FAFSA giving my identical twins different SAI scores - what's happening?

did u enter their birthdays differently by accident? even tho their twins maybe one got entered wrong?

This happened to my nephews last year! Turned out one of them had checked something different in the student section about working during college. Check if one of them indicated planning to work during school year vs the other one not.

Several things could cause this discrepancy even with identical family information. The most common reasons for twins having different SAI calculations include: 1. Different responses to questions about student employment plans during college 2. Different scholarship or outside aid reported 3. Different answers about work-study interest 4. Different responses to questions about participating in certain government assistance programs 5. Error in entering one of the student's individual information I would recommend comparing their applications side by side using the FAFSA correction tool. Pay particular attention to the student-specific sections, not the parent information.

Try looking at the section where it asks if either of your twins has ever received Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, WIC, or Free/Reduced Lunch. Sometimes one kid gets classified for a program at school and the other doesn't, and parents don't even realize it. That can affect their SAI calculation even if everything else is identical.

When I was filling out FAFSA for my kids, I accidentally entered different asset info for them because I was doing it on different days and forgot what I put for the first one lol. Maybe check all the number fields carefully?

This is a common issue with multiple students from the same household. Here are some specific areas to check that could be causing the difference: 1. Student income - Even small differences in reported student income can affect SAI 2. Work-study intentions - Different answers about planning to participate in work-study 3. Graduate student status - Make sure both are marked as undergraduate 4. Household size verification - Sometimes this gets entered differently 5. Gender markers - Believe it or not, this can sometimes affect calculations 6. Academic year start dates - Check if different start dates were entered If you've checked all these and still can't find the discrepancy, I recommend calling Federal Student Aid directly to ask them to review both applications and explain the difference. Their specialists can see both applications side-by-side and identify exactly what's causing the variation.

If you need to call Federal Student Aid, try using Claimyr.com to get through faster. I was having a similar issue with my kids' SAI calculations and spent DAYS trying to get through the regular FSA phone line with no luck. With Claimyr I got connected to a live agent in about 15 minutes who compared both applications and found the issue immediately. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ - definitely worth it when you're dealing with something like this that needs a human to look at both accounts.

The FAFSA system is BROKEN!!! My triplets all had different SAIs last year and no one could explain why!! We had to file appeals with every single college and it was a NIGHTMARE. The whole system is designed to confuse parents and students. Keep pushing until you get answers!!!

UPDATE: Mystery solved! After going through both applications with a fine-tooth comb (and finally getting through to FSA), we found TWO differences that were causing the SAI discrepancy: 1. One twin did indicate planning to work during college while the other didn't 2. One application had a small typo in how many months our family size would remain the same (I put 9 months for one and 12 months for the other) The FSA agent explained that these two factors combined created the $1,200 difference. She helped me correct both applications so they're consistent now. The SAIs are still processing but should be the same when they're recalculated. Thanks everyone for your help!