Is FAFSA giving my son loans not real aid? College costs vs loan forgiveness dilemma

I completely understand your frustration with the FAFSA and financial aid system. The distinction between true aid (grants/scholarships) and loans is critically important. Here's what might help: 1. You absolutely can appeal the financial aid offer. This is called a "Professional Judgment Review" or "Financial Aid Appeal." Submit a formal letter explaining any special circumstances not captured on the FAFSA (medical expenses, job loss, other children in college). 2. Look at schools with strong merit scholarship programs. Many private colleges offer significant merit aid to students with good academic records regardless of financial need. 3. Consider starting at a community college for two years then transferring. This can save $20-30K. 4. The new FAFSA has indeed been problematic this year, with processing delays affecting millions of families. The Department of Education is still working through system issues. Don't give up yet - many families successfully negotiate better packages, especially if your son has offers from other institutions you can leverage.

the whole system is rigged against the middle class tbh. if u make under 65k u get everything free at most schools. if ur rich u just pay. but us in the middle? we get SCREWED. my parents make just over the cutoff for good aid but nowhere near enough to actually pay what the efc says. ended up with $26k loans my first year alone lol

Have your son apply to schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need with grants not loans. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Amherst, and about 20 others have these policies. They're competitive but worth applying to. My daughter got a full-ride to Swarthmore despite our $95K household income. For negotiating with his current choice: gather competing offers, write a formal appeal letter highlighting specific financial constraints, and schedule an appointment with the financial aid director (not just an advisor). Be specific about what you need to make it work. The new FAFSA has created unprecedented chaos this year - colleges are behind on packaging aid because of processing delays at the federal level. Some schools have extended deposit deadlines as a result.

my cousins kid just went thru this last yr. call the financial aid office and DEMAND to speak to a financial aid counselor not just the front desk person. be nice but firm. they found him an extra $5000 grant they "didnt know about" before lol. suddenly appeared when they new we were serious. worth a try right?

I was in the same situation last month trying to reach someone at FSA about verification issues. After wasting hours on hold, I used a service called Claimyr that got me connected to an actual agent in under 5 minutes. It basically holds your place in line and calls you when an agent picks up. Saved me hours of frustration. Their site is claimyr.com and they have a quick demo video at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ that shows how it works. Totally worth it to actually speak to someone who could help resolve our FAFSA issues.

The fact that loans are called "financial aid" is one of the most deceitful practices in higher education. It's deliberately misleading marketing. When my son got his aid package, I made him sit down with a spreadsheet and calculate exactly how much each loan would cost over 10 years with interest. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the monthly payments. Regarding your actual question - yes, you can absolutely negotiate. We got an additional $7,500 in grant money by: 1. Writing a detailed letter explaining our financial situation that wasn't captured by the FAFSA (ongoing medical expenses, supporting a grandparent) 2. Including competing offers from similar schools 3. Having my son write a personal letter explaining why this was his top choice 4. Being persistent and following up weekly Remember that colleges have discretionary funds they can use for students they really want to enroll. Make it clear your son is seriously considering enrolling if they can make it financially feasible.

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions! I'm going to try negotiating with the financial aid office and will check out those resources for finding schools with better aid policies. My son and I are sitting down this weekend to look at all his options, including potentially starting at community college. It's frustrating that the system is so complicated, but at least I feel like we have some paths forward now.

The student loan forgiveness you're seeing is ONE TIME relief for people who've been paying for DECADES on predatory loans with interest rates that meant they owed MORE than they borrowed even after years of payments. It's not like people are just getting free money while your son gets nothing. But yeah, the FAFSA this year is a DISASTER. My daughter's application has been "processing" for over 2 months with no explanation. The schools can't package aid without the FAFSA data and the May 1 deposit deadline is coming up fast. HOW are families supposed to make decisions with no financial information??? The whole system needs to be rebuilt from scratch. Until then, we're all just trying to navigate a broken system the best we can.