FAFSA SAI score seems completely wrong - how to appeal miscalculated amount?

First, take a deep breath. This happens more than you'd think with the new FAFSA system. SAI miscalculations are fairly common, especially with the recent formula changes. You'll need to do two things: 1. File a correction to your FAFSA if you can identify any input errors 2. Contact each school's financial aid office directly to request a professional judgment review For the professional judgment, you'll need: - Tax returns from 2023 - W-2 forms - Documentation of any special circumstances - A clear, detailed letter explaining why you believe the SAI is incorrect Schools have the authority to adjust your SAI based on their professional judgment if they agree the calculation doesn't reflect your true financial situation. The FAFSA processor can't really help with this - it's the schools that have the power to adjust the aid package.

the same thing happened to me!!! my son's SAI was like $18k higher than what we expected. turned out i entered my home value wrong (put 260000 instead of 26000 lol). check all ur numbers again especially any asset stuff, thats where most mistakes happen

They're ALL miscalculated! The whole new FAFSA system is designed to GIVE LESS AID to middle class families. My daughter got ZERO aid with the new system when she would have qualified for grants under the old formula. It's not a mistake - it's working exactly as the government intended. Don't waste your time.

When did you submit your FAFSA? There was a glitch in January that was causing multiple homes to be counted if you own property. They fixed it in February but anyone who submitted during that window might have incorrect calculations. You can check your Confirmation Page to see if it shows property values that don't make sense.

Try calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243. I spent 3 DAYS trying to get through to them about our SAI calculation problem. So frustrating!!!! Eventually I found a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual agent in about 8 minutes. They have a demo video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The FAFSA agent actually found the error on our application - turned out the system had somehow duplicated our retirement accounts in the calculation. They fixed it and our SAI dropped by like $15k! Totally worth it after spending days trying to get through on my own.

I just went through this exact nightmare with my son. Turns out the issue was that I had included the value of our primary residence in the asset section (which you're NOT supposed to do on FAFSA). This added about $230k to our assets and completely threw off the SAI calculation. Double-check if you accidentally included your home value in the asset section. If so, submit a correction immediately. Also reach out to the financial aid offices at each school and explain the situation - many will put a hold on your aid package until the corrected SAI comes through.

Financial aid professional here. Based on the information you've shared, your SAI should indeed be much lower. Here are the most common issues I see that might explain this: 1. Home equity in primary residence should NOT be reported on FAFSA (this is the most likely culprit) 2. Retirement accounts are protected assets with limited impact 3. The system may have incorrectly duplicated assets (a known glitch) 4. You may have accidentally reported the same income in multiple sections I would recommend: 1. Submit a correction on studentaid.gov immediately 2. Email each college's financial aid office with a brief explanation 3. Prepare for professional judgment reviews with each school 4. Request your FAFSA data from studentaid.gov to see exactly what was reported With your income level as a single parent, your daughter should absolutely qualify for significant need-based aid once this is corrected.

lol everyone talking about "miscalculations" when really its just the government trying to squeeze more money out of us!! the whole system is rigged anyway...even if u get the number fixed they'll find some other way to deny aid

UPDATE: You all were RIGHT! I just did a correction and removed my home value from the assets section. I also double-checked that my retirement accounts were properly categorized. When I called the financial aid office at my daughter's top choice school, they were super helpful and said this is happening to lots of people this year with the new FAFSA system. They're going to review our corrected SAI as soon as it comes through! Thank you ALL for your help - I was seriously panicking thinking we'd have to take out massive loans. I'll update again once we get the new calculation.

This is such a relief to read! I'm dealing with a similar situation right now - my SAI came back way higher than expected and I was starting to think college just wasn't going to be affordable for my family. Reading through all these responses has given me hope that it might just be a calculation error rather than us not qualifying for aid at all. I'm definitely going to check if I accidentally included our home value in the assets section too. The FAFSA questions were honestly pretty confusing and I may have over-reported our assets thinking it was better to include everything. For anyone else reading this thread - it's so encouraging to see that the schools' financial aid offices are understanding about these issues and willing to work with families. I was worried they'd just tell us "too bad, this is your number" but it sounds like they're used to helping people navigate corrections. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences and advice here. This community is a lifesaver!

Just wanted to add another resource that helped me when I was dealing with FAFSA issues last year - the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) has a really helpful FAQ section on their website that explains common FAFSA mistakes and how to fix them. Also, if you're still having trouble getting through to the Federal Student Aid phone line, try calling right when they open at 8 AM EST. I had much better luck getting through early in the morning rather than during peak hours. One more tip - when you submit your correction, make sure to save/print a copy of the confirmation page. Some schools ask for this documentation when they're reviewing your updated information. It's also good to have for your own records in case there are any follow-up questions. Really hoping your corrected SAI comes back much more reasonable! Keep us posted on how it goes.

As someone who just went through this exact situation with my own kid's FAFSA, I can't stress enough how important it is to double-check the asset reporting section. The way the questions are worded makes it really easy to accidentally include things you shouldn't. Beyond the home value issue (which sounds like your main problem), also make sure you didn't report your retirement accounts incorrectly. Only certain types of retirement funds are supposed to be included, and even then there are specific calculation rules. One thing that helped me was printing out the FAFSA completion guide from studentaid.gov and going through it line by line with my original application. It's tedious but I found two mistakes I had made that were inflating our SAI. Also, don't wait to contact the schools even while you're working on the correction. Most financial aid offices are swamped right now but they'd rather know about potential issues early than have to rush to recalculate aid packages at the last minute. A quick email explaining the situation and that you're submitting a correction can go a long way. Hang in there - this is totally fixable!

Wow, reading through this entire thread has been incredibly eye-opening! I'm dealing with a very similar situation - my daughter's SAI came back at $31,200 which seemed impossibly high for our family income of $52,000. I was starting to panic thinking we'd made too much money somehow to qualify for any aid. But after reading everyone's experiences here, I'm now almost certain I made the same mistake with including our home value in the assets section. The FAFSA questions really weren't clear about excluding your primary residence, and I definitely erred on the side of reporting everything rather than risk leaving something out. I'm going to submit a correction tonight and also reach out to the financial aid offices at her target schools to give them a heads up. It's such a relief to know this is a common issue with the new FAFSA system and not just us being completely out of our league financially. Thank you to everyone who shared their stories and solutions - this community support is amazing when you're navigating something this stressful! I'll definitely post an update once we get our corrected numbers back.

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm in a similar boat with my son's SAI coming back way higher than expected. Reading through everyone's experiences, I'm pretty sure I made the home value mistake too. Quick question for those who have already submitted corrections - about how long did it take for the updated SAI to show up in your account after you submitted the correction? And did the schools receive the updated information automatically or did you have to do anything else to make sure they got it? I'm submitting my correction tonight but trying to figure out the timeline since some of his school deadlines are coming up soon. Don't want to miss anything while waiting for the corrected numbers to come through! Thanks again to everyone sharing their experiences - it's such a relief to know this is fixable and we're not alone in dealing with these calculation issues.

Thank you so much for starting this thread! I'm dealing with the exact same situation and was feeling completely overwhelmed until I found this discussion. My daughter's SAI came back at $27,800 on our family income of $48,500, which seemed absolutely impossible. After reading through all the responses here, I'm now confident I made the home value mistake too. I definitely included our primary residence in the assets section because the questions weren't super clear about what to exclude. It's honestly such a relief to know this is a widespread issue with the new FAFSA system and not just us being financially illiterate! I'm planning to submit my correction this weekend and reach out to her target schools on Monday. The advice about emailing the financial aid offices proactively has been really valuable - I was worried they'd think we were just trying to game the system somehow. This community support has been incredible during such a stressful time. I'll definitely post an update once we get our corrected SAI back. Fingers crossed we see the same dramatic improvement that others have reported!

This thread has been such a lifesaver! I'm a newcomer here but currently going through the exact same nightmare with my son's FAFSA. His SAI came back at $26,400 which is completely insane for our household income of $44,200. I'm a single parent working two part-time jobs and there's no way that calculation can be right. Reading through everyone's experiences, I'm now pretty sure I made the classic home value mistake too. When the FAFSA asked about assets, I included our modest home (worth about $180k with maybe $140k equity) because I thought I was supposed to report everything we own. Had no idea the primary residence was supposed to be excluded! I'm definitely going to submit a correction this week and contact the financial aid offices at his target schools. It's so reassuring to see how understanding they've been with everyone else dealing with these calculation errors. Thank you all for sharing your stories and solutions - knowing this is fixable and that we're not alone in this mess has been such a huge relief during what's been an incredibly stressful time. I'll make sure to post an update once we get our corrected numbers back!

I'm so glad I found this thread! I'm a newcomer here but dealing with the exact same frustrating situation. My daughter's SAI came back at $28,900 on our family income of $51,000, which seemed absolutely impossible. I've been losing sleep over this thinking we somehow don't qualify for any financial aid. After reading through all these experiences, I'm now almost certain I made the home value mistake too. When filling out the FAFSA, I definitely included our primary residence value because the asset questions weren't clear about what to exclude. I thought it was better to over-report than accidentally leave something out and get in trouble later. This community has been incredible - seeing so many families successfully resolve this exact issue gives me hope that it's not hopeless. I'm going to submit my correction this weekend and reach out to her target schools first thing Monday morning. Thank you all for sharing your stories and practical advice. It's such a relief to know we're not alone in this and that there are actual solutions. I'll definitely post an update once we hear back with corrected numbers!

Welcome to the community! I'm a newcomer here too and just wanted to add my experience since I literally just went through this exact same nightmare last month. My son's SAI came back at $32,100 on our household income of $49,800 - I thought there was no way we could afford college and was ready to give up entirely. Turns out I had made the classic mistake of including our primary residence value ($195k) in the assets section. I had no idea it was supposed to be excluded! The FAFSA questions really aren't clear about this at all. After reading through forums like this one, I submitted a correction removing the home value and our SAI dropped to $4,200 - a difference of almost $28,000! The whole process took about 5 business days for the corrected SAI to show up, and I emailed all the schools' financial aid offices to give them a heads up about the correction. Every single school was super understanding and helpful - apparently they're seeing this mistake constantly this year. Don't lose hope - this is totally fixable! Make sure to save all your confirmation pages when you submit the correction, and don't hesitate to call the schools if you need updates. You're definitely on the right track and should see a huge improvement once that home equity gets removed from the calculation.

I'm a newcomer here but this thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm dealing with a very similar situation - my daughter's SAI came back at $25,300 on our family income of $47,500, which seemed completely unrealistic. As a single parent, I was devastated thinking we wouldn't qualify for any financial aid. After reading through everyone's experiences here, I'm now confident I made the same home value mistake. When the FAFSA asked about assets, I included our primary residence (worth about $165k) because I genuinely thought that's what I was supposed to do. The questions really weren't clear about excluding your main home from the calculation. It's such a relief to see how many families have successfully resolved this exact issue and that the financial aid offices are understanding about these errors. I'm going to submit my correction tonight and reach out to her target schools tomorrow to give them a heads up. Thank you all for sharing your stories and practical advice - this community support has been a lifeline during such a stressful time. I'll definitely post an update once we get our corrected SAI back. Fingers crossed we see the same dramatic improvements that others have reported!

I'm a newcomer to this community but want to thank everyone who has contributed to this incredibly helpful thread! I'm currently dealing with what sounds like the exact same issue - my son's SAI came back at $24,800 on our household income of $46,200, which seemed absolutely impossible for our financial situation. Reading through all these experiences, I'm now almost certain I made the classic mistake of including our primary residence value in the assets section. When filling out the FAFSA, the questions about assets weren't super clear to me about what should be excluded, so I erred on the side of reporting everything we own, including our home worth about $155k. It's honestly both frustrating and reassuring to see how widespread this issue is with the new FAFSA system. Frustrating that the form wasn't clearer about excluding primary residence, but incredibly reassuring to see so many successful corrections and helpful financial aid offices. I'm planning to submit my correction this weekend and reach out to his target schools early next week. Based on everyone's advice here, I'll make sure to save all confirmation pages and be proactive about communicating with the financial aid offices. Thank you all for creating such a supportive environment and sharing practical solutions during what can be an overwhelming process. I'll definitely post an update once we receive our corrected SAI!