seems to apply across different family structures. @Abigail bergen - have you and your ex had a chance to sit down and discuss the logistics of coordination? I'm curious how those conversations went, especially around the commitment to stick with the same filer for all four years. That seems like such an important detail that could easily get overlooked in the stress of application season. One thing I'm wondering about after reading all these responses: for families where the relationship with the ex is more strained, are there any tips for making this coordination work smoothly? The financial benefits seem clear, but the practical aspects of working together on something this important for four years straight seems potentially challenging.

Welcome to everyone who's new to the community! As someone who's been helping families navigate FAFSA complexities for several years, I'm impressed by the quality of advice being shared here. A few additional points that might help: For those asking about coordination with difficult exes - consider setting up a shared Google calendar with FAFSA deadlines, renewal dates, and tax document sharing deadlines. This creates a neutral space for coordination without requiring direct communication. I've seen families use this successfully even in high-conflict situations. @Omar Fawzi - your unmarried situation actually gives you more flexibility. Since only your partner's income would count (not yours), you might want to compare his solo income against the ex's income when running those estimator calculations. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet: if anyone is considering having the lower-income parent file, make sure that parent has their FSA ID set up early and understands the process. Nothing derails a good strategy like technical difficulties during crunch time! The documentation advice from @Yara Nassar is spot-on. I'd also suggest taking screenshots of your estimator results with both scenarios - colleges sometimes ask families to explain their filing decisions during verification, and having the data helps tremendously.