FAFSA SAI score showing 160,000+ instead of 35K - major discrepancy needs fixing?

oh man that's brutal. my daughter had somethin similar happen last cycle but it was only off by like 30k lol. def call them asap

That's a massive discrepancy! I'd be panicking too. You absolutely need to get this fixed because the SAI is what colleges use to determine your aid eligibility. A difference that large will definitely impact what your kid gets offered. I'd suggest three things: 1) Take screenshots of the estimator results, 2) Double-check your tax info was entered correctly - especially business income or assets, and 3) Request a professional judgment review from each school's financial aid office. They can override the FAFSA calculation if there's a legitimate error or special circumstance.

Ugh this happened to my brother last year!!! He freaked out for two weeks thinking they were getting no aid but turns out he accidentally put an extra zero on their home value. The whole system is so stupid tbh. Like why can't they just use our existing tax records instead of making us manually type everything all over again??

I work in financial aid and see this issue frequently. The most common causes of SAI discrepancy are: 1) Accidentally including retirement assets (401k, IRA) which should be EXCLUDED, 2) Reporting the full value of a small business rather than just your ownership percentage, 3) Decimal errors, or 4) Entering income twice in different sections. You need to submit a correction ASAP. And yes, SAI absolutely matters - it's the primary number schools use for institutional aid decisions.

After trying to call FSA for almost two weeks about my own FAFSA issues (kept getting disconnected or waiting 3+ hours), I finally used Claimyr and got through to an agent in under 15 minutes. They have a service that holds your place in line and calls you when an agent is available. Totally worth checking out their video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Their website is claimyr.com - it saved me so much stress when I was dealing with verification issues.

A 125k difference is definitely something to address. Here's what I recommend: 1. Check if you reported home equity incorrectly (not supposed to be included in FAFSA) 2. Verify business assets were reported correctly (often causes huge discrepancies) 3. Make sure retirement accounts were excluded 4. Check if you accidentally double-reported income 5. Look for decimal errors in any large figures Once you identify the issue, submit a correction on studentaid.gov. Then email each school's financial aid office with documentation of the error. Most schools will work with you if there's a legitimate FAFSA error, even after aid packages go out.

I had the EXACT same issue last year. My SAI was off by 80k! Turns out I had accidentally included our primary home value in the investments section. After I submitted a correction, it took 3 weeks to process but the number dropped significantly. Definitely get this fixed because yes, the SAI matters tremendously for institutional aid. For us, the difference was about $22,000 per year in grants vs loans.

why does everyone make such a big deal about this stuff? just take out loans like everyone else lol

UPDATE: I think I found the error! We included our retirement accounts ($370K) in the investment section AND we accidentally reported our house value which shouldn't be included at all. I submitted the correction last night. Thank you all for the help! I'll update again once the new SAI comes through.

FINAL UPDATE: The FAFSA correction processed and our new SAI is 36,500 - much closer to what the estimator showed! I did use that Claimyr service someone mentioned above and actually got through to FSA who expedited the correction. Already notified all the schools and two of them have already adjusted the aid packages. Huge relief! Thanks to everyone for the help.

Wow, what a relief to see this resolved! As a newcomer here, this thread is incredibly helpful. I'm just starting the FAFSA process for my daughter and had no idea about these common mistakes. The retirement account and home value errors seem to trip up a lot of families. I'm going to be extra careful when we fill ours out next month. Thanks for sharing the final update - it gives hope that even major discrepancies can be fixed with persistence!