FAFSA "reprocessing" delay holding up financial aid offer at one school but not others - what's going on?

This is actually more common than you'd think with the new FAFSA rollout this year. The reprocessing flag can happen for several reasons - the most common are: 1) Your FAFSA data was selected for verification by the Department of Education 2) There was a recalculation of your SAI based on updated tax information 3) There was a school-specific flag triggered by their institutional verification process The reason other schools can still give offers is that each institution decides how to handle these flags. Some will proceed with preliminary offers while others (like your son's top choice) have stricter policies requiring full processing before making any offers. I recommend calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center directly to ask about the reprocessing status. They can tell you exactly what's happening on their end and potentially expedite things if there's just a system glitch.

same happened to us last month!! our fasfa got flagged for "income verification" even tho we used that data transfer thing from the irs. some schools didnt care and gave us aid packages anyway but 2 schools made us wait. took almost a month to clear up and we had to submit extra tax docs. super annoying!!!

This is a perfect example of why the FAFSA rollout has been such a disaster this year. Each school implements their own internal rules about how to handle processing flags, and there's no standardization or transparency. When you call the Federal Student Aid Information Center, make sure you ask these specific questions: 1. What specific flag is on your application? (verification, SAI calculation issue, etc.) 2. When exactly was the flag applied? 3. What specific documentation is needed to resolve it? 4. Is there an expedited process available due to approaching decision deadlines? The school's financial aid office should also be able to tell you exactly what they're seeing in their system. Don't let them give you vague answers - they know exactly what the hold-up is and should be able to tell you.

I spent TWO WEEKS trying to get someone on the phone at FSA about our reprocessing issue last month. Called every day, waited on hold for hours just to get disconnected. Finally I found this service called Claimyr that got me through to an actual human at the FSA office in about 15 minutes. They have this system that holds your place in line and calls you back when an agent is available. Saved me so much frustration! Here's their site if you want to check it out: claimyr.com They even have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ Once I finally talked to someone, they were able to tell me exactly which form was causing the hold-up (turned out one of our W-2s had a mismatch that triggered verification). Got it resolved in a couple days after that.

THE ENTIRE SYSTEM IS BROKEN!!!! This is my third kid going through the college process and it gets WORSE every year. Schools can magically make aid packages for some students but not others? And your FAFSA status shows everything is fine but somehow it's not??? This is what happens when the government tries to "improve" a system. Our 2023 application was PERFECT but our 2024 one keeps having these phantom issues no one can explain. And you know who suffers? THE STUDENTS!!!! Can your son request an extension on his decision deadline? Some schools will grant it if you explain the financial aid delay is beyond your control. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING when you call them!

my cousin works in financial aid office she says sometimes they flag applications if the income reported doesn't match what they expect based on ur zip code or somethin like that. weird system honestly

Just to add some more clarity since there's a lot of good information (and some misinformation) in this thread: 1. "Reprocessing" typically means one of three things: verification selection, correction processing, or system update processing. 2. Different schools have different policies about making offers during reprocessing because of their institutional risk tolerance and financial aid packaging philosophy. 3. The May 1st decision deadline is a standard practice but not a federal regulation. Many schools will grant extensions if you explain the situation. 4. You should reach out to both the school's financial aid office AND the Federal Student Aid Information Center. They see different aspects of your application status. Hope this helps! The system is definitely complicated, especially this year with all the FAFSA changes.

Advice from someone who was in your exact position last month: call the school's financial aid office every single day until they give you more information. Be polite but persistent. They have access to more detailed status information than what shows up on your studentaid.gov account. Our daughter's application was stuck in "reprocessing" for 3 weeks until I finally got someone who explained exactly what document was missing (it was something we had no idea we needed to provide).

UPDATE: I finally got some answers! I called the Federal Student Aid Information Center this morning (used that Claimyr service someone mentioned - it actually worked really well) and discovered our application was flagged for verification because my husband's reported income on the FAFSA didn't exactly match what the IRS data transfer showed (off by about $200 due to a late-reported retirement contribution). The weird part is that this verification flag was applied THREE WEEKS AGO but we were never notified! The FSA agent said schools are supposed to notify us about verification requirements, not the Department of Education. I then called the school again and spoke to a different financial aid counselor who confirmed they can see the verification flag but said they haven't started processing verifications for regular decision students yet - only for early decision. That's why they haven't contacted us about what documents they need. After explaining our situation with the approaching decision deadline, they're expediting our verification and will send the document request today. The counselor said once we submit the required documents, they should be able to prepare an aid offer within 3-5 business days. Lessons learned: 1) The FAFSA system doesn't always notify you of issues, 2) Schools handle verification differently, and 3) Being persistent and escalating your case can help get answers!