Can parents access their own FAFSA data from college financial aid officers?

yup this happened to me too! super annoying but its true. colleges follow FERPA laws which treats all student records as private even when it includes parent info. my daughter had to come with me to the fin aid office and literally repeat everything they said to me lol

Financial aid professional here. This is absolutely correct, though the financial aid officer could have explained it better. Under Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), all student records - including FAFSA data - belong to the student, not the parent, regardless of who provided the information. Schools are legally required to protect this privacy. Your options are: 1. Have your daughter request the information and share it with you 2. Have your daughter sign a FERPA waiver at the financial aid office giving you permission to access her records 3. Go with your daughter to the financial aid office together Some schools have online portals where students can grant parents access to certain information. Worth checking if that's available.

Wait I'm confused. If your daughter is 18, didn't she have to report your income as a dependent student anyway? So technically it's HER financial aid application that contains YOUR data, not YOUR application. That's probably why they won't share it with you - the entire application belongs to her. But I still think it's dumb they wouldn't at least confirm if the numbers match what you provided.

You can actually check some of this yourself without involving the school. Log into your StudentAid.gov account (the parent account you used as a contributor) and you should be able to see what information YOU submitted. Then have your daughter log into her account to view the completed FAFSA that was sent to schools. Compare those numbers. If they match but the financial aid award seems wrong, then the issue is with how the school is interpreting the data, not with what was transmitted.

Had this EXACT problem last year! The financial aid office wouldn't tell me ANYTHING even though I was paying the bills! So frustrating!!! What worked for us was having my son call them on speakerphone with me in the room. I would whisper questions to him and he would ask them. Not ideal but it worked. The whole system is ridiculous IMO.

One other important note: If you believe there's an error in how your financial information was processed, you can submit an appeal or request for professional judgment. Your daughter would need to initiate this, but you can help her prepare the documentation. This is particularly relevant if: - Your financial situation has changed since the tax year used for FAFSA - There are unusual expenses not captured by FAFSA - There was a legitimate error in data transmission Remember, the financial aid formula is standardized, so if the correct data was submitted, the resulting aid calculation should be consistent with the estimator (assuming you used accurate numbers in the estimator).

I work at a university (not financial aid) but I know people constantly have trouble reaching financial aid officers during busy seasons. The department is usually understaffed and overwhelmed with calls. If you can't get through to verify your concerns, you might want to try using Claimyr to connect with Federal Student Aid directly to verify what data they have on file. I've seen students use it at claimyr.com when they can't get through by calling the regular line. There's a video demo of how it works here: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ

everyone here is correctt but also so many schools ignore these rules anyway lol. my daughters school talks to me all the time about fafsa stuff without her there. i think it depends on the school and maybe even the specific person u talk to. some are super strict about the rules and some are like whatever as long as u can verify ur the parent they'll tell u stuff

Another solution: If you're trying to check if your financials were correctly calculated into your daughter's Student Aid Index (SAI), you can use the Federal Student Aid online SAI calculator and run the numbers yourself. Then ask your daughter to find out what her official SAI number is from the school. If they match, the data was transmitted correctly. If they don't match, there might be an error somewhere in the process.

As a newcomer here, this is really eye-opening! I had no idea about these FERPA restrictions. My son is starting college next year and I'll definitely be filling out the FAFSA contributor section soon. It's good to know ahead of time that I might need to set up a FERPA waiver or at least prepare my son to be the point person for any financial aid questions. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this thread is super helpful for understanding what to expect!

As someone new to this process, I'm finding this thread incredibly valuable! My daughter is a junior in high school and I'm already starting to research FAFSA requirements. This privacy issue is something I never would have thought about. It seems like the key takeaway is to be proactive - set up that FERPA waiver early, keep detailed records of what you submit, and make sure your student understands they'll be the primary point of contact with financial aid offices. I'm also bookmarking those suggestions about using the SAI calculator to double-check everything. Thank you all for sharing your real-world experiences - it's so much more helpful than just reading the official guides!