FAFSA delays forced my son to switch colleges - avoiding athletic scholarship disaster

Omg something similar happened 2 my daughter!! She lost out on a choir scholarship bcuz we couldn't prove financial need by the deadline. FAFSA is a JOKE this year!! SO frustrating 😠

I'm in the exact same boat with my daughter. She was accepted to her top 3 choices but we still have no idea which one we can actually afford! We've started the paperwork for a Parent Plus loan just in case, but I hate making decisions without knowing what her actual aid package will be. This whole process is completely broken.

I work in college admissions, and I can tell you that many schools are adjusting their internal deadlines because of the FAFSA delays. Your son's school should have been more accommodating given the widespread nature of these problems. I'd recommend: 1. Contact the athletic director directly (bypass financial aid office) 2. Ask the coach to advocate for a deadline extension 3. Get documentation from FSA showing when you submitted your FAFSA and any error messages 4. Request a formal appeal through the provost's office, not just financial aid Many institutions are making exceptions this year because they understand the FAFSA rollout has been catastrophic.

If u still haven't been able to get through to anyone at FSA, try using Claimyr. I was on hold for 4+ hours trying to get my FAFSA corrected until someone told me about it. You can see how it works at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ and their website is claimyr.com. They got me connected with an actual FSA agent in like 20 minutes when I'd been trying for weeks. The agent was able to push through our correction and I got our SAI the next day.

This is unfortunately becoming a common problem. The Department of Education has acknowledged the issues but hasn't provided adequate solutions. From what I've seen, students facing scholarship losses specifically due to FAFSA delays should: - Get a formal letter from Federal Student Aid documenting your submission date and the delay (call the FSA hotline) - File a formal appeal with both the financial aid office AND the specific department offering the scholarship - Contact your congressional representative (seriously - their constituent services can sometimes expedite federal issues) - Have all documentation of your timely submission attempts, screenshots of errors, confirmation emails The 2024-2025 FAFSA has been problematic since its release, with processing times extending from the normal 3-5 days to weeks or even months in some cases.

tbh community college is the smart move anyway with how expensive everything is. my brother did 2 yrs at CC then transferred to a big university and saved like $40k. the fafsa thing sucks but might be a blessing in disguise

Has anyone actually received their aid package yet? We submitted in January, got our SAI score three weeks ago, but still no actual aid package from any of the schools. My son's decision deadline is May 1st and we're completely in the dark!

i feel u my scholarship got messed up cuz of fafsa too. ended up having to go to state school instead of private school i wanted. this whole system is trash