Just realized I forgot to mention - make sure both you AND your son save the challenge questions and answers somewhere safe! My son forgot his and we had to go through this whole complicated process with calling in to reset it all. The system is super strict about security now.

after u get verified make sure u both check that the emails and phone #s are right in your profiles!!! they send all important stuff there and if its wrong u miss deadlines

I'm a financial aid counselor (not in MD though). The Parent_IRS_EdCredit_01 error typically means there's a validation issue between what you reported for education credits and what the IRS has on file. The problem is that with the new FAFSA, many of these verification flags are triggering unnecessarily. Here's what I recommend: 1. Call MHEC first thing tomorrow 2. Have your 1040 form ready (specifically looking at line 29) 3. Request an expedited review due to approaching payment deadlines 4. Ask if they need the correction from FSA or if they'll accept direct documentation 5. If they require FSA correction, ask for the specific steps they recommend Many schools are being flexible this year due to the FAFSA delays and verification issues. Have your son check with his school's financial aid office about possibly extending payment deadlines while this gets resolved.

btw one more thing... when my brother had this problem we finally got through to someone who explained that for Maryland scholarships specifically, if the FAFSA correction takes too long, you can request an emergency review. you need to ask for this specifically though, they won't offer it unless you know to ask!

my cousin works in financial aid and she told me they're reprocessing like a million fafsa applications this year because they completely messed up the formula for calculating aid when they switched to the new system lol. classic government incompetence

Just a quick tip for everyone dealing with FAFSA reprocessing: make sure all your schools have your correct FAFSA ID number on file. If they're looking for an old ID number, they might not see when your reprocessing is complete. Also, create a simple spreadsheet to track which schools you've notified about the reprocessing situation. Some schools will automatically receive the updated information, but others need to be manually prompted to pull your new FAFSA data once reprocessing is complete.

Anyone else notice how EVERY YEAR there's some new "glitch" with FAFSA? Last year it was the SAI calculation being wrong, year before was the parent login issues. I'm convinced they do this on purpose to discourage people from applying for aid. The whole system needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. They had 18 MONTHS to prepare for this rollout and still messed it up. SMH.

UPDATE: I finally got it working! Combination of three things worked for me: 1. Using the mobile app instead of browser 2. Doing it at 5:30am when server load was low 3. Entering income information in smaller chunks instead of all at once Thanks everyone for your help! For anyone else facing this issue, definitely try the mobile app and early morning approach. And contact your school's financial aid office to let them know about the technical difficulties - mine was very understanding and said they're giving flexibility on deadlines because of all the FAFSA issues this year.

That's fantastic advice! I hadn't thought about encouraging them to download that PDF. Do you have any ballpark estimate for how long the complete application should take when done properly? We want to set realistic expectations for our students and parents.

For a student with fairly straightforward finances (W-2 income, standard tax returns), about 45-60 minutes if they have all documents ready. For students with more complex situations (multiple contributors, business income, etc.), it can easily take 1.5-2 hours. That's actual focused work time, not counting gathering documents or waiting for contributor sections to be completed.