Common FAFSA mistakes to avoid for 2025-26 high school senior application

As someone who's helped hundreds of families with FAFSA applications, here are the top mistakes I see regularly: 1. Missing the priority deadlines - many schools have earlier FAFSA deadlines than the federal one 2. Not creating FSA IDs for both student AND parent before starting (this alone can delay you 1-3 days) 3. Using incorrect Social Security Numbers or birthdays (triple check these!) 4. Not using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool - manually entering tax info often leads to errors 5. Reporting retirement assets (401k, IRA) which shouldn't be included 6. Incorrectly reporting parent info for divorced/separated parents (only report custodial parent) 7. Listing home equity as an asset (primary residence equity isn't reportable on FAFSA) 8. Not including both parents in a remarriage situation 9. Forgetting to digitally sign the application (both student and parent) With your rental property, you'll need to report the net value (value minus debt) as an investment asset. For freelance income, make sure it aligns with your tax return.

My daughter just graduated and I made so many mistakes with her FAFSA lol. Biggest one was waiting till March to submit it! By then most of the good aid was gone at her top choice school. Do it ASAP when it opens in October!!!

I just went through this nightmare last year and almost cost my daughter her financial aid package because I made a STUPID error on our assets. DO NOT INCLUDE THE VALUE OF THE HOUSE YOU LIVE IN!!!! I accidentally put in our home value ($325,000) which completely threw off our SAI calculation! Thank god the financial aid office let me correct it, but it added weeks of stress we didn't need. Also, they're super picky about matching your tax return EXACTLY. If there's even a $1 difference between what's on your tax forms and what you manually input, they might flag you for verification. Use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool if possible!!

The biggest mistake is not understanding how the Student Aid Index (SAI) works. Many parents think having savings or assets automatically disqualifies them, which isn't true. Income has a much bigger impact on aid eligibility than assets do. For your rental property situation, you'll need to report: - Net value of property (market value minus remaining mortgage) - This goes under "investments" not under "business assets" Freelance income will be captured from your tax return, but make sure you properly report any business assets if you're self-employed with significant business property. Also, start researching if any of your target schools require the CSS Profile in addition to FAFSA. About 200 private colleges require both, and CSS asks for more detailed financial information including home equity.

anyone else get constantly disconnected when trying to call the fafsa help line?? i spent 3 hours yesterday trying to get help with my daughters application and kept getting hung up on after waiting forever 😡

Here are my practical tips after doing this for 3 kids: 1. Create a dedicated email address just for financial aid stuff - keeps everything organized 2. Save ALL passwords in a secure document - you'll need to access the account for four years 3. Take screenshots of every page before submitting - saved me when there was a glitch 4. Write down your confirmation number immediately after submission 5. Check your student's school portal weekly after submission - sometimes they request additional verification docs but only post it there (not email) Oh and gather ALL these documents before starting: - Social security cards (yours and student's) - Driver's licenses (yours and student's) - Tax returns and W-2s from prior-prior year - Bank statements showing current balances - Investment statements - Records of untaxed income if applicable Trust me, having everything ready makes it 100x less stressful!

Thank you all for these incredibly helpful tips! I'm making notes of everything. Just to clarify - for my son's summer job income (~$4000), does that need to be reported separately or will it be captured on our tax return since he's our dependent? And do we need to report his small savings account (~$2500)?

Regarding the 2025-26 FAFSA changes: 1. They're now using Student Aid Index (SAI) instead of Expected Family Contribution (EFC) 2. The FAFSA form is shorter (about 36 questions vs. 100+) 3. More students will qualify for maximum Pell Grants based on family size and poverty guidelines 4. Multiple students in college doesn't provide as much benefit as it used to 5. Small businesses and family farms are protected with higher asset thresholds 6. Contributing parents for divorced/separated families is now based on who provides more financial support, not who the student lived with more The basic formula still considers income most heavily, then assets, but some of the specific calculations have changed. Your best bet is to use the Federal Student Aid Estimator tool on studentaid.gov to get a preliminary idea of your SAI.

my advice? dont even bother with fafsa unless your broke or have perfect grades. my kid got NOTHING even though i make only 70k and support 3 people. whole system is rigged for the super poor or super rich. middle class gets SCREWED every time.

One last critical piece of advice: after you submit the FAFSA, check your Student Aid Report (SAR) carefully! You'll get an email when it's ready to view (usually within 3-5 days of submission). The SAR will show your calculated Student Aid Index and any flags or issues with your application. If you see a flag for "verification," don't panic! About 30% of applications get selected for verification randomly. You'll need to submit additional documentation to your schools, but it doesn't mean you did anything wrong. I recommend checking the status weekly after submission because sometimes communications get missed. Each school's portal is the most reliable place to look for status updates.

As a newcomer to FAFSA applications myself, I'm finding this thread incredibly valuable! One question I haven't seen addressed yet - what happens if your financial situation changes significantly between when you file the FAFSA (using prior-prior year tax info) and when your student actually starts college? For example, if a parent loses their job or has a major medical expense? Is there a way to appeal or update the information with individual schools? I want to make sure I understand all the options in case our circumstances change unexpectedly during this process.

As someone who just finished helping my neighbor through her first FAFSA experience, I wanted to add a few practical tips that saved us tons of headaches: 1. **Browser matters!** Use Chrome or Firefox - we had issues with Safari causing form errors that cost us hours of re-entering data. 2. **Don't rely on autosave** - manually save your progress frequently. We lost 45 minutes of work when the session timed out. 3. **Parent vs. student sections confusion** - Make absolutely sure you're logged in as the right person (parent or student) when filling out each section. We accidentally entered parent info in student sections and had to start over. 4. **Bank account timing** - Check your bank balances on the same day you're filling out the FAFSA, not from old statements. The amounts need to reflect "as of today." 5. **Keep a printed checklist** - I made a simple checklist of all required documents and checked them off as we completed each section. Helped us avoid the back-and-forth of "wait, did we already enter the W-2 info?" The whole process took us about 3 hours with all documents ready, but having a systematic approach made it much less stressful than I expected! Good luck to everyone navigating this for the first time!