FAFSA delay preventing scholarship acceptance - risk of losing $14,000 in awards

Contact each scholarship committee immediately and explain the situation. Most will grant you an extension if you provide documentation of your FAFSA submission and pending status. In my experience as a college counselor, scholarship committees understand these delays happen, especially with all the FAFSA changes this year. Have your son email each committee with his FAFSA confirmation number and submission date as proof. Also reach out to the financial aid offices at the three schools that haven't processed his application yet - sometimes they can expedite processing if they know scholarships are at stake.

been there done that! our daughter had this exact problem last yr. call the skolarship people and explain. 9 out of 10 will give u an extension, they just want students to use their $$$. the 1 that wouldnt extend for us was a real jerk about it but whatev, the other ones understood.

This is a common issue this year due to the FAFSA delays. You have three practical options: 1. Request extensions from each scholarship committee (provide FAFSA confirmation number and date submitted as evidence) 2. Accept your son's top choice school provisionally and have the scholarships sent there. Most schools will refund/transfer if he ultimately enrolls elsewhere. 3. Accept the scholarships but ask if they can be deferred to spring semester if your son's school choice changes after the FAFSA is processed. Regarding the three schools that haven't sent aid packages: call their financial aid offices directly to check status. Many schools are experiencing backlogs with FAFSA processing this year, but they may be able to provide preliminary estimates to help with your decision.

The exact same thing happened with my daughter and we were freaking out too!!! What worked for us was contacting the financial aid office at her top school and literally begging them to expedite her SAI calculation. They were actually super nice and got her aid package done within 3 days! Maybe worth a try?

I've been dealing with FAFSA delays since January and finally got through to an actual person at Federal Student Aid who helped resolve my issues. I spent weeks trying their regular number and kept getting disconnected or waiting for hours. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that held my place in line and had an agent call me back. Saved me hours of frustration and got my FAFSA processed within days after speaking with someone. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Worth it just to get direct answers about your application status.

For the love of God DO NOT FORFEIT THE SCHOLARSHIPS!!! The FAFSA disaster this year is NOT your fault and your son shouldn't lose money because of government incompetence. I'm a financial aid counselor and I've been dealing with this situation constantly for months. Here's what you need to do IMMEDIATELY: 1. Call each scholarship committee TODAY and explain. Most will extend or hold the funds. 2. If any say no to extensions, accept the scholarship for his current top choice school. 97% of scholarships can be transferred or refunded if plans change. 3. Contact all 5 financial aid offices and explicitly mention "$14,000 in scholarships at risk of forfeiture due to FAFSA delays" - this exact phrasing will typically trigger expedited processing. Also - make sure your FAFSA is actually complete and wasn't rejected for verification or missing information. Many parents think it's "processing" when it's actually sitting there waiting for additional info.

why not just pick the school with the lowest tuition as backup then switch later if fasfa gives u better option somewhere else? that's what my nephew did

Maybe a stupid question but have you actually clicked on the "View SAI" button on the studentaid.gov website? My daughter's FAFSA was showing as "processing" for weeks but when I finally clicked that button her SAI was actually available, the system just never updated the status correctly. The schools might already have access to her info even though the site makes it look like it's still processing.

Update from my earlier comment: I just checked with a colleague in financial aid, and wanted to clarify that if your son has received his Student Aid Index (SAI), you can actually call each financial aid office with that number and ask for a preliminary aid estimate. Many offices can provide a rough package based on the SAI even before they've fully processed the FAFSA in their system. This could help you make a decision while waiting for official packages and while requesting scholarship extensions.

I'm in a very similar situation with my daughter and wanted to share what's been working for us. We contacted the scholarship foundations directly and explained the FAFSA delays - 4 out of 5 gave us extensions until June 30th without any hassle. The key was being proactive and reaching out before the deadline rather than waiting until the last minute. Also, don't forget to check if any of those scholarships are renewable - if they are, you definitely don't want to risk losing them over bureaucratic delays. One foundation even told us they've been getting so many extension requests this year that they're considering automatically extending all deadlines due to the widespread FAFSA issues. Stay strong and keep advocating for your son - the scholarship committees want to give away their money to deserving students, not take it back due to government processing delays!