Where do FAFSA results get delivered? Student email, parent email, or mail?
Just heard that people in my daughter's school are starting to get their FAFSA results back already! We submitted ours about 3 weeks ago but haven't seen anything yet. I'm starting to worry we missed something important. Does anyone know exactly WHERE the FAFSA results/decisions are delivered? Do they send it to the student's email, the parent's email that was listed on the application, or do they still send paper copies through regular mail? My daughter keeps saying she hasn't gotten anything, but I'm wondering if I should be checking my email more carefully or watching our mailbox. Don't want to miss important deadlines because we're looking in the wrong place!
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Andre Laurent
The SAI (Student Aid Index) and eligibility results aren't actually emailed directly to anyone. You have to log into the studentaid.gov account that was used to submit the application to see your results. The student should check their account since they're the applicant. There should be a notification on the dashboard when it's processed.
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Carmen Diaz
•Oh! I had no idea we needed to check the account directly. My daughter created the account but I helped with all the financial information. So there's no notification email at all when it's ready?
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AstroAce
what everyone is probly seeing is their SAI not actual awards. colleges send award letters later after they get the FAFSA data. SAI just shows up in ur student account, no email or anything. check the dashboard
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Zoe Kyriakidou
•That's exactly right - lots of people confuse the SAI (which just shows up in your studentaid.gov account) with actual financial aid offers, which come directly from each college, usually through their own portals or sometimes via email. Each school sends their offers separately and on different timelines.
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Jamal Brown
The confusion is understandable! After your FAFSA is processed, several things happen: 1. The SAI (Student Aid Index, which replaced EFC) becomes available in the student's studentaid.gov account 2. This information is sent electronically to all the schools listed on your FAFSA 3. Each individual school then creates a financial aid package based on their own formulas 4. Schools notify students of their specific aid packages through THEIR communication systems So there are really two separate notifications: the FAFSA processing completion (viewable only on studentaid.gov) and then later the actual aid offers from each school (which might come via student email, school portal, or sometimes mail).
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Carmen Diaz
•Thank you for explaining the whole process! So I shouldn't expect any kind of alert when the FAFSA is processed? We just need to keep logging in to check?
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Mei Zhang
Sometimes they do send an email saying your FAFSA has been processed, but it's not reliable. The email system has been glitchy with the new FAFSA rollout. I got an email for my son's application but not for my daughter's, even though both were processed. Also, I've heard the processing is taking 4-6 weeks for many people this cycle, so your 3 weeks wait isn't unusual.
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Liam McConnell
•THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS A DISASTER THIS YEAR!!! I submitted in January and didn't get results until MARCH!!! And now all the best aid packages at our top choice schools are probably gone. They should have just kept the old system if they couldn't get this new one to work properly. ðŸ˜
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Amara Oluwaseyi
If you're having trouble reaching anyone at FAFSA to check on your application status, I would recommend using Claimyr. I was in the same situation - application stuck in processing, couldn't get through on the phone, and no email updates. I used claimyr.com and they got me connected to a real FAFSA agent in under 30 minutes when I had been trying for days. There's a video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. The agent was able to tell me exactly what was happening with my application and when I could expect results.
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Carmen Diaz
•That's helpful to know! If we don't see anything in the next week, I might try that. The lack of communication is really stressful when you're trying to make college decisions.
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Zoe Kyriakidou
Just to add some clarity about the timeline: The SAI is just the first step. After that appears in the student's account, the colleges still need to: 1. Download the FAFSA data 2. Verify the information (some students get selected for verification) 3. Calculate their specific aid package 4. Send out their offers Each college handles this differently. Some send emails to the student email only. Others use their admission portals. A few still send paper award letters. And they all operate on different timelines - some send aid packages with acceptance letters, others send them weeks or months later.
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CosmicCaptain
•my daughter got emails from 3 schools saying to check her portal for financial aid info, but 2 other schools just updated the portal with no notification at all! we almost missed deadlines because we didn't know to keep checking. so annoying!
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Carmen Diaz
Update: We finally checked my daughter's studentaid.gov account and found the SAI was actually processed last week! No notification was sent. Now we're checking all her college portals to see if any award packages have been posted. Thanks everyone for the help!
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Jamal Brown
•Great news! Make sure to check the Message Center in her studentaid.gov account too. Sometimes there are important notices there about verification requirements or other needed actions that don't trigger notifications. It's a good practice to check that account weekly throughout the whole process.
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