My daughter is in college now dealing with this FAFSA nightmare. Her school still hasn't processed her federal aid because of FAFSA delays. We applied in January!!! It's almost May!!! She might have to skip fall semester if this doesn't get resolved. The whole system is completely broken.

As a parent who went through college applications with my older son two years ago, I want to offer some hope and practical advice. The FAFSA chaos is definitely scary, but here's what worked for us and might help you prepare: 1. Start building a comprehensive list of schools with different financial aid approaches - public schools with merit aid, private schools known for generous need-based aid, and schools where your daughter would be a top applicant 2. Begin gathering all your financial documents NOW (tax returns, bank statements, investment records) so you're ready to submit everything the moment the 2025-2026 FAFSA opens 3. Look into schools that use their own financial aid forms in addition to FAFSA - they often have more flexibility to help students 4. Consider having your daughter take the SAT/ACT again if there's room for improvement - higher test scores = more merit scholarship opportunities The silver lining is that colleges are very aware of this situation and many are actively working to make the process smoother for next year's applicants. Don't let the current chaos derail your daughter's dreams - there are still plenty of paths to make college affordable!

UPDATE: I finally got this resolved! For anyone facing the same issue in the future, here's what worked: 1. I tried the edit method first, but it didn't generate a new invitation for my husband 2. Used Claimyr to reach an FSA agent (took about 30 minutes instead of hours) 3. The agent confirmed there's a known bug with parent contributor information disappearing during corrections 4. They had to manually reset something on their end related to my husband's FSA ID association 5. After the reset, we had to wait 24 hours, then my husband was able to log in with his FSA ID and access the application The agent also put in a request to expedite our processing once all information is submitted. Fingers crossed we make the March 1st deadline! Thank you all for your help!

I'm dealing with a similar situation right now! My spouse's information also vanished after we made corrections to our daughter's FAFSA. Based on what I've been reading here, it seems like this is a widespread issue with the 2025-26 system. One thing I wanted to add that might help others - if you're still having trouble after trying the edit method, check your email spam/junk folders. Sometimes the system DOES send out the new parent invitation emails, but they get filtered as spam because they're coming from a different server after corrections are processed. Also, for anyone dealing with tight scholarship deadlines, I'd recommend emailing the financial aid offices directly with screenshots showing the technical issues you're experiencing. Many schools are being understanding about FAFSA delays this year and may extend their internal deadlines or work with estimated information. Thanks for sharing your solution @StarSurfer - definitely bookmarking Claimyr for future reference!

UPDATE: Just wanted to thank everyone for the help! I logged in and made the corrections, especially removing our retirement accounts from the assets section. The correction process was actually pretty straightforward. Now fingers crossed for a good SAI number and some decent financial aid packages! This community has been so helpful during this stressful process.

Congratulations on getting through the correction process! That's awesome that you were able to fix the retirement account issue - that probably made a significant difference in your SAI calculation. The waiting period is definitely nerve-wracking, but you've done everything right. Your daughter is lucky to have a parent who cares enough to double-check and make corrections. Wishing you both the best with the financial aid packages! 🤞

ALSO!!!! Make sure your parents are ready to do their part if they need to be contributors!!! My dad took FOREVER to create his account and verify his info and we almost missed a school's priority deadline because of it!!! Don't wait!!!

Just wanted to add my experience as someone who filed early last year - it was absolutely the right choice! I filed my FAFSA in October and received a much better aid package than friends who waited until spring. One thing that really helped me was gathering all my documents beforehand (2023 tax returns, W-2s, bank statements even though they don't matter for FAFSA calculations, etc.) so I could complete it in one sitting. The new system can be glitchy, so having everything ready prevents you from having to start over if you get kicked out mid-application. Also, don't forget to check each of your schools' priority deadlines - some are as early as February 1st!

my nephew did the beta and got rejected for pell grant but my sister said he should of qualified, they had to redo the whole thing and now hes getting the full pell grant. might be worth checking if your SAI looks right

Just to clarify for anyone reading this thread: if you completed the FAFSA during the beta/soft launch period (October-December) and received your SAI calculation, your application IS valid and you do NOT need to resubmit. However, you should: 1. Verify your application status shows "Processed" 2. Check that all selected schools are correctly listed 3. Contact schools to confirm they received your data 4. Make corrections if needed (without starting a new application) If schools say they don't have your data, contact Federal Student Aid directly for assistance.