FAFSA shows 'Processed' since March but UC school still hasn't received it - what now?

This is unfortunately very common this year due to the new FAFSA rollout. The 'Processed' status means FSA has calculated your SAI (Student Aid Index), but it doesn't necessarily mean it's been sent to all your selected schools yet. Log into studentaid.gov and verify that the UC school is listed in your 'My Selected Schools' section. If it is, you need to contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center directly at 1-800-433-3243 to have them verify transmission status to that specific school.

OMG same thing happened to my son!!!! UC Santa Barbara right? They are SO disorganized this year its not even funny. Our FAFSA was processed in February and we didnt hear ANYTHING until last week when suddenly all the aid showed up in his portal. No explanation, no apology, nothing. Just keep checking the portal everyday!

I work in financial aid (not at a UC school) and can shed some light on what's happening. There's a significant disconnect between the Department of Education's systems and school systems this year. The data transmission process has been problematic since the new FAFSA launched. Here's what you should do: 1) Email the UC Davis financial aid office with your student's ID and specifically request they manually check if your FAFSA data has arrived in their system (sometimes it's there but not properly linked to the student account) 2) Request an emergency meeting with a financial aid counselor - explain classes start in 4 weeks and you need to understand your aid status 3) Ask if they can process a preliminary aid package based on your confirmed FAFSA submission while they sort out the technical issues 4) Document EVERYTHING - dates of calls, who you spoke with, etc. Your student will not lose their spot due to this technical issue, but you do need to be proactive about communicating with the school.

try using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to actually get through to the Federal Student Aid people. My daughter had the same exact issue with her FAFSA showing processed but her school (not UC but another state school) saying they never got it. I kept getting disconnected too until I used this service that holds your place in line and calls you when an agent is available. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ When I finally got through, the FSA agent was able to see that there was a data transmission error on their end and they manually resent her FAFSA to the school. Two days later it showed up in her account!

this forum is so dramatic lol ur kid isn't gonna lose their spot chill out. the UCs have literally thousands of students with the exact same issue right now. they're not gonna kick out half their freshman class because the dept of education messed up 😂

@OriginalPoster To answer your questions - it took about 35 minutes for them to call me back (way better than the hours I wasted trying to call directly). And yes, I had to explain the situation but the agent could see everything in their system, including when my FAFSA was processed and which schools were selected. The agent confirmed there was a known issue with data transmission to certain schools and was able to force a re-transmission right while I was on the phone.

I had a similar situation with my son's application this year. What fixed it for us was having him log in and manually add the school code AGAIN even though it was already showing in his selected schools list. Somehow this triggered a new transmission of his FAFSA data. It's worth trying before spending hours on the phone. Also, contact your congressperson's office - seriously! Their constituent services can often get traction with federal agencies like Dept of Education when individuals can't.

The Department of Education has FAILED students and families this year with this FAFSA rollout!!! My daughter is in the EXACT same situation with another school. Processed since February but the school claims they never got it. Meanwhile we're expected to make enrollment deposits and housing payments with NO IDEA what aid we're getting! It's disgusting how they can get away with this level of incompetence. I've filed complaints with the Department of Education ombudsman, my senator's office, AND the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Someone needs to be held accountable for this disaster.

One last thing to check - make sure your daughter's FSA ID is properly linked to the FAFSA application. There have been cases where the parent submitted everything correctly, but because of an FSA ID linking issue, the student's information wasn't properly associated with their profile at the school. This is especially important for UC schools which have their own internal systems that need to match exactly with the FAFSA data.

Quick update on what we've been seeing at my institution - the Department of Education started a massive push last week to clear the backlog of undelivered FAFSA data. Many schools (including several UCs from what colleagues have mentioned) have suddenly received large batches of FAFSA data that had been stuck in processing. Your daughter's information might be in one of those batches. I still recommend taking all the proactive steps mentioned, but there's a decent chance this resolves itself in the next 7-10 days as these data transfers complete. The schools are then going to be working overtime to process all these late-arriving applications.

UPDATE: I want to thank everyone for their advice! I tried the Claimyr service that @UserX recommended and actually got through to someone at FSA after about 40 minutes. The agent confirmed they could see our processed FAFSA but there was indeed a transmission error to UC Davis. They've manually resent it and said the school should receive it within 3-5 business days. I've also emailed the financial aid office with all our documentation as suggested. Fingers crossed this resolves soon - I'll update again when we hear something!

That's fantastic news! I'm so glad the Claimyr service worked for you - it's such a relief when you finally get through to someone who can actually help. The fact that they confirmed the transmission error and manually resent it is exactly what needed to happen. Hopefully UC Davis processes it quickly once they receive it. Thanks for sharing the update - this gives hope to other families dealing with the same nightmare situation. Please do let us know when it shows up in your daughter's portal!

Welcome to the community! I'm new here but wanted to share that I'm going through almost the exact same situation with my daughter's FAFSA for another state school. It's been "processed" since early April but the school says they haven't received it. Reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful - I had no idea about services like Claimyr or that you could contact your congressperson's office for help with federal agency issues. It's both frustrating and reassuring to know this is such a widespread problem. Thank you @Anastasia for sharing your update about getting through to FSA - it gives me hope that there's actually a solution! I'm going to try some of these suggestions this week.

Welcome to the community! As someone new here, I've been reading through this entire thread and wow - what a journey this has been for you @Anastasia! It's both heartbreaking and infuriating to see how many families are dealing with this exact same FAFSA processing nightmare. The fact that you submitted in March, it shows "processed" but UC Davis still hasn't received it is exactly what my family is going through with a different school. I'm so grateful you shared all the detailed advice you received and especially your success story with getting through to FSA using Claimyr. Reading about @Luca's insider perspective on the data transmission issues and @GalacticGuardian's specific recommendations has been incredibly valuable. It's clear this community really looks out for each other during these stressful times. Your persistence in following up and trying multiple approaches is inspiring - and I'm crossing my fingers that UC Davis processes everything quickly once they receive the manually resent data. Please keep us posted on how things turn out! Stories like yours give hope to all of us navigating this broken system.