I'm going through this exact same thing right now! Just submitted my FAFSA with 5 schools listed but I'm pretty sure I want to go to my state school. This whole thread has been incredibly reassuring - I had no idea this was such a common situation and that the system is actually designed to handle it. It's amazing how something that feels so stressful is actually just the normal process that every student goes through. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences, especially the financial aid professionals who explained how it works behind the scenes. I feel so much better knowing I don't need to contact the other schools and that my chosen school will process everything independently!

I'm so relieved I found this thread! I literally just went through this exact same panic last month when I submitted my FAFSA with 4 schools listed but then decided on my top choice a few days later. I was convinced I had somehow broken the system or that the schools would fight over my aid or something ridiculous like that. Reading all these responses from actual financial aid professionals and people who've been through this process is so reassuring. It's crazy how something that feels like such a big mistake is actually just the completely normal way the system is designed to work! Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences - this community is amazing for anxious students like us who overthink everything about the financial aid process.

Just to clarify some confusion in this thread - for the 2025-2026 FAFSA, both spouses in a married household need to be contributors and sign the application. This is true regardless of whether one or both spouses are involved in a family business. For self-employed applicants, the FAFSA will primarily use your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) from your tax return, which already includes your business income. The system is designed to capture your household's full financial picture, which is why both spouses need to be included. If you're struggling with the contributor section, I recommend using the help text within the FAFSA application itself (look for the question mark icons) or reviewing the detailed guidance on studentaid.gov before resorting to paid services.

As someone who just went through this process last month, I can confirm that both spouses definitely need to be contributors! We're also self-employed (photography business) and initially tried to just have my wife handle everything since she does our bookkeeping. The system wouldn't let us proceed without both of us being listed. The good news is that once you both have your FSA IDs set up, the actual process is pretty smooth. Most of our business income information pulled directly from our joint tax return through the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. We did have to manually enter a few details about business assets, but nothing too complicated. One thing that helped us was doing a practice run on the FAFSA website before actually submitting. You can save your progress and come back to it, so there's no pressure to complete everything in one sitting. Good luck!

As a new member to this community, I wanted to express my gratitude for this incredibly informative discussion! I'm also a grandparent (currently helping with two grandchildren's college expenses) and had been completely confused about how my contributions might affect their financial aid. The clarity around the recent FAFSA changes - particularly that grandparent-owned 529 plans and direct institutional payments no longer negatively impact aid calculations - is exactly what I needed to hear. Sean, your approach of being strategic about timing and structuring your support really resonates with me. I've been doing a mix of 529 contributions and direct tuition payments, but I was always worried I was somehow hurting their chances for aid. It's such a relief to know that under the current rules, these methods actually work in the students' favor. The technical insights about CSS Profile considerations and the distinction between different types of financial support have been eye-opening. I'm definitely going to review how my contributions might be viewed by schools that use institutional aid formulas beyond just FAFSA. Thank you all for creating such a supportive environment where we can share our experiences and learn from each other. This is exactly the kind of community resource that makes navigating these complex financial aid waters so much more manageable!

As a newcomer to this community, I'm incredibly grateful to have found such a comprehensive discussion about grandparent contributions and FAFSA! I'm in a very similar situation - I'm a retired teacher who wants to help my two grandchildren with college expenses, but I've been paralyzed by fear of accidentally hurting their financial aid eligibility. Sean, your background as a tax professional gives me so much confidence in the advice being shared here. The clarification about the 2025-2026 FAFSA rules regarding grandparent-owned 529 plans and direct institutional payments is exactly what I needed to hear. I've been sitting on the sidelines, wanting to help but afraid to act. I'm particularly interested in the strategic timing aspects that have been discussed. One of my grandchildren is a high school senior who will be applying for aid this year, and the other is a sophomore. Should I be thinking about when to make contributions to maximize their aid eligibility across different years? Also, the distinction between CSS Profile and FAFSA treatment of grandparent support is something I hadn't considered at all. My granddaughter is looking at some private schools that likely use CSS Profile, so I'll need to research that further. Thank you all for creating such a supportive and knowledgeable community. It's wonderful to see grandparents helping each other navigate these complex waters while supporting our grandchildren's educational dreams!

As a newcomer to this community, I want to say how incredibly helpful this entire discussion has been! I'm a parent of three kids - my oldest will be a college sophomore next year, my middle child starts as a freshman in fall 2025, and my youngest will follow in 2027. I was completely overwhelmed thinking about managing multiple FAFSA applications, but reading through everyone's experiences here has made it so much clearer. The fact that I can use my single parent FSA ID for all three kids while they each maintain their own student FSA IDs is such a relief! I especially appreciate the practical tips like using different email addresses for each child and the heads up about monitoring their individual application statuses. It's also encouraging to know that having multiple kids in college simultaneously can actually help with aid eligibility through the SAI calculation. This community seems like such a valuable resource for navigating these complex processes - thank you all for sharing your real-world experiences and making this less intimidating for us newcomers!

As someone completely new to the FAFSA process, this thread has been absolutely invaluable! I have two kids who will both be in college starting in 2026 (one will be a freshman, the other transferring from community college), and I was honestly panicking about how to manage two separate financial aid applications. Reading through everyone's experiences has been such a relief - knowing that I only need one parent FSA ID that can be used for both of my children's applications makes this seem so much more manageable! I love the practical tips everyone has shared, especially about using different email addresses for each child's FSA ID and keeping track of their individual application statuses. The insight about having multiple students potentially helping with aid eligibility is also really encouraging. I'm definitely going to create my parent FSA ID soon so I'm prepared when the time comes, and I'll be bookmarking this thread to reference throughout the process. Thank you all for sharing your real-world experiences and making this intimidating process feel much more approachable for newcomers like me!

This exact same thing happened to me and my twins two years ago! One got a -$2,500 SAI with full Pell Grant eligibility, while the other showed a $45,000+ SAI with zero aid - using identical financial information. It was absolutely maddening. What I discovered after weeks of detective work was that the FAFSA system had pulled different tax year data for each application, even though I submitted them within days of each other. One was using our 2022 tax info correctly, while the other somehow defaulted to 2021 data (which was higher income). The "correction" you mentioned probably means the system auto-updated one application with the right tax data. My advice: Don't wait for the second FAFSA to finish processing. Call the financial aid office immediately and ask them to do a side-by-side comparison of both applications. Bring printouts showing identical family info. Most schools will do a manual review when there's an obvious system error like this. In our case, they adjusted both packages to match the correct (lower) SAI within a week once they saw the discrepancy. The new FAFSA system is notorious for these twin/sibling glitches. You're definitely not alone in this nightmare!

I'm going through something very similar with my twin daughters right now! One received a SAI of around $8,000 with decent aid, while the other shows a SAI over $50,000 with basically no help - same exact financial info submitted on the same day. The crazy part is that both applications show as "processed" but with completely different calculations. I've been digging into this for days and found a few things that might help you troubleshoot: 1. Check if the "Contributors" section shows the same information for both twins - sometimes one application loses a contributor's data during processing 2. Look at the "Financial Information" summary page for each application to see if income/asset amounts match exactly 3. Verify that both show the same dependency status and household size The financial aid office at our top choice school told me they've had to manually correct dozens of these sibling discrepancy cases this year. They said the new FAFSA system has serious issues when processing multiple applications from the same household, especially when submitted close together. Don't panic about "messing up" the good package - schools deal with this all the time and they want to give accurate aid. Document everything and push for that manual review. Good luck!