FAFSA Parent Portal vs Student Portal confusion - accidentally logged into wrong FAFSA ID

This happens a lot! The parent and student portals look almost identical which makes it super confusing. Here's how to tell which account you're in: 1. Check the name at the top right after logging in - it should show your son's name if you're in his account 2. Student FSA IDs end with a number, parent FSA IDs usually end with a letter 3. If you go to "My FAFSA" page, it will list applications under the account owner's name You haven't messed anything up. Each person needs their own FSA ID. You need yours to sign as a parent contributor on your son's FAFSA, and he needs his own to complete the student portion. You can't actually submit his FAFSA from your account, so no worries there.

lol literally did the same thing last week with my daughter's fafsa!! the website is so bad. ended up with 3 different accounts somehow and kept getting errors when trying to link them as parent/student. total nightmare

I had the opposite problem - my daughter somehow created her FSA ID using MY email address, and I kept getting all her FAFSA notifications. We couldn't figure out how to fix it for weeks. Finally got it straightened out by calling, but it took forever to reach someone! The SAI calculation came back completely wrong too, so we had to call AGAIN.

As someone who works in a college financial aid office, I can confirm this is one of our most common issues! Here's what you should do: 1. First, log out of ALL FSA ID accounts completely 2. Clear your browser cache and cookies or use a different browser 3. Go to studentaid.gov and click Log In 4. Enter your SON'S FSA ID username and password 5. Verify you're in his account by checking the name in the top right corner 6. Go to the FAFSA form section If you see a partially completed form, review all information carefully. You can edit anything before final submission. If you accidentally submitted incorrect info, you can make corrections to a submitted FAFSA. For parent contributions, you'll need to use YOUR FSA ID only when signing the parent section - you don't complete the entire form under your account.

After spending 5 hours trying to reach someone at the Federal Student Aid help center last month (kept getting disconnected!), I finally found Claimyr.com which got me through to an actual FAFSA agent in 10 minutes. They have a whole system for skipping the hold times. Saved my sanity! Check out their demo video: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent was able to sort out our parent/student account confusion right away and even helped fix some tax information issues we didn't know about.

The whole FAFSA redesign this year is a DISASTER! Parent contributors having separate accounts from students makes sense in theory but the implementation is TERRIBLE. My son's SAI calculation was wrong THREE TIMES because of their system glitches. Every time I called, I got different information about how to fix it. The colleges were asking for his FAFSA information and we couldn't even get it processed correctly. Anyone who says this new system is "simplified" is LYING.

To answer your follow-up question - yes, you can make corrections to a submitted FAFSA anytime until the application deadline (June 30, 2026 for the 2025-2026 form). However, for maximum aid consideration, you'll want to make any corrections before your son's college priority deadlines. Also, once you're in the correct account, look for the "Parent Information" section. This is where you'll be prompted to provide YOUR FSA ID to sign as a parent contributor - this is the correct way the parent/student accounts are supposed to work together.