One strategy I used when my son transferred from CC to university was splitting our savings between my Roth IRA (for the FAFSA protection) and paying down our mortgage (reducing countable assets while essentially "saving" by building equity). This worked really well for us - we got a much better aid package than expected. Just be careful with the Roth - you can only contribute earned income up to the annual limit. Don't exceed this or you'll face penalties that defeat the purpose of your strategy.

my brother put his kids college money in pokemon cards lol. but seriously just use a 529 cuz u can use it for the community college costs too not just when they transfer

i waited until december last year and the site crashed like crazy. took me THREE DAYS to submit because of all the errors. don't procrastinate like me lol. and if you get stuck, use the chatbot on studentaid.gov - it actually helped me fix an error when i couldn't figure out why my form wouldn't submit

One more thing to check - make sure you're using an UPDATED browser when you go to submit. My sister tried using an old version of Internet Explorer last year and nothing worked right. Chrome and Firefox usually work best for the FAFSA site. And clear your cookies/cache if you run into weird errors!

My cousins SAI calculation was totally wrong because his mom forgot to sign and they submitted a correction too late. Then he got way less money than he shouldve. This whole systems a mess.

UPDATE: My dad just signed it! The status changed to "processing" immediately. Thanks everyone for the advice - I'll email my schools in the morning to let them know about the delay. Fingers crossed they'll still consider me for full aid packages despite missing the priority deadline by a few days.

Totally agree with checking if colleges need the CSS Profile too! My daughter applied to 6 schools and 2 required both FAFSA AND CSS Profile. The CSS asks for way more financial info and costs $25 for the first school and $16 for each additional one. They do have fee waivers though if your income qualifies.

@Theresa Just be mentally prepared for how invasive these financial aid forms feel. They want to know EVERYTHING - your income, savings, home equity (for some schools), even child support. I felt like I needed a financial advisor AND a therapist after filling everything out! 😫 Oh and make SURE you're using the official studentaid.gov site. There are scam sites that charge you to fill out the FAFSA which should always be FREE!

After reviewing all the comments, here's what I recommend: 1. Have your daughter check her college portals to see if her FAFSA was received 2. Contact one of her school's financial aid offices directly 3. If you need immediate confirmation from FSA directly (which is the most reliable option), consider using a service like the one mentioned to get through to an agent Given that you were able to complete your portion and link to her application, it's highly likely everything is properly submitted. The email system has been notoriously unreliable this cycle.

btw make sure u tell ur daughter to keep checking her email and fsa portal regularly cuz sometimes they ask for verification after everything looks completed. my son got asked for tax documents 3 weeks after we thought everything was done. almost missed the deadline!!!