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That's great news! Most financial aid offices are well-prepared for these situations, especially since the maintenance affects students nationwide. Glad you got the extension you needed!
BE CAREFUL!!! My roommate finished her program 6 weeks early and the school reported it as a WITHDRAWAL instead of a completion!! She had to fight with them for MONTHS to get it fixed and almost had her transcript held!!! Make sure you get WRITTEN confirmation about how early completion works BEFORE you finish!!
When I was doing my online certification last year I was on track to finish like 8 weeks early but then my financial aid advisor told me that if I submitted my final project before the official end date they'd have to recalculate my aid. So I just waited and submitted everything on the official last day even though I was done early. Might be an option if you're worried about having to pay anything back.
This is actually a smart approach if your school treats early completion as a withdrawal. However, not all schools allow you to sit on completed work - some programs automatically mark you as complete when all requirements are fulfilled. Always check with your specific program's policies.
OMG I just realized I dont think anyone mentioned the HBCU schlarships!!! Norfolk State is an HBCU so theres special scholarships just for those schools. Check out the UNCF (United Negro College Fund) website and the Thurgood Marshall scholarship. My nephew got almost full tuition from combining a few of those!
This is incredibly helpful! I had no idea there were specific scholarships just for HBCUs. I'll check out both the UNCF and Thurgood Marshall scholarship right away. Thank you so much for sharing this information!
With an SAI of 4320 as you mentioned in a comment, you should absolutely qualify for some need-based aid. Here's what I'd do immediately: 1. File a FAFSA correction to fix the parent/contributor issue 2. Contact Norfolk State's financial aid office directly (email AND phone) 3. Ask specifically about the Access Grant and VGAP as someone mentioned 4. Look into HBCU-specific scholarships through UNCF 5. Request an aid appeal based on special circumstances if you've had any recent financial changes Don't let the initial SAI discourage you. Many families successfully navigate this with some persistence.
Thank you for these concrete steps! I've already started on the FAFSA correction this morning. We did have a job change last year that reduced our income - would that count as a special circumstance for an appeal? I'll be calling Norfolk State today.
btw if ur fixing tax stuff do u know which form they need? my daughters corrction was for the w2 vs tax return numbers not matching and we had to figure out which one they wanted us to use
UPDATE: I logged in with my parent FSA ID and was able to access the correction screen! It showed exactly what needed to be fixed - just a transposed number in our AGI. I corrected it and submitted the changes. The site said it would take 3-5 days to process, but we actually got a confirmation email the next day saying the corrections were accepted. Thanks everyone for your help!
Great to hear! That's a perfect example of how small errors can cause verification issues. Glad you were able to fix it quickly. Now your son's SAI calculation should be accurate which will give you the correct aid eligibility.
Yuki Yamamoto
Once you find out what the issue is, please come back and update us! It might help others who run into the same problem. The new FAFSA has so many quirks that we're all learning about in real-time.
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Ethan Brown
•I definitely will! I've already learned so much from everyone's responses here. I'm calling them first thing tomorrow morning.
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Zoe Dimitriou
my daughters school did this and turns out they just needed her to fill out an additional form for their specific financial aid program. had nothing to do with fafsa being wrong
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Ethan Brown
•That would be the best case scenario! Fingers crossed it's something that simple. Thanks for sharing your experience.
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