Does FAFSA ask about dorm vs. commuter status when reapplying for sophomore year?

The FAFSA itself doesn't ask about housing status - this information is collected directly by the college, not through the federal form. Each school has different costs for dorm vs. commuter students, so they handle this separately. Your daughter needs to update her housing plans through the college's housing portal or by contacting the housing office specifically (not financial aid). The college will then adjust her cost of attendance (COA) to include room and board, which affects how much total aid she's eligible for.

This is a common point of confusion! The FAFSA doesn't ask about housing plans because it's focused only on calculating your Student Aid Index (SAI) - basically your family's ability to pay. The college uses this SAI number plus their own Cost of Attendance figures (which DO factor in housing) to create the final aid package. What you need to do: 1. Complete the FAFSA as normal 2. Make sure your daughter has completed any housing applications through the school 3. Contact the college's housing office to confirm her dorm status is in their system 4. If you get a financial aid package that doesn't seem to account for housing costs, then contact financial aid for an adjustment

my daughter hd the same issue last year when she switched from commuter to dorms. fafsa dosent care about housing. the school does that part. we had to fill out a budget adjustment form with the financial aid office after we got her package to get more aid for the dorms. each school does it differntly.

I spent HOURS trying to reach someone at my son's financial aid office with a similar question. After getting disconnected 6 times and waiting on hold for 45+ minutes each time, I found a service called Claimyr that got me connected to a live person in under 10 minutes. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ that shows how it works. Saved me so much frustration when dealing with his housing change situation.

WAIT PEOPLE!!! Housing DOES affect your aid package! My daughter got $4200 less when she lived at home vs dorms!!! The financial aid office needs to know her housing status to calculate her total Cost of Attendance. The problem is every school handles this information differently. Some schools automatically adjust based on the housing application, others require you to specifically request a COA adjustment!

To clarify some confusion in this thread: The FAFSA determines your SAI (Student Aid Index), which is your family's ability to pay. The college then uses that SAI against their Cost of Attendance (which includes different figures for commuters vs. dorm residents) to determine need-based aid. Bottom line: You need to make sure the college has the correct housing information in their system, but this isn't part of the FAFSA itself.

I work in admissions (different school) and I can tell you what happens behind the scenes. When FAFSA data comes in, we use the SAI to determine eligibility. Then our system checks the housing status in our INTERNAL records to assign the correct COA budget. If housing status isn't updated in our system, we default to whatever was there before (in your case, commuter status). So you absolutely should contact both housing AND financial aid to ensure they have the correct status on file!

Just wanted to add my experience as another data point - my son switched from commuting to dorms between his freshman and sophomore years, and we ran into the exact same confusion! What ended up working for us was creating a simple checklist: 1) Submit FAFSA (done), 2) Complete housing application with deposit (sounds like you did this), 3) Call housing office to confirm they have her listed as a resident for fall, 4) Email financial aid office to request they verify her COA reflects dorm costs, 5) Follow up if the aid package looks wrong. The key was being proactive and contacting both offices before the aid package was finalized. Good luck!