THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO CONFUSE US!!! I swear they make these questions vague on purpose to trip parents up so they can deny aid. Why can't they just ASK CLEARLY what they want to know?????

I went through this same confusion last year with our rental property in Arizona! Just to add to what everyone else has said - make sure you have documentation ready in case you get selected for verification. I kept our most recent mortgage statement, property tax records, and a recent property value estimate from our real estate agent. The key thing I learned is to be consistent - if you use Zillow for the market value estimate, make a note of that and the date you checked it. The financial aid office at my daughter's school said they just want to see that you made a reasonable effort to determine fair market value. And yes, definitely report the net worth (equity) not the full property value!

one more thing!! make sure ur tax info on the FAFSA EXACTLY matches whats on ur tax return. my husband put $45,367 when his W2 said $45,367.24 and we got flagged for verification which delayed everything for WEEKS

This whole situation sounds so familiar! I went through this exact scenario two years ago with my twins who were both applying to college at the same time. A few things that really helped me: 1. Create a spreadsheet with all the deadlines - FAFSA, CSS Profile, and each individual school's financial aid deadlines. Some schools had deadlines as early as February 1st! 2. For the FSA IDs, yes each person needs their own with unique email addresses. Your senior will need to create hers herself since she has to digitally sign the FAFSA. 3. The FAFSA will automatically calculate that you have two students in college simultaneously, which should help your aid eligibility significantly. Just make sure when you list household size that you count yourself, your kids, and anyone else you support. 4. Since you're divorced and have primary custody, you're correct that you likely won't need your ex's info for FAFSA. But definitely check with each school about CSS Profile requirements - some will waive the non-custodial parent requirement if you can document that he's uncooperative. The good news is having two in college at once actually works in your favor financially! Don't let the complexity overwhelm you - you've got this!

The whole system is RIDICULOUS! Early Action deadlines before FAFSA is even available?? Then they expect us to make decisions without knowing what aid we're getting? How are normal families supposed to navigate this mess? I'm so sick of this process and we've barely started. The College Board is making money off every CSS Profile submission while we all stress out. It's a racket.

I'm going through this exact same situation right now! My son is applying EA to 6 schools and I've been losing sleep over these overlapping deadlines. What I've learned so far: definitely start calling the financial aid offices directly because each school handles this differently. Some are super understanding about the FAFSA delay, others want everything submitted together. Also, if you're struggling to gather all the tax documents for CSS Profile, you can use estimates and update later - just make sure to note that in the comments section. The key is getting something submitted by the EA deadline rather than having an incomplete application. Hang in there, we're all figuring this out together!

Just to reassure you - the processing delays are affecting everyone this year, not just first-time applicants. The Department of Education has publicly acknowledged the issues with the new system rollout. While frustrating, this waiting period isn't a reflection on your application or anything you did wrong. The good news is that once processed, the new FAFSA formula is generally more generous for many families compared to previous years.

I'm going through the exact same thing with my son's FAFSA! We submitted in early March and still waiting for the SAI. It's really stressful not knowing if everything is okay or if there's some issue we're not aware of. This thread has been so helpful - I had no idea the delays were this widespread this year. I'm definitely going to reach out to his schools proactively like others suggested to make sure scholarship deadlines aren't affected. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences!

when my son was applying we almost missed a bunch of school specific financial aid deadlines because we didnt know they were different from the regular application deadlines!! make sure you check each college's website for their FAFSA priority dates

You're doing great by getting started early! I just wanted to add a couple more tips that helped us last year: 1. Make sure both you and your daughter use the SAME browser when working on the FAFSA - we had weird syncing issues when she used Chrome and I used Safari 2. The parent contributor section will ask about untaxed income too (like 401k contributions, child support received, etc.) so have those numbers ready 3. If you're divorced or separated, only the parent who provides more financial support fills out the parent section 4. Save your work frequently! There's an auto-save feature but it's not always reliable The process seems overwhelming at first but you'll get through it. The hardest part is just getting started, which you've already done! Good luck with the application this weekend.