Welcome to the FAFSA community! As someone who just went through this process with my oldest, I wanted to add a few practical tips that helped us navigate the timeline smoothly: 1. **Set up your FSA ID early** - Like Mei mentioned, both parent and student need separate FSA IDs. Do this NOW rather than waiting until December. 2. **Gather your tax documents ahead of time** - The 2025-2026 FAFSA will use your 2023 tax return. Have it ready along with bank statements and investment records. 3. **Create a "FAFSA folder"** - Keep all financial documents in one place. Trust me, you'll reference them multiple times throughout the process. 4. **Mark your calendar for October** - Start preparing documents in October so you're ready to submit the FAFSA the moment it opens on December 1st. The summer session question is really important - definitely call the school's financial aid office ASAP as policies vary widely between institutions. Some treat summer as part of the previous academic year, others as part of the upcoming year. You're asking all the right questions early, which puts you ahead of many families. Your daughter is lucky to have such a proactive parent! Congratulations again on her acceptance!

Welcome to the financial aid journey! I just went through this exact process with my daughter who started last fall, so I completely understand the overwhelming feeling. Everyone here has given you fantastic advice, but I wanted to add one thing that really helped us stay organized - create a shared Google Doc or spreadsheet with all your important dates and deadlines. Include columns for: FAFSA deadline (Dec 1), school-specific scholarship deadlines, state aid deadlines (these vary by state!), and any school financial aid priority dates. Some schools have priority FAFSA deadlines as early as February 1st for maximum aid consideration, even though the federal deadline is later. Also, don't forget to check your state's financial aid programs! Many states have their own grants and scholarships with separate applications and earlier deadlines. Your state's higher education website should have all this info. One last tip: if your daughter is considering multiple schools, you'll need to list them all on the FAFSA (you can list up to 10). Each school will receive the results and create their own financial aid package, which can vary significantly between institutions. You're doing great by starting early - that's honestly half the battle! The first year is definitely the most confusing, but it becomes much more routine after that.

Just wanted to add one more tip that helped me - when you're documenting custody for FAFSA purposes, keep records like school enrollment forms, medical insurance coverage, and tax returns where you claimed your son as a dependent. These can all serve as proof that he lived with you more than 50% of the time if anyone ever questions it. Also, if your son has a school counselor or someone neutral who knows your family situation, having them aware of the custody arrangement can be helpful for potential waiver documentation later if needed for any CSS Profile schools. Good luck with everything!

As someone who just went through this process with my daughter, I want to echo what others have said about the FAFSA only needing the custodial parent's info - that's absolutely correct. But I'd also suggest reaching out to the financial aid offices at your son's target schools directly to ask about their specific policies. Some schools are really understanding about difficult co-parent situations and may have additional resources or flexibility you're not aware of. Also, if your ex continues to be uncooperative and you end up needing CSS Profile waivers, start that process early - it can take weeks to get approval and you don't want to miss deadlines. The whole system isn't perfect, but there are people at these schools whose job it is to help families navigate exactly these kinds of situations.

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm also born in 2000 and have been dealing with this exact same looping issue for the past week. I was starting to panic about my approaching deadline. Just tried Ava's solution with Edge InPrivate mode and manually typing my birthdate instead of using the dropdown calendar - and it worked on the first try! I can't believe something so simple fixed what seemed like an impossible technical problem. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and solutions. This community really came through when the official support system was failing us. Hopefully FSA gets this birth year calculation bug fixed soon so other students don't have to go through this stress!

Just wanted to add my experience to this thread! I'm also born in 2000 and was hitting this exact same loop yesterday. After reading through everyone's solutions here, I tried the Edge InPrivate + manual birthdate entry method that Ava discovered, and it worked perfectly! Got my FAFSA submitted this morning after days of frustration. One small addition to the solution: I also made sure to completely close all other browser windows before starting in InPrivate mode, just to be extra safe. Not sure if that made a difference, but figured I'd mention it in case it helps someone else. Thank you so much to everyone who shared their experiences and troubleshooting steps! This community is incredible - we shouldn't have to debug government websites for each other, but I'm so grateful we do. Hopefully FSA fixes this birth year bug soon so future 2000 babies don't have to deal with this stress!

Thanks everyone for the super helpful explanations! I just went through my daughter's award letter again and now I understand - the subsidized loans ($5,500) are offered to her directly based on our FAFSA, while the Parent PLUS loan ($18,000) that I was approved for is completely separate and in my name. It makes total sense now why they're listed separately on her award letter. I'm going to try calling FSA using that service someone mentioned to confirm everything before we accept the awards. Really appreciate all the help!

Great to see you got it all sorted out! Just wanted to add one more tip - when you do accept those awards, make sure to keep track of the disbursement dates. Parent PLUS loans typically get sent directly to the school and any excess gets refunded to you, while your daughter's subsidized loans will be credited to her student account. The timing can sometimes be different between the two types of loans, so it's good to know when to expect everything to hit. Good luck with everything!

That's awesome that it worked out for you! For anyone else reading this thread who might be dealing with similar issues, I'd recommend keeping a few things in mind: 1) Make sure you have all your tax documents ready before starting, 2) Don't try to rush through it - the system can be glitchy if you move too fast between sections, and 3) If you run into technical issues, try clearing your browser cache or switching browsers entirely. The new FAFSA definitely has its quirks but once you get through it, the process is actually pretty streamlined compared to the old paper forms!

As someone who just went through this process last month, I can confirm that the new FAFSA system is definitely confusing at first! The key thing to remember is that it's designed to be more secure now - each contributor (you and your spouse) needs to sign in separately with their own FSA ID for their tax information to be pulled. One thing I'd add to the great advice already given here is to make sure both of your FSA IDs are linked to the correct Social Security numbers and that your contact information is up to date. Also, if either of you filed taxes jointly, the system might take a bit longer to sort out whose information is whose, so don't be alarmed if there's a slight delay. The whole process is much smoother once you understand how it works!