How long do FAFSA birthdate corrections take to process and reach colleges?
My daughter submitted her FAFSA application back in early March, and it FINALLY made it to her college choice this week. Of course, now they're telling us there's an error with her birthdate on the form (ugh!). She immediately made the correction and resubmitted to FAFSA yesterday. Does anyone know approximately how long these corrections take to process? Will we get a notification when it's fixed, or will they automatically forward the corrected info to her college? We're getting nervous about missing deadlines for fall semester aid.
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Keisha Robinson
lol same thing happened to my kid last year. the birthdate thing is so dumb bc they make you enter it like 3 different times!!! took almost 3 weeks for correction to go thru for us
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Yara Nassar
•3 WEEKS?? That's going to push us way beyond the priority deadline. Did your kid still get their full aid package?
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GalaxyGuardian
Typically, FAFSA corrections take 3-5 business days to process in the system, but then an additional 10-14 days for the corrected information to be transmitted to schools. The schools won't automatically be notified - the updated FAFSA will be re-sent to all the schools you listed on your application. Once the correction is processed, you should receive an updated Student Aid Report (SAR) via email. I'd recommend checking your daughter's studentaid.gov account daily for status updates.
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Yara Nassar
•Thank you! Do we need to contact the school's financial aid office to let them know a correction is coming, or just wait for the updated info to reach them?
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GalaxyGuardian
•It's always a good idea to be proactive! I'd recommend calling or emailing the financial aid office to let them know you've submitted a correction. Many schools will put a temporary hold on your application rather than rejecting it if they know corrections are coming.
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Paolo Ricci
I had a similar problem when I put MY birthdate instead of my daughter's birthdate (I was filling it out at 1AM after a 12-hour shift). FAFSA is such a nightmare this year with all the changes! I spent THREE HOURS trying to get through to someone at Federal Student Aid to check on the status, kept getting disconnected. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through - they have a demo video here: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The FSA agent told me that birthdate corrections are considered "non-financial" corrections and typically process faster than income-related fixes. Still took about 10 days total before the school received it though.
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Amina Toure
•I've used Claimyr too when I needed to unlock my FSA ID. It's definitely worth it when you're in a time crunch.
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Oliver Zimmermann
The whole system is rigged against students IMO. They make it purposefully complicated with these impossible deadlines. My son had a similar issue and we ended up losing out on $5,000 in institutional grants because the correction didn't process in time. CALL THE SCHOOL DIRECTLY and document EVERYTHING. Get names of who you talk to and follow up with emails. The government workers processing these corrections couldn't care less about your deadlines.
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Yara Nassar
•That's what I'm afraid of! I'll definitely call the school tomorrow. So sorry that happened to your son.
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GalaxyGuardian
•While I understand your frustration, I want to clarify that schools often have processes in place for these situations. Many financial aid offices will work with students if they've demonstrated good faith efforts to correct issues promptly. Documentation is definitely important, but in my experience, most schools want to help students receive their aid.
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Natasha Volkova
Pro tip: while waiting for the correction to process, have your daughter log into her studentaid.gov account and take a screenshot of the correction submission confirmation. Some schools will accept this as proof that you've addressed the issue while waiting for the official update. This helped us when we had a similar situation with my son's application last year.
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Yara Nassar
•This is a great idea! I'll have her do that tonight. Did you end up getting all the aid you were eligible for despite the delay?
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Natasha Volkova
•Yes! Our financial aid advisor was super understanding once we showed the screenshot and proof we'd fixed it ASAP. They put a note in our file and processed everything normally once the corrected FAFSA came through. The key is communication with the school!
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Javier Torres
anyone else think its weird that they can process our tax info instantly but a simple birthdate correction takes weeks????
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Oliver Zimmermann
•EXACTLY! The whole system is designed to make students miss deadlines so they can give out less money. It's all about the $$$$.
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GalaxyGuardian
•The difference is that tax information is verified through an automated data transfer with the IRS using the Data Retrieval Tool, while manual corrections go through a different verification process. But you're right that the timeframe can be frustrating!
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Amina Toure
One important thing no one mentioned: if your school's financial aid priority deadline is approaching, send an email to your financial aid office with your daughter's name, student ID (if she has one), and brief explanation about the birthdate correction. Request that they flag her application as "in process" rather than incomplete. Many schools will honor their priority deadlines if they know corrections are in progress. I work with college-bound students and this saves many families from missing out on institutional aid.
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Yara Nassar
•Thank you so much for this specific advice! I'll email them first thing tomorrow. The priority deadline is actually next Friday so this timing is terrible.
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Keisha Robinson
my daughters correction finally went thru yesterday and we submited it april 2nd. so ya... not fast
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Yara Nassar
•Ugh, that's what I was afraid of. Guess I better call the school ASAP.
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