FAFSA 2024-2025 online form keeps freezing at college selection section - any solutions?
I'm at my wits' end with the new FAFSA system! My daughter and I have been trying to complete her 2024-2025 application for THREE DAYS, but the form keeps freezing when we get to the college selection page. We can't save our progress or move forward no matter what we try. We've used two different browsers, cleared cache, even tried using my laptop instead of hers. Nothing works! The screen just hangs with that spinning circle and eventually times out. This shouldn't be so complicated - all we're trying to do is select her five colleges! Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions before I throw my computer out the window??
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Liam Sullivan
Same thing happened to me last week when helping my son. What worked for us was logging in during off-peak hours (I tried at 5:30am and it went through). The FAFSA system seems completely overwhelmed this year with the new changes, especially during evening hours when most families are trying to complete it.
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Mei Chen
•Thanks for the suggestion! I'll try early morning tomorrow. It's ridiculous that we have to time our applications like this just to get through basic steps.
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Amara Okafor
r u using chrome? firefox worked better 4 me
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Mei Chen
•We tried both Chrome and Edge - neither worked. Haven't tried Firefox yet though, will give that a shot tonight.
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CosmicCommander
Financial aid advisor here - this is unfortunately a widespread issue with the new FAFSA system. A few technical suggestions that have helped my students: 1. Try using a private/incognito browser window 2. Make sure you're entering exactly 10 schools (not more, not less) 3. Don't click anything while the page is processing 4. Select schools one at a time, saving after each addition 5. If possible, try using a wired internet connection rather than WiFi If none of that works, you may need to contact Federal Student Aid directly about the technical issue.
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Mei Chen
•Thank you for these tips! We weren't adding 10 schools - just 5. Could that be causing the issue? I'll try adding exactly 10 and see if that helps.
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CosmicCommander
•The system was initially designed to work best with exactly 10 schools, though technically you should be able to submit with fewer. Some users have reported that hitting exactly 10 helped their submission go through. Just add some backup schools temporarily if needed - you can always update the list later.
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Giovanni Colombo
This new FAFSA is a COMPLETE DISASTER!!!! I've been working in financial aid for 15 years and have never seen such a poorly executed rollout. My daughter and I had the EXACT same problem last month. We ended up having to start a completely new application and somehow that one worked. Lost all our previous info though. The Education Department should be ashamed of this mess.
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Mei Chen
•Starting over sounds painful, but at this point I'm desperate enough to try anything. At least I know it's not just us having these issues.
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Fatima Al-Qasimi
I had similar issues but eventually got through by using the FAFSA mobile app instead of the website. For some reason, the app handled the college selection page better than the browser version - might be worth trying if you haven't already.
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Mei Chen
•There's a mobile app?? I didn't even know that was an option! Will download it right now. Thanks for the tip!
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Dylan Cooper
After dealing with similar FAFSA technical issues for weeks, I finally got through by using Claimyr to reach an actual FSA agent. The agent was able to troubleshoot my specific error and help me complete the form while on the phone. Saved me hours of frustration after multiple failed attempts. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ and their site is claimyr.com if you want to check it out.
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Amara Okafor
•does this actually work? i tried calling fafsa like 8 times and kept getting disconnected
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Dylan Cooper
•Yes! That's exactly what happened to me - kept getting disconnected or waiting for hours. With Claimyr I got through to someone in less than 20 minutes who actually helped fix the technical glitch on my account.
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Sofia Ramirez
Have you tried completing your FAFSA in the middle of the night? I'm not even joking - I set my alarm for 2:30am and was able to complete the entire application without a single freeze or error message. The system is clearly overloaded during normal hours. Also make sure you're not using any autofill features as those can cause conflicts with the form.
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Mei Chen
•Waking up at 2:30am to fill out financial aid forms... what has the world come to? But honestly, I'm desperate enough to try it at this point. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Liam Sullivan
Update on my situation: I finally got through the college selection page by adding schools one by one with a 2-minute wait between each selection. Painfully slow but it worked. The SAI calculation is working now too. Hope this helps!
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Mei Chen
•Thanks for coming back with an update! I'll try the one-by-one approach tonight if the mobile app doesn't work. At least there's hope!
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Mei Chen
UPDATE: We finally got through the college selection page! Combination of using the mobile app AND doing it at 6am this morning. Now we're on to the parent contribution section. Thanks everyone for your help and commiseration. For anyone else stuck on this - try early morning hours and the mobile app!
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CosmicCommander
•Excellent! Glad you found a solution. Just be prepared for possible slowdowns in the parent contribution section as well - that's another area where many users have reported issues. Best of luck with the rest of your application!
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Amara Okafor
•congrats!! the parent section was actually easier for me than the college part, hope it goes smooth 4 u
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