my daughter had this same issue but with like 5 SCHOOLS lol. what we did was put deposit at her top 2 choices only, then when all the aid packages finally came in we just lost one deposit. cheaper than paying all 5. you could also try askin the june 1 deadline school if they can get u the package earlier so u can decide on the may 15 schools?

Just to follow up - I recommend you check if any of these schools subscribe to the National Candidates Reply Date Agreement. If they do, they're supposed to give you until May 1 to decide AND provide your complete financial aid package well before that. The fact that a school told you outright they won't have aid info before their own deadline is concerning and potentially against this agreement. You have legitimate grounds to request an extension based on this alone.

It should transmit to schools automatically based on the ones she listed on the FAFSA. We're still waiting for her financial aid packages though - that's another waiting game altogether!

Thanks! At this point I just want to get through the first waiting game before I start worrying about the second one 😅

Thank you everyone for all this helpful info! I just created an account on studentaid.gov and started my FAFSA application. You were right that it's pretty straightforward once you're on the official site. I'm going to ask my financial aid office about workshops too. Really appreciate all the advice - this has been stressing me out for weeks!

Great job taking action! One last tip: create an FSA ID for both yourself and your parent (if you're a dependent student) before starting the actual FAFSA. It can take 1-3 days for the IDs to be fully activated, and you need them to sign electronically. Good luck!

Have you verified both you and your daughter have valid FSA IDs that are properly linked to the application? This was the issue with my son's application. Even though we both had FSA IDs and thought they were connected to the application, there was some kind of verification problem that prevented the final submission. When we finally got through to someone at FSA, they explained that both FSA IDs needed to be fully verified through the email confirmation process AND linked to the specific application. In our case, I had created a new FSA ID (forgot my old one) but the system was still trying to use my old one for verification purposes. I would recommend checking both FSA ID accounts separately to confirm verification status before trying anything else. The sign and submit button won't appear if either account has verification issues.

Just following up to see if any of these suggestions helped resolve your issue? The deadline for many schools' priority financial aid is approaching, so I wanted to check if you were able to make progress.

My twins graduated last year and honestly I'm STILL confused about how all this works lmao. But congrats on your daughter's acceptances!!! That's awesome! 🎉

Update: I called the admissions offices for the 3 schools she already applied to directly. Two of them said NOT to submit Common App since she's already accepted, but the third one actually wants her to submit through Common App too! They said it's for "record keeping purposes" which seems silly, but I guess we'll do it. Thank you everyone for the advice - this forum has been more helpful than the high school counselor!