FAFSA dependent count confusion - should I include 23-year-old grad student? SAI jumped 9000 points
I'm filling out the FAFSA for 2025-2026 and got confused about listing my kids properly. My oldest daughter (23) is in grad school and receives financial aid, but we still claim her on our taxes. I didn't include her in the 'number of people attending college' section, and now I'm worried that was wrong. What's really concerning me is the SAI results for my two youngest kids. Last year their numbers were around 13,000, but this year one jumped to 16,000 and the other to 22,000! I used exactly the same income information and filled one out last night and one today. How could there be such a big difference between them? Did I mess up by not counting my grad student daughter?
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Ethan Campbell
You did the right thing NOT including your 23-year-old grad student. According to FAFSA rules, only undergraduate students count in the 'number in college' section. Graduate students are handled differently in the SAI formula. That's not what's causing your SAI differences. The big SAI jump between your two younger kids is concerning though. Did you double-check that all other factors were identical? Even small differences in assets, income distribution, or which parent completed which form can cause surprisingly large SAI variations. Sometimes the system also glitches if you complete applications too close together.
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Aisha Mohammed
•Thank you for confirming about my grad student! That's a relief. For my younger kids, I literally used the exact same numbers - same income, same assets, everything. One FAFSA was done at 10pm yesterday and the other at 9am today. Could the time difference somehow affect the calculation? Or maybe there was a system update overnight?
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Yuki Watanabe
my sister had this happen 2 her kids last semester!! the fafsa website was glitchy af and her sons SAI was 5k higher than her daughters even tho they did them back 2 back with same info. she had to call and they fixed it eventually but took forever
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Aisha Mohammed
•How long did it take for them to fix it? Did she have to submit any documentation to prove the calculations were wrong?
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Carmen Sanchez
The EXACT same thing happened to me!!! I filled out FAFSA for my twins and one got an SAI of 15,780 and the other got 21,450 even though I used identical information!!! I've been on hold with Federal Student Aid for THREE DAYS trying to get someone to explain this. It makes absolutely no sense and I'm furious because one kid will get significantly less aid than the other for no reason!
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Andre Dupont
•This is actually a known issue in the SAI calculation system this year. When applications are submitted within 24 hours of each other, sometimes there's a processing anomaly that impacts the numbers. You absolutely need to get this corrected, as it could mean thousands in aid difference. Instead of waiting on hold forever, try using Claimyr (claimyr.com). They helped me get through to a human at FSA in under 10 minutes when I had a similar issue with my daughter's verification process. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ that shows how it works. Much better than wasting days on hold.
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Zoe Papadakis
Dont worry about the grad student thing. The SAI difference is probably cuz the fafsa formula changed this year with the FAFSA Simplification. Some ppl are getting way different numbers even with same income. my brothers went up like 5k for no reason
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Aisha Mohammed
•Is there any way to appeal if the new formula is giving such different amounts? It seems unfair that the same application done a day apart would result in such different numbers.
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Andre Dupont
Financial aid advisor here. A few important points: 1. You were correct to exclude your 23-year-old grad student from the number in college question. Grad students don't count for FAFSA purposes. 2. The SAI difference between siblings is absolutely an error. When using identical household information, siblings should receive identical SAI calculations (with very rare exceptions for certain types of merit scholarships that might be included). 3. This is actually a known system issue with the new FAFSA that Federal Student Aid has acknowledged but not fully resolved. When applications are submitted within 24-48 hours, sometimes there's a calculation anomaly. 4. You need to contact FSA directly to get this corrected. Make sure to: - Have both confirmation numbers ready - Explain clearly that these are siblings from same household with identical financial information - Request a manual review of both calculations - Ask specifically for an "SAI calculation reconciliation
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Aisha Mohammed
•Thank you so much for this detailed explanation! I'll call FSA tomorrow and ask specifically for the "SAI calculation reconciliation." Should I also notify the financial aid offices at their schools about this issue, or wait until FSA resolves it first?
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ThunderBolt7
If nothing else has worked, you might need to submit a formal correction. Go to studentaid.gov, login, select the problematic FAFSA, and click "Make FAFSA Correction." Sometimes just resubmitting forces the system to recalculate properly. But honestly, calling is probably better. The hold times are ridiculous though - I was on hold for 2.5 hours last week for a verification issue!
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Jamal Edwards
•Yeah good luck getting through to anyone at FSA! I tried calling for THREE WEEKS about my daughter's verification issue. Either busy signals or disconnects after waiting forever. Total nightmare!!
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Aisha Mohammed
UPDATE: I called FSA today and finally got through after trying multiple times. They confirmed it's a calculation error on their end and are doing a "SAI reconciliation" between the two applications. The agent said this has been happening a lot with the new system and they've had to do manual corrections. Thanks everyone for your help - especially for confirming I was right about the grad student question. The representative said it should be fixed within 5-7 business days and both kids should end up with the lower SAI number (16,000).
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Carmen Sanchez
•That's such a relief! I'm going to call them tomorrow about my twins. Did they give you any special department to ask for? Or just explain the situation to whoever answers?
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Andre Dupont
•Great news! For anyone else experiencing this issue: always ask for the lower SAI to be applied to all eligible students from the same household. The system is supposed to automatically do this reconciliation, but with the new FAFSA changes, many of these processes are requiring manual intervention this year.
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Lilah Brooks
This is such a helpful thread! I'm dealing with something similar - my twins' SAIs are off by about 3,000 points even though I used identical information. Reading through everyone's experiences, it sounds like this is definitely a system issue with the new FAFSA rather than user error. I'm going to call FSA tomorrow and specifically ask for an "SAI calculation reconciliation" like Andre suggested. It's frustrating that we have to deal with these glitches during such an important process, but at least there seems to be a solution. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences - this gives me hope that it can be fixed!
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Isaiah Sanders
•You're absolutely right that this seems to be a widespread system issue! I'm new to navigating FAFSA but went through this exact same problem with my two kids. The fact that so many families are experiencing identical SAI discrepancies with the same financial information really shows it's not user error. When you call FSA tomorrow, definitely mention that this is a "known issue" - the representative I spoke with said they've been getting a lot of these calls and have a specific process for handling SAI reconciliations between siblings. Good luck getting it resolved quickly! It's such a relief when they confirm it's their system glitch and not something we did wrong.
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