cintinative Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 (edited) I think this is code for "it will be extremely buggy" https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2023-12-15/2024-25-fafsa-soft-launch-details-and-timelines "During the soft launch period, the Department will be monitoring site performance, conducting planned pauses for maintenance, and making updates to improve the user experience for students and families. . . If a student completes their FAFSA form, but a contributor cannot access the site during a period when the site is unavailable, the contributor can return to complete their portion of the form as soon as the site becomes available again. Any data entered in the form is still in the system and is secure. . . . If FSA initiates site maintenance while a student or contributor is completing an application, they will be able to continue until they have completed the form." Edited January 31 by cintinative 3 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 Wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 Yeah, might give it a week or two to before trying it, to eliminate stress! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagistraKennedy Posted December 23, 2023 Share Posted December 23, 2023 On 12/19/2023 at 4:57 PM, ScoutTN said: Yeah, might give it a week or two to before trying it, to eliminate stress! That's my plan --- gather all information needed and look at it on Jan 15th. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 On 12/19/2023 at 3:57 PM, ScoutTN said: Yeah, might give it a week or two to before trying it, to eliminate stress! Same here! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 Anyone tried it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 4 hours ago, ScoutTN said: Anyone tried it? It says "Planned Maintenance" when I log in and is not available. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 I might give it a shot today. I just wonder how long the "soft launch" phase is going to last. I mean, we don't have much time to get this done really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 I'm still getting the planned maintenance message. Ugh. I think all except one of his schools have the CSS already, so they really should have plenty of information (looking at you and your delayed FA package, St. Olaf!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 2 hours ago, kokotg said: I'm still getting the planned maintenance message. Ugh. I think all except one of his schools have the CSS already, so they really should have plenty of information (looking at you and your delayed FA package, St. Olaf!) UGH. We really want to get our stuff in soon also because there are some need based scholarships that we might have a 1% chance of qualifying for 😁 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 AFAIK it's been down all day 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barnes Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Do you have to have a CSS account to fill out FSA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 On the FB page everyone is saying it has been down all day. Someone mentioned they are filling out the paper form and mailing it https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/2024-25-fafsa.pdf I suppose if I get desperate I could do that, but I imagine then we would be waiting for their staff to data enter everything. I thought I'd share though just in case someone is running up against a more strict deadline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusyMom5 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 I just need to fill it out for kids already in college- no new graduates this year. I'm planning to wait until February. On the college places I watch, this is a Hot Mess! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
historically accurate Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 I've only heard of one person getting in yesterday - I have 2 kiddos to do it for and I can't catch it open yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 no luck here, either. We got ready by paying off our big post xmas credit card bill and getting that money out of our checking account, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 "Fafsa Error Means Less Financial Aid From Families" (I'm working very hard to follow the principle that "if you can't say something nice, just say nothing at all." #fafsaFAIL 😞 I'm) mostly irritated for some very hard-working students I'm close to who are actually significantly affected by the "small" differences in aid. 😞 WHY are we rushing to roll out a program that is obviously NOT ready for prime time? . . . Oh, wait, never mind. ) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 I got in last night at around 8 p.m. EST. FYI. My son hasn't filled out his part. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 17 hours ago, kokotg said: no luck here, either. We got ready by paying off our big post xmas credit card bill and getting that money out of our checking account, though! Oh, I just realized that I should have waited until the payments I made Monday cleared. With the holiday, they weren't reflected. UGH. Oh well. Hopefully this helps someone else though!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 Well, I managed to log in to start the form, but didn't make it far enough to actually save any information. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 So I was able to update our financial info fortunately. I am glad because like the other poster mentioned, I just paid our December credit card and several other large bills My son finished his today. It took me awhile to get back in but I did get in and finished. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eos Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 I still can't get into it, and now my CPA has told me to wait til she gets everything done. She does her FAFSA clients first but her nervousness makes me nervous. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 We managed to get one of the two submitted, but it's still calculating the SAI , it tells us. Also, the estimator told me he'd get a pell, but the e-mail they sent him says he doesn't appear to be eligible for one. BUT ALSO it says it's still verifying his SSN, so maybe it thinks he can't have a pell because it thinks he doesn't have a SSN? who knows? (I wouldn't have been shocked if he didn't get one; we're down one dependent this year and our income was slightly higher, but the estimator showed him getting a bigger one than his brothers have gotten, so it got my hopes up. Also it should only really matter if he goes to our in-state public; all his other schools would be mostly institutional aid anyway). Other kid is just for a renewal of FA, so I'm not as worried about his getting done anytime soon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
historically accurate Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 We got in and did it on the first day, but we've heard nothing since then. It's still submitted and under review. Ugh... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 1 hour ago, historically accurate said: We got in and did it on the first day, but we've heard nothing since then. It's still submitted and under review. Ugh... Same. Unfortunately after we submitted I discovered an error and they said we have to wait until it is done being reviewed. I am worried that will be the end of the month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Hoping to tackle this on Friday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Anyone catch this on NPR? https://www.npr.org/2024/01/09/1222664638/fafsa-student-financial-aid-college They were supposed to change the income allowances to adjust them for inflation, but they...forgot? at any rate, it didn't get done, and now they're trying to decide if they should fix it this year or just have people not get as much FA as they're supposed to get. Wonder if THIS has anything to do with why it's saying DS won't get the pell the estimator says he'll get? What a mess. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 1 hour ago, kokotg said: Anyone catch this on NPR? https://www.npr.org/2024/01/09/1222664638/fafsa-student-financial-aid-college They were supposed to change the income allowances to adjust them for inflation, but they...forgot? at any rate, it didn't get done, and now they're trying to decide if they should fix it this year or just have people not get as much FA as they're supposed to get. Wonder if THIS has anything to do with why it's saying DS won't get the pell the estimator says he'll get? What a mess. I saw a reference to this on FB in one of the threads but it wasn't as reliable of a source as this. Wow. I don't understand why they didn't just delay the rollout. UGH. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 1 hour ago, kokotg said: Anyone catch this on NPR? https://www.npr.org/2024/01/09/1222664638/fafsa-student-financial-aid-college They were supposed to change the income allowances to adjust them for inflation, but they...forgot? at any rate, it didn't get done, and now they're trying to decide if they should fix it this year or just have people not get as much FA as they're supposed to get. Wonder if THIS has anything to do with why it's saying DS won't get the pell the estimator says he'll get? What a mess. Yes, that's the link posted upthread. Frustrating, FAFSA people. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 2 minutes ago, Lucy the Valiant said: Yes, that's the link posted upthread. Frustrating, FAFSA people. oh, sorry--missed that before! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 1 hour ago, kokotg said: oh, sorry--missed that before! I don't understand why they are rolling it out when (a) the changes cause a huge delay, (b) the financial calculations are incorrect by their own metrics, and (c) the rollout has been ... rough ... to put it politely. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 We did it today. There was no IRS data retrieval tool, so we entered all tax info by hand. Is that one of the changes they made? If so, that seems less complex programming-wise than before, and I don’t understand all the delay in rolling it out if that’s the case. We didn’t have any issues, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eos Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 9 hours ago, kokotg said: Anyone catch this on NPR? https://www.npr.org/2024/01/09/1222664638/fafsa-student-financial-aid-college They were supposed to change the income allowances to adjust them for inflation, but they...forgot? at any rate, it didn't get done, and now they're trying to decide if they should fix it this year or just have people not get as much FA as they're supposed to get. Wonder if THIS has anything to do with why it's saying DS won't get the pell the estimator says he'll get? What a mess. Crikey. That is a no-brainer. And probably illegal not to fix. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 9 hours ago, MerryAtHope said: We did it today. There was no IRS data retrieval tool, so we entered all tax info by hand. Is that one of the changes they made? If so, that seems less complex programming-wise than before, and I don’t understand all the delay in rolling it out if that’s the case. We didn’t have any issues, though. You're sure you did the 2024-25 form? My understanding is that there's ONLY the IRS retrieval tool now; it's impossible to bypass it and enter things yourself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amiesmom Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 I was able to log on and submit today, but it didn't ask me about assets at all. I did give permission for the IRS retrieval, but I don't know if I missed something or what. This is my first time doing FAFSA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 (edited) 14 hours ago, kokotg said: You're sure you did the 2024-25 form? My understanding is that there's ONLY the IRS retrieval tool now; it's impossible to bypass it and enter things yourself. Yes. It was so weird. Dd is independent, so there was no parent portion, only her’s, but it made her fill in 2022 tax info manually and had a tool telling which tax doc lines corresponded to each question. She was independent last year, too, and the questions were definitely different than that and than all the other years we’ve filled it out. Maybe the retrieval tool was down when we did it, but there wasn’t even a box to check that as an option! I talked with someone else who was also prompted to fill in manually! Edited January 11 by MerryAtHope 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 (edited) Question. . . I'm new to the FAFSA this year (well, from the parent side!) but DS1 is considering his options for the fall. It looks like right now, for the 24-25 FAFSA, I would use 2022 income? If I wait to fill out the FAFSA until after we file our 2023 taxes, would I use the 2023 income instead, or is it 2022 income regardless? One may be more advantageous than the other, so if I do have the choice, I want to make sure I do it right. Edited January 11 by happypamama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 11 Author Share Posted January 11 1 hour ago, happypamama said: Question. . . I'm new to the FAFSA this year (well, from the parent side!) but DS1 is considering his options for the fall. It looks like right now, for the 24-25 FAFSA, I would use 2022 income? If I wait to fill out the FAFSA until after we file our 2023 taxes, would I use the 2023 income instead, or is it 2022 income regardless? One may be more advantageous than the other, so if I do have the choice, I want to make sure I do it right. I am pretty sure the lookback is two years. So you would still use the 2022 income for 2024-25 FAFSA even if you had filed for 2023 taxes. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 3 hours ago, cintinative said: I am pretty sure the lookback is two years. So you would still use the 2022 income for 2024-25 FAFSA even if you had filed for 2023 taxes. Ah, okay. Thank you so much! I had not gotten that far because I was just using the estimator since I hadn't talked to my kiddo yet, and the estimator did not make that clear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amiesmom Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 On 1/10/2024 at 7:04 PM, amiesmom said: I was able to log on and submit today, but it didn't ask me about assets at all. I did give permission for the IRS retrieval, but I don't know if I missed something or what. This is my first time doing FAFSA. Quoting myself here because I found out why I didn't have to report assets. I checked the box stating that a member of our household receives free school lunch, which my (public schooled) kids do, as does every kid in my state attending public school. So that's interesting. I don't know if once they retrieve my IRS information I will be asked to provide my assets based on our income or if we will be exempt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 1 hour ago, amiesmom said: Quoting myself here because I found out why I didn't have to report assets. I checked the box stating that a member of our household receives free school lunch, which my (public schooled) kids do, as does every kid in my state attending public school. So that's interesting. I don't know if once they retrieve my IRS information I will be asked to provide my assets based on our income or if we will be exempt. This has come up a lot on college confidential; the question is poorly worded...you're supposed to answer yes to that only if you're financially eligible for free lunch, not if you get it because everyone in your school/state/whatever does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amiesmom Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 1 hour ago, kokotg said: This has come up a lot on college confidential; the question is poorly worded...you're supposed to answer yes to that only if you're financially eligible for free lunch, not if you get it because everyone in your school/state/whatever does. Well, hopefully I can fix it later. I have read differing opinions about this, some say check the box if you get free lunch for any reason, others say only if you would income qualify. Our school is a title one school so we often get the benefits of that even though our income wouldn't qualify us. For instance, we get free SAT testing and were able to get free college applications, etc. So I felt like I was supposed to check the box 😬. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa B Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 We must have checked that school lunch box too. I wondered why I wasn't asked about any assets. We also had to enter all of our information. They didn't even ask about importing tax info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 My ds is a college junior. He started it yesterday and added me as the parent so I got sent the link from the student aid site and I was able to go in a complete the few questions it had for me. It then said I had to send it to my spouse to complete so I entered dh’s email. Dh, however, never got an email link to complete anything and when we logged in with his info we couldn’t find the 2024 FAFSA ds had started so that was confusing. Then ds said he finished it and got his EFC so I guess we didn’t need Dh to do anything after all? So it was kind of confusing. I don’t remember having to loop my dh in on the process in the past so I’m not sure what that was about. Maybe I hit something wrong to generate that. It isn’t a huge deal for us because ds’s scholarships aren’t need based but he does need to complete it as a formality. Hopefully we got it all done correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 15 Author Share Posted January 15 @teachermom2834 wow, ours haven't even been processed yet. I need to go in and revise stuff but they won't let us until after it is processed. Do you and your dh file taxes separately? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 2 minutes ago, cintinative said: @teachermom2834 wow, ours haven't even been processed yet. I need to go in and revise stuff but they won't let us until after it is processed. Do you and your dh file taxes separately? No we file jointly. Maybe we did something wrong. I would have been much more on top of things with my older boys who got some financial aid from their schools. Would definitely be really stressful waiting for results. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 15 Author Share Posted January 15 1 hour ago, teachermom2834 said: No we file jointly. Maybe we did something wrong. I would have been much more on top of things with my older boys who got some financial aid from their schools. Would definitely be really stressful waiting for results. It shouldn't have needed your husband to log in if you file jointly. Hopefully you didn't do anything wrong. 😃 I just wish ours would process. I kind of doubt we will get anything financial aid wise but it is awful knowing I made a mistake and I can't fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 We've finally gotten both submitted! (my current college kid kept getting a "this form did not save" error, so I logged in and went back to the beginning and clicked through, and the error stopped popping up). And it says HE should get a pell, even though it told my senior he wouldn't. But it didn't actually calculate the SAI for senior when he did it (said "still calculating" or something). There's no reason one of them would get a pell and the other wouldn't (senior has slightly less in savings than the older kid, and that should be the only difference). So--question! Is there a way to go back and see if they've finally finished calculating the SAI for my senior NOW? Or do they just never tell him if they don't tell him right away? It won't show my anything on my end, and I don't know if there's somewhere on his end that he can find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 If the internet is to be trusted, no one is getting the SAI until the end of the month, and those who have received it, received it in error. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 30 minutes ago, cintinative said: If the internet is to be trusted, no one is getting the SAI until the end of the month, and those who have received it, received it in error. huh! interesting! I ended up starting a chat today, and one person offered to try to find the SAI for me and then the chat timed out. When I started another one she said she couldn't do that, but when I said my other son had his SAI and this kid didn't she said, "I understand but occasionally it is not able to calculate it and you have to wait until the form processes to be able to access it." Which suggests that they're pretending most people are getting the SAI like they're supposed to. This is such a mess. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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