Where to find student aid amounts in FAFSA - parent portal or student portal?

FAFSA doesnt actually give u any money directly lol. it just calculates the SAI score (used to be called EFC). Then each college uses that to create a financial aid package. You'll get those from each college separately, not from FAFSA

The FAFSA itself doesn't award any money - it's just the application that collects your financial information. What happens is: 1. FAFSA calculates your SAI (Student Aid Index) 2. This SAI is sent to the schools listed on your FAFSA 3. Each individual college creates their own financial aid package based on your SAI 4. You'll receive financial aid award letters from each school, usually with acceptance letters or shortly after These award letters will detail grants, scholarships, work-study eligibility, and loan options. Neither the student portal nor parent portal on studentaid.gov will show specific dollar amounts for awards - that comes directly from the schools. If you've already received acceptance letters but no financial aid info, you should contact each school's financial aid office directly.

I WAS SO CONFUSED ABOUT THIS TOO!!! Spent HOURS clicking around both portals last year looking for some kind of number!!! Nobody tells you this stuff clearly!!! The FAFSA website should have a big banner that says "WE DON'T GIVE YOU MONEY, THE SCHOOLS DO" lol. What's even more annoying is that every school sends different aid packages with different formats and it's IMPOSSIBLE to compare them easily.

If you're trying to get an estimate of how much aid your son might receive before the official award letters arrive, you can use each school's Net Price Calculator on their website. It won't be exact, but gives you a general idea based on your financial information and the school's typical aid packages. Just search "[school name] net price calculator" and it should pop up.

One thing to add - while the FAFSA itself doesn't show award amounts, the studentaid.gov portal does show your federal loans and grants AFTER they've been disbursed. So once your son starts school and actually receives federal aid, it will show up in his portal under "Aid Summary" - but that's only after everything has been processed and paid out by the school. It's more for tracking what you've received, not what you'll be offered.

I had the same question last year for my daughter and was so frustrated trying to navigate the whole process. After waiting forever on hold with the Federal Student Aid helpline, I found Claimyr (claimyr.com) which got me connected to a real FAFSA agent in about 10 minutes. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ that shows how it works. The agent explained exactly what everyone here is saying - FAFSA calculates eligibility but schools determine actual aid packages. Really helped clear up my confusion and saved me hours of frustration.

just wanna say don't panic if aid offers come at different times. my son got his last one like 2 weeks after all the others even tho he submitted everything at the same time. financial aid offices are crazy busy this time of year

After you receive the award letters from each school, make sure you carefully review all the different types of aid they're offering. Many schools front-load their packages with loans rather than grants or scholarships. Look specifically for: 1. Free money (grants and scholarships) that doesn't need to be repaid 2. Work-study opportunities 3. Subsidized loans (government pays interest while in school) 4. Unsubsidized loans (interest accrues immediately) 5. Parent PLUS loans (these are in the parent's name) Some schools make their packages look generous by including large Parent PLUS loan amounts, so be careful when comparing offers.

also u need to be super careful abt deadlines for accepting aid. some schools have different deadlines for accepting admission vs accepting financial aid. my brother almost lost his aid package cuz he didn't realize he had to accept it separately from accepting admission