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has anyone heard if theyre changing the SAI formula again this year?? last year my daughter's SAI was completely different than her EFC would have been and we got way less aid than expected. the whole new system is so confusing!!
The SAI formula should remain the same for 2025-2026. The major formula changes were implemented with the FAFSA Simplification Act and those aren't scheduled to change again for several years. Your daughter's SAI being different from the old EFC calculation is expected - it's an entirely new formula that weighs income and assets differently.
Thanks everyone for the helpful information! I'll plan to have everything ready for October 1st but won't panic if there are delays. I've already created FSA IDs for myself and my son, and I've bookmarked that Claimyr service just in case we run into problems. I really hope they've actually fixed the issues this time - last year was so stressful waiting for financial aid packages to come through at the last minute.
Don't forget to gather your 2023 tax returns and W-2s as well! The 2025-2026 FAFSA will use 2023 tax information (two years prior). Having those documents ready will make the process much smoother.
my daughters school made her redo the fafsa twice and i never got any emails about it either time lol
It's also worth noting that for the 2025-2026 FAFSA, FSA has made some changes to their communication system. They now send more updates to the student's portal inbox rather than email. Have your daughter check her studentaid.gov message center regularly, as important notices might be there rather than in email. The system has been a bit inconsistent this year with the rollout of the new FAFSA.
Good to know! I'll make sure she checks that too. Is there any way for me to get access to see those messages or does she need to share them with me?
She'll need to share those with you. Under FERPA (privacy laws), they can't give you direct access to her messages. Some families set up a shared email address specifically for college/financial aid stuff to make this easier, but that's more useful before submitting applications. At this point, your daughter will need to either forward messages or take screenshots to share them with you.
That's fantastic news! Glad it went smoothly. The SAI appearing immediately is definitely a good sign - that's exactly how mine worked, and schools started receiving the information about 4 days later.
I just went thru this exact thing!!! My situation was reverse tho - I moved back TO my kid's college state and took over FAFSA from my ex who moved away. The residency stuff worked out fine but we had a NIGHTMARE with the contributor switch because my ex had linked his bank accounts to the old FAFSA and somehow we couldn't unlink them without him being present which was impossible since he moved to Alaska! We had to do a whole appeal process and my daughter almost lost her second semester aid bcause of the delays!!! Start this process EARLY!!!!!
One final note - your son should also check with his specific college's financial aid office about their process for documenting the change in which parent is providing support. Some schools require additional documentation to maintain in-state tuition when a parent moves out of state, while others will just need confirmation that the in-state parent is now the primary contributor on the FAFSA. It's best to get this clarified directly with the school to prevent any surprises with his tuition status.
Brielle Johnson
I'm a bit confused about the numbers here. Are you saying you had $35,000 in unpaid interest that got capitalized? That seems extremely high unless your loan balance is well into six figures. Most IDR plans actually cover part of the interest to prevent excessive negative amortization. Could there be other issues with your account beyond just the missed renewal?
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Mason Lopez
•I had Parent PLUS loans for three kids plus my own grad school loans consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan on an ICR plan (only option for Parent PLUS). Original amount was around $180k, and I've been paying for 8 years but never touching principal because my income-based payment only covers about 60% of monthly interest. So yes, that much unpaid interest accumulated over the years is unfortunately accurate.
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Oliver Brown
After reading all these comments, I'm getting flashbacks to my own nightmare with Navient when they transferred my loans to Aidvantage. The thing nobody mentioned yet is that the Department of Education actually released specific guidance about interest capitalization during servicer transfers in 2022. If your transfer happened after July 2022, they were NOT supposed to capitalize interest just because of the transfer itself. Pull up the FSA announcement from July 2022 about the new capitalization policies and specifically cite that in your complaints. The servicers hate when you know the actual policy documents!
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Mason Lopez
•OMG this is gold! My transfer happened in February 2024, so well after that policy change. I'm going to look up that exact guidance document right now. Thank you so much for this info!
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