FAFSA correction for household size - how long until schools see updated SAI?
I just realized I made a huge mistake on my FAFSA by not counting myself in my household size (facepalm moment). I submitted a correction last week to update both household size and number of college students. Now it shows 2 kids in college as of September. Does anyone know how long it typically takes for these corrections to filter through to the schools? I'm a single parent (my kids' father passed away) and my initial SAI was absolutely ridiculous - hoping this correction brings it down to something more reasonable. The financial aid office keeps telling me to wait but I'm getting anxious as the semester approaches.
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Miguel Ortiz
it depends on ur school tbh. mine took like 3 weeks to update last yr when i fixed my parents income info. so frustrating!!!!
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Ava Martinez
•3 weeks?? Ugh, I'm already stressing about paying the first tuition installment. Did yours eventually get fixed without you having to keep calling them?
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Zainab Omar
I work in a financial aid office, and I can tell you that most schools receive FAFSA correction updates within 3-5 business days. However, it can take another 1-2 weeks for our systems to reprocess your aid package after receiving the updated SAI. The household size correction should definitely help your SAI calculation, especially as a single parent with multiple children in college. If you don't see any changes in your account after two weeks, I'd recommend contacting your school's financial aid office directly.
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Ava Martinez
•Thank you so much! That's really helpful to know. I've been checking my student portal daily hoping to see a change. Do you think I should go ahead and pay the current amount due or wait for the recalculation?
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Zainab Omar
•I'd recommend contacting your school's financial aid office before making any payments. They can often place a temporary hold on your account while corrections are processing. Make sure to explain that you're waiting on a FAFSA correction that will likely reduce your EFC/SAI. Document who you speak with and when, just to be safe.
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Connor Murphy
My daughter had a similar situation happen last year! We submitted a correction and then NOTHING happened for weeks. Called Federal Student Aid like 20 times and just got disconnected or told to wait. So frustrating! The schools never seemed to get the updates and kept asking us for the same documents over and over.
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Ava Martinez
•That sounds awful! Did it eventually get resolved? I'm worried I'll end up in the same situation with the deadline approaching.
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Connor Murphy
•Yes but only after I escalated to a supervisor at the financial aid office. The whole system is broken! Make sure you keep copies of EVERYTHING you submit. Take screenshots of confirmations too.
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Yara Sayegh
Have you actually confirmed that your correction was processed by FSA? You should have received a corrected SAR (Student Aid Report) by email. If you didn't get that, the correction might still be pending.
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Ava Martinez
•I got an email saying my FAFSA was processed, but I didn't see anything specific about the corrections. I'll check my studentaid.gov account again to make sure. Thanks for mentioning this!
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NebulaNova
When I had issues reaching someone at Federal Student Aid about my FAFSA corrections last year, I tried Claimyr (claimyr.com) and got through in about 10 minutes instead of waiting for hours. They have a video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. After talking directly to an agent, my corrections were processed within 48 hours and the schools received the updates a few days later. Was definitely worth it to avoid the constant busy signals and disconnects.
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Keisha Williams
•does that service actually work?? i've been trying to call FSA for days about verification issues and keep getting disconnected
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NebulaNova
•It worked great for me. My sister recommended it after she used it for her verification issues too. The FSA agent I spoke with was able to see exactly what was happening with my corrections and gave me a timeframe for when schools would see the updates.
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Paolo Conti
I made a correction to my daughter's FAFSA in June and the schools received it VERY quickly - like 2-3 days. But I've heard it can take longer during peak processing times (like right now). The household size and number in college are HUGE factors in the SAI calculation, so it should definitely help your situation as a single parent. I'd say give it a week, then start following up.
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Ava Martinez
•That's encouraging to hear it might be quick! I'm just worried because classes start soon and I don't want any registration holds. Do you know if the change usually shows up in the school portal first or do they send an email?
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Paolo Conti
•In our experience, the school portal updated first, then we got an email about 2 days later with the revised financial aid package. But every school handles it differently, so keep checking both!
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Keisha Williams
wait u can update the fafsa?? i already submitted mine but idk if i did the household thing right either. my mom and stepdad are divorced but i live with both sometimes and idk who to count
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Zainab Omar
•Yes, you can absolutely make corrections to your submitted FAFSA! Log into studentaid.gov and look for the "Make FAFSA Corrections" option. For your household situation, you should count the parent who provides more than 50% of your financial support. If you split time equally, use the parent who provided more financial support during the last 12 months.
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Amina Diallo
Not to stress you out more but my sons correction took over a month to process last year and we had to request an emergency loan from the university to cover his housing deposit until the new aid package came through. The financial aid system is SO broken especially for single parents!!!! Hopefully yours goes through faster than ours did.
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Ava Martinez
•Oh no, that's exactly what I'm afraid of! I hadn't even thought about requesting an emergency loan - that's a good backup plan at least. Thanks for sharing your experience even though it's not what I was hoping to hear!
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