Can we submit FAFSA before finalizing college list? Adding schools after application
Help! I'm confused about the timing between FAFSA and college applications. My daughter has applied to 8 schools already but is still waiting on a teacher recommendation letter for 2 more schools she wants to apply to. Should we wait to submit the FAFSA until after she's applied to ALL potential schools? Or can we just list the 8 confirmed schools on FAFSA now, then add the other 2 later after she submits those applications? I'm worried about missing priority deadlines but don't want to mess anything up. This whole process is so stressful!
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Ravi Choudhury
You can absolutely submit your FAFSA before your daughter finalizes all college applications! There's no need to wait. You can list up to 10 schools initially when you submit, and then later add or remove schools through the FAFSA correction process. Just log back into studentaid.gov after submitting and make changes to the school list. I'd recommend submitting ASAP to meet priority deadlines, which can impact aid amounts at many schools. The earliest schools can be added is the most beneficial approach since some financial aid is first-come, first-served.
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Isabella Silva
•Thank you! That's such a relief. I was worried we might lose out on financial aid if we submitted now without those last two schools. Do you know how long it typically takes to add schools after the initial submission?
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Freya Andersen
submit it NOW!!!! my kid missed out on $6k in grants bc we waited too long last year trying to get his final list perfect. the money is gone if ur too late, doesnt matter if you have good reason
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Omar Farouk
•This happened to my niece too! She waited until February to finalize everything and got way less aid than her friend with similar financials who applied in November. It's crazy how much timing matters.
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CosmicCadet
Submit the FAFSA as soon as possible. You can add schools later by logging into studentaid.gov, selecting "Make FAFSA Corrections," and updating the school list. There's a 1-3 day processing time when you make changes. Important things to know: 1. When you add new schools after initial submission, those schools will be able to see your SAI (Student Aid Index) and application data after the correction processes. 2. Some schools have priority deadlines for financial aid that can be as early as December 1st, and some aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. 3. You can have up to 10 schools on your list at any time. If you've already selected 10 and need to add more, you'll need to remove some schools first. 4. Adding or removing schools doesn't notify the schools in any way - they simply gain or lose access to view your FAFSA data. I recommend submitting now with the 8 confirmed schools rather than waiting. You can easily add the other 2 once your daughter submits those applications.
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Isabella Silva
•This is incredibly helpful! I had no idea about the 10 school limit - that actually works perfectly for us since she's applying to exactly 10 schools total. I'm going to submit tonight and then we can add the last two schools once she gets that teacher recommendation and submits those applications.
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Chloe Harris
Kind of related question: if my son decided halfway thru the year he wants to transfer to a different college, do we have to redo the entire FAFSA or just add the new school?
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CosmicCadet
•You'd just need to add the new school to your existing FAFSA. No need to complete a whole new application. Log into studentaid.gov, select "Make FAFSA Corrections," and add the new school to your list. If you already have 10 schools listed, you'll need to remove one first before adding the transfer school.
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Diego Mendoza
Has anyone else been getting the error message when trying to add schools after submission? I've been trying to add two more schools to my son's FAFSA for THREE DAYS and keep getting timeout errors! I've called the Federal Student Aid number at least 10 times and can never get through to a human being. I'm about to lose my mind with these technical issues!
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Anastasia Popova
•I had the same frustrating experience last week! After getting nowhere with the regular FSA phone line, I found this service called Claimyr that got me through to an actual human at the Federal Student Aid office in less than 10 minutes. You can check out their demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ - it saved me so much time and stress. The agent was able to help me troubleshoot the school addition error right away. Their website is claimyr.com if you want to try it.
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Omar Farouk
my daughter just put like 3 random schools on her fafsa at first cause she wasn't sure where she was applying yet lol. then we added the real ones later after she decided. worked fine!
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Freya Andersen
•my brother did same thing but be careful cuz some schools look at ur list order for scholarship stuff!! they can tell if ur their 1st choice vs backup and it can effect $$$
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Isabella Silva
Thanks everyone for the super helpful advice! I submitted our FAFSA last night with the 8 schools she's already applied to. The process was much smoother than I expected! Now I feel prepared to add those other 2 schools once she submits those applications. Such a relief to know we're not missing out on aid by doing it this way!
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CosmicCadet
•Great job getting it submitted! Just make sure you save your confirmation number from the submission. Also, don't forget to keep an eye on your email for any requests for verification - about 30% of FAFSA filers get selected for that process, and responding quickly to those requests is important for finalizing your aid packages.
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