FAFSA family size discrepancy affecting SAI and Pell Grant eligibility - filed separately

This is actually a common issue for parents who file separately. The 2024-2025 FAFSA is notoriously bad at handling data from separate tax returns. When you filed the correction, did you receive a confirmation email about the processed changes? Also, what does your current SAR (Student Aid Report) show for family size? That should tell you what's currently in the system.

same thing happend to me but worse!! my son's FASFA showed family size as 2 when we are 5!! we fixed it online but SAI never change. school gave him way less money and now were stuck with a $7000 gap we cant afford. The whole system is RIGGED i swear.

I work in financial aid, and I can tell you this is a known issue with the 2024-2025 FAFSA, especially for parents who filed separately. Here's what's happening: The system is correctly showing your updated family size on the SAR, but there's a processing delay with recalculating the SAI. However, when schools download your FAFSA data, they should see the corrected family size. What you need to do is contact your daughter's financial aid office again and specifically request they: 1. Verify the current family size showing in their system 2. Manually recalculate the SAI based on the correct family size 3. Provide written confirmation of what Pell Grant amount your daughter qualifies for If they're not helpful, you'll need to escalate to the director of financial aid. You have the right to see how your aid was calculated.

ugh this happend to my nephew to!!! he had to wait 3 MONTHS to get it fixed and still got less money than he should. good luck with all the bureucracy lol

Had almost the identical issue (also filed separately). One thing that worked for me was specifically requesting an SAI recalculation. The financial aid office kept telling me to wait for automatic processing, but after 6 weeks of nothing changing, I finally got desperate and drove to campus. Turns out they could've manually recalculated it the whole time! The difference between family size 2 vs 3 was about $2700 in additional Pell Grant eligibility for my son. Also - I found it nearly impossible to reach anyone at Federal Student Aid by phone to get this sorted out. After getting disconnected four times, I used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual FSA agent in under 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. The agent confirmed that family size ABSOLUTELY affects SAI calculation and Pell eligibility. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

My daughter had a similar issue with her FAFSA this year (also with family size) and we just went ahead and filed an appeal with supporting documents. Took about 3 weeks but we got it resolved. You might be overthinking this.

Quick update on this issue: I checked with our processing department this morning. For the 2024-2025 FAFSA, there's a specific glitch affecting parents who filed separately where family size corrections don't automatically trigger SAI recalculations. This is a known issue at Federal Student Aid. You can verify what family size was used in the original calculation by requesting a "calculation breakdown" from your school's financial aid office - they can generate this report from their system. If they claim they can't do this, they're incorrect - all schools using Department of Education software have this capability. Also, make sure to get the recalculation in writing. The difference between family size 3 and 4 could absolutely affect Pell Grant eligibility by thousands of dollars, depending on your income level.

I had this exact problem last year. The SAI difference for us was about $2,500 between family size 2 and 3. What finally worked was having my daughter (the student) contact the financial aid office herself. For some reason, they took her more seriously than when I called as the parent. Within a week, they had manually recalculated her aid package with the correct family size, and she got an additional $2,000 in Pell Grant. Sometimes it just depends on who you talk to at the financial aid office.

i'm confused why is family size even matter so much?? isn't FASFA mostly about income??

Final thought: Since the 2024-2025 FAFSA has had so many technical issues, be sure to keep documentation of EVERYTHING. Save screenshots of your corrected FAFSA showing family size 4, save all emails from FSA and the financial aid office, and take notes during phone calls (date, time, who you spoke with). If you need to escalate this beyond the financial aid office, having that paper trail will be crucial. And yes, the difference between family size 3 and 4 can absolutely affect Pell Grant eligibility by thousands of dollars, so this is worth pursuing until it's resolved correctly.

I'm a current college student who went through something similar with my FAFSA last year. One thing that really helped me was creating a timeline of all the steps I took and keeping track of reference numbers from each interaction. When I finally got through to someone who could help, having all those details made the process much smoother. Also, don't give up! The financial aid office at my school initially told me they couldn't do anything, but when I persisted and asked to speak with a supervisor, they were able to resolve it within a few days. The key is being polite but firm about getting the correct calculation. That $3,000 difference is definitely worth fighting for - it made the difference between me taking out loans or not. Good luck with your call tomorrow! I hope they can get this sorted out quickly for your daughter.