one more thing - when u submit ur appeal make copeis of EVERYTHING and send by certified mail or delivry confirmation if not submitting online. cant tell u how many times schools "lost" paperwork conveniently close to deadlines.

Thank you all SO MUCH for the helpful advice! I just wanted to update that I was able to get through to FSA using that Claimyr service (which worked exactly as described), and they confirmed I can submit a Professional Judgment request. I've already downloaded the special circumstances form from our school's website and am gathering all our medical documentation. The agent even put notes in our file about our conversation! I'm also going to request a meeting with the senior financial aid officer tomorrow as suggested. Feeling much more hopeful now that we can get this resolved before the deadline. Will update when I hear back about the appeal!

Update: I just got through to someone at my school's financial aid office who had more info. Apparently for students who were already verified once, they're ONLY re-verifying specific expenses that get more weight in the new formula. For me that's my family's medical expenses and housing costs. They said once I submit those specific documents, the new SAI calculation should be much faster than a normal verification. Hope this helps others in the same situation!

For anyone confused about what documentation to submit for this second verification round: - Housing costs: Mortgage statement or lease agreement - Medical expenses: Summary of medical bills or Schedule A if you itemized medical expenses - Multiple students in college: New enrollment verification form - Child support: Court documentation or notarized statement Check your specific verification letter to see which categories they're requesting - most people only need to verify 1-2 of these categories, not all of them.

my cousin had this same problem last year with a different date range. she ended up having to resubmit her whole application and it messed up her getting into dorming. hope they fix yours faster

Just wanted to follow up - did you get your SAI score yet? The Department of Education promised all the delayed January applications would be processed by yesterday.

sooooo many ppl are dealing with these exact issues for the 2025-26 FAFSA... my daughter's college financial aid office told me they're getting like hundreds of calls about contributor problems. apparently if u wait for verification and submit all the correct tax docs then, the school will update the SAI calculation with the right info and it wont hurt ur aid. the FAFSA people know the system is glitchy AF with adding contributors after submission

one thing to check - when u tried to edit, were u using the same FSA ID that was used to start the application? cuz that tripped me up BAD last year. my son started his with his fsaid then i couldn't edit anything bc i was using mine! had to get him to log in first THEN i could make changes to my parts

has anyone tried getting a job at starbucks or amazon?? they both have tuition programs that pay for school. my roomate works at starbucks and gets like $5k a year for school through their program

When my daughter was in school, we used a combination of a small private loan through Discover (their rates were decent at the time) and our state's education loan program. The state loan had better terms than most private options. Also, don't forget to look into whether your school offers an installment payment plan. Many schools will let you pay tuition in monthly installments for a small fee, which can be much better than taking out additional loans. My daughter's university charged only $50 to split tuition into 5 payments per semester, interest-free.