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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.
Just to clarify an important point - there's a difference between "deleting" and "starting over." You can't delete a submitted FAFSA, but if your application truly hasn't been processed yet (just pending), you CAN start a new application. However, this creates confusion in the system and can delay your aid determination. The proper procedure is to have your husband create his own FSA ID and then log in to sign your existing application. The Department of Education improved this process for the 2025-2026 FAFSA specifically to handle contributor signatures better.
Just checking in - were you able to get your husband's FSA ID created and his signature added to your application?
Update to my earlier comment - I forgot to mention that after you complete your portion as a contributor, your son will need to log back into his account and submit the final application. Many families miss this step and think the application is complete after the parent finishes their part, but it's not!
To answer your question about processing time: once all contributors have completed their sections and the student submits the final application, the initial SAI (Student Aid Index) calculation typically takes 3-5 business days. However, during peak periods (January-March), it can take up to 2 weeks. For state grant deadlines, most states consider the application "submitted" once the final submission is complete, even if the federal processing is still ongoing.
Great news! These small data mismatches are extremely common with the new FAFSA system. Glad you got it resolved in time for your daughter's priority deadline.
Miguel Castro
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.
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StormChaser
Excellent! That immediate SAI calculation is one of the biggest improvements from last year. Keep in mind schools might take a few days to update their systems after receiving the FAFSA data, so don't panic if they don't immediately show it as received.
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