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my parents didnt have good credit so we couldnt get the plus loan at all. ended up having to appeal to financial aid office for more grants. might be worth checking if ur mom will even qualify before planning on this money
That's an important point. If a parent is denied for a PLUS loan due to adverse credit history, the student becomes eligible for additional Unsubsidized Direct Loans. The increase isn't usually as much as you could get with a PLUS loan, but it's something. Always have a backup plan and talk to your financial aid office about options if the PLUS loan falls through.
Thanks everyone for all this info! I just talked to my mom and we're going to call the financial aid office tomorrow to confirm exactly what our school's Cost of Attendance includes for off-campus housing and books. I'm also going to make sure she selects me to receive any leftover funds after tuition. And we'll definitely look into what happens if she doesn't get approved - good to know I might qualify for more unsubsidized loans as a backup. This has been super helpful!
The whole FAFSA thing is COMPLETELY BROKEN this year!!!! My son's has been "processing" since JANUARY and he still hasnt got his SAI score!!! Meanwhile his friends who applied in MARCH already got theirs?? Make it make sense!! I'm so tired of this whole process I could SCREAM
dont worry about the SAI too much, most of it is BS anyway. my brother had a super high SAI but still got tons of scholarships from his school. just make sure she has good grades and writes good essays for scholarship applications!!
Thank you all so much for the advice! I'm feeling a bit better about our options now. We're going to: 1. Reach out to each school's financial aid office about appeal options based on our medical expenses and my husband's job change 2. Look into the CSS Profile for the private schools 3. Help my daughter apply for more merit scholarships 4. Consider adding a few more schools where she might be more competitive for merit aid It's frustrating that the system seems to penalize middle-class families so much, but at least we have some strategies to work with now.
One last suggestion - check if there's a discrepancy between the parent information on the FAFSA and your FSA ID. For example, if your name is "Robert" on your FSA ID but entered as "Bob" on the FAFSA, or if there's even a small spelling difference in your address, the system might not recognize you as the same person who needs to sign. These types of small mismatches are causing a lot of the signature issues this year.
So glad you got it fixed! Now save screenshots of EVERYTHING including the confirmation number. Trust me on this - with all the glitches this year, having proof of submission with timestamps has saved multiple families I know when their applications mysteriously "disappeared" from the system weeks later.
Nina Fitzgerald
Quick update for you - I just remembered that my friend had this EXACT issue and he fixed it by entering his FULL middle name instead of just the initial. Even though his SS card only showed the initial, the full name worked for verification. Might be worth a try!
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Kylo Ren
•That's a clever workaround! I'll add that to my list of things to try. My full middle name is James, so I'll try entering that instead of just J. Thanks for the tip!
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Mason Stone
Just to add some clarity about the timeline: if you need to submit the Identity Resolution Request form, make sure you follow up by phone after 3 business days if you haven't heard back. Current processing time metrics from FSA show 84% of these requests are completed within 5 business days, but that still means 16% take longer. Given your deadline concerns, you should request a priority review based on your daughter's aid deadline. Be prepared to provide the deadline date and the school's federal code.
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Kylo Ren
•Thank you for this specific advice! Her priority deadline is February 8th, so I really am cutting it close. I'll definitely mention that when requesting priority review. I appreciate you sharing the timeline info - helps me plan my follow-ups.
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