ScoutTN Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Done! Late last week. Very easy and quick. I don’t care what number it comes up with bc Dd’s scholarships are merit, not need-based. But we have to file the FAFSA in order to get them, both from our state and from her uni. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 Update. It's not good. https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2024-01-30/2024-25-fafsa-student-aid-index-update-and-timeline?fbclid=IwAR3h4P8whvzeLMqnJaC9uMud_39OPHp1GuS2v8HG-zqCjNLLinSQj6Sh3do It's not clear when we are getting our SAI and . . . Post-Processing Experience for Institutions, State Higher Ed Agencies, and Designated Scholarship Organizations "Institutions, state higher ed agencies, and designated scholarship organizations will begin receiving batches of FAFSA information (ISIRs) starting in the first half of March. The information transmitted to schools will include the updated SAI tables." (emphasis mine) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Not good at all. We’d planned to use the GI Bill for DDs final two years but we’re pivoting: one this year, one next year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 The emperor is wearing no clothes. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 (edited) Admissions/FA people are gonna be working 20 hr days to get their offers out. Anyone wanna bet the whole college admissions process for this year stretches into the summer? Families can’t make decisions without FA offers/info, which can’t be made without the FAFSA info. No how is it all settled by May 1. Edited January 31 by ScoutTN 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 35 minutes ago, ScoutTN said: No how is it all settled by May 1. Meanwhile, I get emails from one of our colleges about making housing deposits weekly. UUUUGH. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 11 minutes ago, cintinative said: Meanwhile, I get emails from one of our colleges about making housing deposits weekly. UUUUGH. Can you make the deposit without accepting an offer? We could, but I expect it varies widely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 31 minutes ago, ScoutTN said: Can you make the deposit without accepting an offer? We could, but I expect it varies widely. Maybe? But it's already the school that is $5K more than everywhere else. I need to look into it. I think something was due today.🤪 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 I guess I can add myself to the list of people who need to make a correction and can't until March...I said on the form that we'd have one less dependent this year, but I just went through the requirements for claiming dependents and realized we have one more year of claiming my oldest since he was in college for the first 5 months of 2023. Ugh. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted February 1 Author Share Posted February 1 9 hours ago, kokotg said: I guess I can add myself to the list of people who need to make a correction and can't until March.. I'm really hoping I am not deluding myself but I really hope I will be able to correct ours before then. Of course no one has any idea at this point when that will be--they originally said January 31st. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 5 hours ago, cintinative said: I'm really hoping I am not deluding myself but I really hope I will be able to correct ours before then. Of course no one has any idea at this point when that will be--they originally said January 31st. I just checked, and this is what is says right now: Quote Check the status of your form beginning in the first half of March by logging in to your StudentAid.gov account and selecting your FAFSA submission from the My Activity section of your account Dashboard. Once your form is processed, you can make any required or voluntary corrections. 😞 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted February 1 Author Share Posted February 1 @kokotg that is horrible. Honestly I can't imagine this going worse. It's totally my fault I made the error, but I have no idea how this will work with the colleges. I thought the mid-March was just to get data to the colleges, not to release forms to everyone else. How can they get away with delaying all this six weeks?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 I thought, "hmm...maybe it doesn't make that big of a difference how many dependents we're listing"...but then I did a calculator online and apparently it makes about $2000 difference in our SAI. Then I got nervous about how I filled out the CSS and made a correction to that. Only I can't actually see anymore how the question was phrased, so I don't know if I answered it correctly! He's not our dependent right now, and we won't claim him as one when this next kid is actually in college, but we will claim him on our 2023 taxes. I'm pretty sure the FAFSA specifically asked if we would have a different number of dependents on our 2023 form, and I clicked yes because I was thinking we wouldn't be able to claim him since he graduated mid-year. ANYWAY, for the CSS they just let you put in an explanation if you think you made a mistake (they don't appear to allow you to change the already submitted form) so I said what the situation is and they can do with the info what they will! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 1 hour ago, cintinative said: @kokotg that is horrible. Honestly I can't imagine this going worse. It's totally my fault I made the error, but I have no idea how this will work with the colleges. I thought the mid-March was just to get data to the colleges, not to release forms to everyone else. How can they get away with delaying all this six weeks?? Right?! Why didn’t they beta test the new changes a year ahead so all the glitches were fixed before anyone NEEDED it done on time and accurately. Govt has no accountability or competition and that is bad. Monopoly, boo. Well, it’s way later than that when we consider that the FAFSA is normally open Oct. 1 and gets info to universities within a month or six weeks. We had merit scholarship info from three schools before Christmas last year, all of which require the FAFSA info. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 (edited) This is bad for us. For L, it's no big deal-L's aid is all merit aid, and while the school requires the FAFSA (because it's last money aid), we don't qualify for need based aid beyond the minimum loan anyone can get. Plus L only has one more year, so we know what to expect financially at this point. But M should be pell eligible, and probably won't get merit aid-and is likely to have to do an appeal because there are substantial medical expenses, etc beyond what the financial profile shows. Cost of attendance is likely to be the deciding factor as to where they can go at all. Edited February 2 by Dmmetler 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSera Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 On 1/22/2024 at 5:01 PM, ScoutTN said: I don’t care what number it comes up with bc Dd’s scholarships are merit, not need-based. But we have to file the FAFSA in order to get them, both from our state and from her uni. I’ve been ignoring the FAFSA because my kid’s aid is all merit based. Now I’m wondering if I’m doing the wrong thing and need it anyway. I have to figure out how/where to find out. One of my other kids got the same scholarships at the same school several years back and we never did a FAFSA then, so hopefully that’s right. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 5 minutes ago, KSera said: I’ve been ignoring the FAFSA because my kid’s aid is all merit based. Now I’m wondering if I’m doing the wrong thing and need it anyway. I have to figure out how/where to find out. One of my other kids got the same scholarships at the same school several years back and we never did a FAFSA then, so hopefully that’s right. I know L's school wants the FAFSA before releasing merit aid, because they won't give aid over the cost of attendance. So if you get 25K in need based aid, you won't also get a 25K merit scholarship. There are schools that will stack-one of L's friends gets more in scholarship money than the cost of attendance and literally is paid to go to school, but I think that's unusual. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 39 minutes ago, KSera said: I’ve been ignoring the FAFSA because my kid’s aid is all merit based. Now I’m wondering if I’m doing the wrong thing and need it anyway. I have to figure out how/where to find out. One of my other kids got the same scholarships at the same school several years back and we never did a FAFSA then, so hopefully that’s right. It may be school and state dependent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 What a mess. We filed without any issues but have heard nothing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagistraKennedy Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 On 2/1/2024 at 3:35 PM, ScoutTN said: Right?! Why didn’t they beta test the new changes a year ahead so all the glitches were fixed before anyone NEEDED it done on time and accurately. 🤣 Well, that would make FAR too much sense, which means it's automatically off the table as an option. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 2 hours ago, MagistraKennedy said: 🤣 Well, that would make FAR too much sense, which means it's automatically off the table as an option. Government! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagistraKennedy Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 So --- logistical question --- I waited a bit to fill out our FAFSA, because of all the shenanigans. I dove in last night, signed the agreement to allow the FAFSA folks to access my tax information. Went on to the next page, and was surprised to see questions that wanted me to fill in the information from my tax returns. I thought by agreeing to the release of my tax information, that the FAFSA application would just scoop all of the data and plop it into the application. Am I completely off base? I've seen comments about tax data being imported, but maybe I'm misunderstanding, or did something incorrect. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 59 minutes ago, MagistraKennedy said: So --- logistical question --- I waited a bit to fill out our FAFSA, because of all the shenanigans. I dove in last night, signed the agreement to allow the FAFSA folks to access my tax information. Went on to the next page, and was surprised to see questions that wanted me to fill in the information from my tax returns. I thought by agreeing to the release of my tax information, that the FAFSA application would just scoop all of the data and plop it into the application. Am I completely off base? I've seen comments about tax data being imported, but maybe I'm misunderstanding, or did something incorrect. It did that for me last year, so I had all the info ready, but it did not do it this year?! Strange that it’s not the same for everyone. Makes me nervous… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 1 hour ago, MagistraKennedy said: So --- logistical question --- I waited a bit to fill out our FAFSA, because of all the shenanigans. I dove in last night, signed the agreement to allow the FAFSA folks to access my tax information. Went on to the next page, and was surprised to see questions that wanted me to fill in the information from my tax returns. I thought by agreeing to the release of my tax information, that the FAFSA application would just scoop all of the data and plop it into the application. Am I completely off base? I've seen comments about tax data being imported, but maybe I'm misunderstanding, or did something incorrect. I didn't have to enter my tax info. That's weird. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 (edited) 2 hours ago, MagistraKennedy said: So --- logistical question --- I waited a bit to fill out our FAFSA, because of all the shenanigans. I dove in last night, signed the agreement to allow the FAFSA folks to access my tax information. Went on to the next page, and was surprised to see questions that wanted me to fill in the information from my tax returns. I thought by agreeing to the release of my tax information, that the FAFSA application would just scoop all of the data and plop it into the application. Am I completely off base? I've seen comments about tax data being imported, but maybe I'm misunderstanding, or did something incorrect. We had to enter a few things. Maybe to verify? ay🤷🏼♀️ Edited February 4 by Miss Tick omg, can't get rid of the emoji. it is behaving like a poltergeist from the 80s 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 I wanted to add that I was relieved to hear that dh and my twins seem to have successfully completed FAFSA x2 today. Glad to be done. Trying not to step into a deep part of this FAFSA mess. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagistraKennedy Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 13 hours ago, cintinative said: I didn't have to enter my tax info. That's weird. ARGH --- I did not want to hear that. That's what's so odd about this whole process. Everyone's experiences have been very different, it seems 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagistraKennedy Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 14 hours ago, ScoutTN said: It did that for me last year, so I had all the info ready, but it did not do it this year?! Strange that it’s not the same for everyone. Makes me nervous… PRECISELY. I need a 'breathing into a paper bag' emoji 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 3 hours ago, MagistraKennedy said: PRECISELY. I need a 'breathing into a paper bag' emoji Same here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 We didn’t have to enter anything either. It was over in one minute. A piece of cake compared to the financial colonoscopy CSS profile puts you through and then asks you to pay for the abuse. I was worried I messed up fafsa because it asks virtually nothing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 On 2/3/2024 at 5:31 PM, MagistraKennedy said: So --- logistical question --- I waited a bit to fill out our FAFSA, because of all the shenanigans. I dove in last night, signed the agreement to allow the FAFSA folks to access my tax information. Went on to the next page, and was surprised to see questions that wanted me to fill in the information from my tax returns. I thought by agreeing to the release of my tax information, that the FAFSA application would just scoop all of the data and plop it into the application. Am I completely off base? I've seen comments about tax data being imported, but maybe I'm misunderstanding, or did something incorrect. Double check that you are filling out the 2024-25 FAFSA. That is the form for students getting aid in Fall 2024. It's the new form. There is also a 2023-24 FAFSA that is still available, because students getting aid for spring or summer 2024 would need to fill that version out (which was released in October 2022). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagistraKennedy Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 (edited) On 2/7/2024 at 6:17 PM, Sebastian (a lady) said: Double check that you are filling out the 2024-25 FAFSA. That is the form for students getting aid in Fall 2024. It's the new form. There is also a 2023-24 FAFSA that is still available, because students getting aid for spring or summer 2024 would need to fill that version out (which was released in October 2022). Well --- I guess it asked me because of our family size? Maybe? Who knows? It's all done, we got an SAR?SAI? as well as an Pell Grant eligibility estimate. I'll go back in when I get a chance just to make sure, but I think it was the right one. CSS and IDOCs are all done. Now, we just sit and wait. I feel SO much better having that behind us. Edited February 11 by MagistraKennedy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 (edited) We finally got our SAI for this year and it was…insane…more than 2x what it was the year before. It certainly made clear why we needed to use other means this year and pick a school with guaranteed terms. We’ll have an extra dependent next year so that will help for DSs baseline year. Edited February 11 by Sneezyone 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagistraKennedy Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 1 hour ago, Sneezyone said: We finally got our SAI for this year and it was…insane…more than 2x what it was the year before. It certainly made clear why we needed to use other means this year and pick a school with guaranteed terms. We’ll have an extra dependent next year so that will help for DSs baseline year. Can you explain this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 3 hours ago, Sneezyone said: We finally got our SAI for this year and it was…insane…more than 2x what it was the year before. It certainly made clear why we needed to use other means this year and pick a school with guaranteed terms. We’ll have an extra dependent next year so that will help for DSs baseline year. Did you fill out the fafsa earlier and not get the SAI? Or did you just get it submitted now? We did two, and it gave us an SAI for one but not the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 3 hours ago, Sneezyone said: We finally got our SAI for this year and it was…insane…more than 2x what it was the year before. It certainly made clear why we needed to use other means this year and pick a school with guaranteed terms. We’ll have an extra dependent next year so that will help for DSs baseline year. Wait, isn't it a GOOD thing to have a higher SAI? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 5 hours ago, Sneezyone said: We finally got our SAI for this year and it was…insane…more than 2x what it was the year before. It certainly made clear why we needed to use other means this year and pick a school with guaranteed terms. We’ll have an extra dependent next year so that will help for DSs baseline year. I don't know if this is correct or not but on the FAFSA forums I have been on they said that you should disregard the SAIs until all FAFSA apps are processed and the stuff is sent out. @MagistraKennedy I would make sure you filled out the 2024 FAFSA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 (edited) 6 hours ago, MagistraKennedy said: Can you explain this? Yes. We’ve been financially supporting two other family members for the better part of three years but haven’t claimed them as dependents. As a result, and because of me going back to work (making that support possible), our SAI went from 17k to 41k. Fortunately, we can and will be using the GI bill next year. DDs school participates in the yellow ribbon program which will limit our financial contribution to the level it was this year AND give us money to pay for her housing. Not all schools do this (guarantee four years of aid regardless of income). We could certainly appeal the SAI based on our circumstances but that, too, is time consuming and messy. Edited February 12 by Sneezyone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 4 hours ago, kokotg said: Did you fill out the fafsa earlier and not get the SAI? Or did you just get it submitted now? We did two, and it gave us an SAI for one but not the other. We filled it out for this year but DD just completed her portion last week. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 (edited) 4 hours ago, Lucy the Valiant said: Wait, isn't it a GOOD thing to have a higher SAI? Sure, if it’s accurate. Ours isn’t. We paid 20k OOP/with savings and it was fine. We prepared for that. We did not prepare to support another household, the entire housing expense, and that’s what we’re doing. If we received market rent for our rental vs nothing or 60% which is what we (occasionally) get, it’d be fine. Edited February 12 by Sneezyone 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 I don't know if this will help anyone, but I saw it linked. https://thecollegeinvestor.com/43805/student-aid-index-sai-chart/?fbclid=IwAR3Z6jcn_zZ8NILYfL7kWR8MTmadCzYLduBvKU-O3O5PjwXBdGUgZT_3w_E 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 14 hours ago, cintinative said: I don't know if this will help anyone, but I saw it linked. https://thecollegeinvestor.com/43805/student-aid-index-sai-chart/?fbclid=IwAR3Z6jcn_zZ8NILYfL7kWR8MTmadCzYLduBvKU-O3O5PjwXBdGUgZT_3w_E This so so very helpful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eos Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 Finally got what I needed from my CPA and finished the FAFSA. It's like a black hole. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 On 2/11/2024 at 2:06 PM, Lucy the Valiant said: Wait, isn't it a GOOD thing to have a higher SAI? There can be lots of legitimate reasons why the SAI may not reflect what is really financially possible for a family to contribute for college. One straight forward reason is inconsistent or bonus driven incomes. But there are plenty of others too. Last time I checked, ours was over half our take home pay. We're riding the merit money wagon so happily, we did not have to do the FAFSA this year. Because what an absolute train wreck. We did have to do it for both our kids to be considered for merit. Lots of schools like to verify you aren't eligible for pell or need based aid before awarding you other funds from the school's coffers. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 2 hours ago, catz said: There can be lots of legitimate reasons why the SAI may not reflect what is really financially possible for a family to contribute for college. One straight forward reason is inconsistent or bonus driven incomes. But there are plenty of others too. Last time I checked, ours was over half our take home pay. We're riding the merit money wagon so happily, we did not have to do the FAFSA this year. Because what an absolute train wreck. We did have to do it for both our kids to be considered for merit. Lots of schools like to verify you aren't eligible for pell or need based aid before awarding you other funds from the school's coffers. I was confusing SAI with Pell when I asked that - WHOOPS! I fully know they're not the same thing, but mis-spoke / mis-typed. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagistraKennedy Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 On 2/11/2024 at 7:33 PM, Sneezyone said: Yes. We’ve been financially supporting two other family members for the better part of three years but haven’t claimed them as dependents. As a result, and because of me going back to work (making that support possible), our SAI went from 17k to 41k. Fortunately, we can and will be using the GI bill next year. DDs school participates in the yellow ribbon program which will limit our financial contribution to the level it was this year AND give us money to pay for her housing. Not all schools do this (guarantee four years of aid regardless of income). We could certainly appeal the SAI based on our circumstances but that, too, is time consuming and messy. Thank you --- I was unfamiliar with guaranteed terms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagistraKennedy Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 On 2/11/2024 at 4:34 PM, cintinative said: I don't know if this is correct or not but on the FAFSA forums I have been on they said that you should disregard the SAIs until all FAFSA apps are processed and the stuff is sent out. @MagistraKennedy I would make sure you filled out the 2024 FAFSA. Definitely the 2024 --- I went back and double checked. It's not an official report, but just a screenshot from where she signed her section and got a preliminary SAI number and estimate. It's not exact, but it got me closer to an idea of what we're going to need to pay, etc. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 @MagistraKennedy We pay significantly less than our EFC, if that’s any encouragement. In state school with generous merit aid. No loans. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 4 hours ago, ScoutTN said: We pay significantly less than our EFC Oh so do we by a long shot. Generous merit with both kids. Different way of college shopping than if you can go full frieght or looking for need based aid, but doable. No loans here either. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 38 minutes ago, catz said: Oh so do we by a long shot. Generous merit with both kids. Different way of college shopping than if you can go full frieght or looking for need based aid, but doable. No loans here either. Yes, very different way of shopping! Thankful that we have a student for whom it works. Her brother may need a different approach. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.