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I'm an academic advisor who's been helping students with FAFSA issues this cycle. What you're experiencing is part of the redesigned FAFSA process. Your tax information includes both you and your husband when you file jointly, so the system now skips redundant entry fields. However, there IS a technical issue affecting some applications where the summary page doesn't display all contributor information correctly. Before signing and submitting: 1. Download or screenshot the entire summary page 2. Verify BOTH parents' information appears in the contributor section 3. Check that income figures match what you'd expect from your tax return If anything is missing or incorrect, DO NOT SUBMIT until resolved with FSA. Fixing issues after submission is much more complicated than getting it right initially.
is that why my son's confirmation page showed weird income numbers? our AGI was different than what showed up on the final page even tho we used the IRS tool thing.
Yes, that could definitely be related. The new FAFSA is applying the Simplified Needs Test to more families, so certain income types might be excluded from your SAI calculation. However, if your entire AGI is wrong, that's a technical issue that needs correction. I recommend calling FSA to verify exactly what income was pulled from your tax return. Just be persistent - their phone lines are swamped right now.
After dealing with this exact issue, I finally got through to an FSA agent who explained what's happening. The system IS pulling your husband's data through the IRS function, but there's a display bug in the UI that makes it appear like you're skipping required sections. The agent confirmed that as long as: 1. Both you and your husband appear in the contributor section of the summary page 2. Your income figures roughly match what you filed on taxes (allowing for the new formula adjustments) Then your application IS complete and will be processed correctly. That said - I'd still absolutely review everything before submitting. The new system is much more automated but also has some serious technical issues they're still working through.
Update on this issue: The Department of Education acknowledged a specific bug affecting multiple dependent applications in the 2025-2026 FAFSA. They recommend these steps specifically for twin applications: 1. Complete the applications at least 24 hours apart 2. Use different browsers for each application 3. Ensure both students AND the parent have separate email addresses linked to their FSA IDs 4. After submitting both applications, the parent should log into studentaid.gov separately and verify the tax permissions for each student If you still experience the error after trying these steps, a direct call to FSA is unfortunately necessary. The issue is on their end.
Did you get this fixed? I'm about to submit FAFSA forms for my twins next week and want to avoid the same problem!
Yes! We finally fixed it. The issue was that we had used the same parent email for both FSA IDs. We changed one of them to a different email address, waited 48 hours, then reauthorized the tax information for both students. That finally worked! Also make sure to submit their applications at least a day apart - that seems to help prevent the system from getting confused.
After checking with my daughter's school about her summer classes, I found out there's another important consideration: federal aid annual limits! For example, if your daughter is eligible for $6,895 in Pell Grant for the entire 2025-2026 year, and uses $1,500 for summer classes, she'll only have $5,395 left for fall and spring combined. Same with loans - there's an annual borrowing limit. Make sure she's strategic about how she uses her aid throughout the full academic year!
my brohter did summer classes and the financial aid didnt come thru until like 2 weeks AFTER classes started!! so make sure u have $$ to cover costs until aid disbursement!! his school gave tuition extension but not for books or housing!!
this happened to my sister too and she said her college finaid office helped her fix it without waiting for the web site to work. might be worth asking?
UPDATE: We're finally fixed! I used the Claimyr service to get through to FSA without the endless hold times, and they were able to manually override the errors. The agent said they're seeing this issue constantly with the new system. For anyone else dealing with this - don't waste your time with the website if you've already tried multiple times. Just call FSA directly (use Claimyr to avoid the wait) and they can usually fix it within minutes once you get an agent. Our school's financial aid office also submitted a secondary correction request on our behalf. THANK YOU everyone for your help!
Great to hear you got it resolved! For anyone else facing similar issues, I recommend documenting everything - screenshots of errors, dates/times of attempts, and any confirmation numbers you receive. This documentation can be crucial if you need to request deadline extensions from your schools due to FAFSA system errors.
StarSailor
have u tried a different time of day? sounds weird but sometimes the website is just overloaded when everybodys on it. i did mine at like 6am and had zero issues lol
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Zainab Ibrahim
Update on this issue: The Department of Education just released a statement acknowledging the birthday field bug affecting some users. They recommend trying these steps: 1. Clear your browser cache completely (not just cookies) 2. Use the FAFSA mobile app instead of the website 3. If using the website, try Microsoft Edge browser specifically 4. Ensure your FSA ID was created more than 3 days ago (there's a verification period) They're working on a fix that should be deployed within the next week. If you need this resolved immediately for financial aid deadlines, calling is unfortunately your best option.
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Ava Thompson
•Thank you for this update! I just downloaded the mobile app and I'm going to try that. My FSA ID is several months old, so that shouldn't be the issue. Fingers crossed this works!
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