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UPDATE: You were all right!! I went back in and found that I had completed all the questions but never did the final review and submission with the digital signature. Just finished that part properly and got a REAL confirmation screen this time with a submission ID number. The dashboard now shows "Submitted" instead of "In progress." My son should get his email invitation soon. Thank you all so much for your help!!
Excellent! Glad you got it resolved. Just remember for next year that the parent submission must be fully completed (including signature) before the student can access their portion. The process is sequential by design.
Pro tip: set a calendar reminder to check the status a week after u think you've submitted. i do this cuz the FAFSA website is so glitchy sometimes that even when u think you've done everything right, something still goes wrong lol
just make sure she keeps her grades up at CC!!! my neighbors kid had bad grades when transfering and didn't qualify for some scholarship money at the university. the GPA follows u!!!!
One additional tip - make sure your daughter talks to academic advisors at BOTH the community college AND her target university during her first semester. Many universities have specific transfer agreements with community colleges that guarantee admission if certain requirements are met. They can also provide a transfer course equivalency guide to ensure the classes she takes at community college will count toward her business degree requirements. This early planning can save time and money by preventing her from taking classes that won't transfer or won't count toward her major. Some universities even have scholarships specifically for transfer students with good GPAs from partner community colleges.
Just to clarify an important point - once your FAFSA is processed, what you'll see is your SAI (Student Aid Index), which replaced the old EFC. This is just a number that schools use to determine your aid eligibility. A lower SAI means you're eligible for more need-based aid. Don't panic if your SAI seems high - each school has different formulas for awarding aid, and you might still qualify for merit scholarships, work-study, and federal loans regardless of your SAI. The schools will put together financial aid packages based on their own budgets and your information.
Thank you for explaining this! I was so confused about what happens after processing. Once I get my SAI, how long does it typically take for schools to send their aid packages?
Update us when your status changes! I'm curious how long it ends up taking with the new FAFSA system. My sister is applying next month, so I'm trying to gather real experiences to set her expectations.
One more thing to consider: make sure both students complete their own FAFSA applications separately. Even though your SAI is calculated at the parent level, each student needs their own application. Sometimes I see families missing out on aid because they incorrectly think one FAFSA covers all their children. Also, the SAI can sometimes change slightly due to student-specific factors, so don't assume both will have identical aid packages.
Contact your congressperson!!!!! Seriously, this change to FAFSA is DESTROYING middle class families with multiple kids in college. There's a group of parents pushing for legislation to fix this. The more complaints they get the better chance we have of getting this fixed!!
Ian Armstrong
Did you resolve this issue? I'm curious what the outcome was, as it might help others who get similar notices in the future.
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Adrian Hughes
•Yes! Mystery solved. It was exactly what several people suggested - she had an incomplete draft from earlier in the year that we had forgotten about. Her actual processed application with the SAI score is completely fine. Just a needlessly scary notification that could have been worded much better!
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Marcus Patterson
This is why i HATE the new FAFSA. The entire system is filled with these kinds of confusing notifications. My daughter got an "action required" email that made it sound like her application was going to be rejected, but it was just asking her to fill out an optional survey. The stress these vague emails cause is ridiculous.
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Eli Butler
•omg those action required emails are THE WORST!!! i legit had a panic attack over one last month and it was just asking me to update my email preferences lol. like WHY make it sound so scary???
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