One important thing to clarify - do you have any previous FAFSA on file with your school? If you received financial aid for Fall 2024/Spring 2025, you might just need to complete a summer aid application with your school rather than a whole new FAFSA. Many schools have a separate summer aid application process that's much faster than waiting for new FAFSA processing. Worth asking about on Monday!

My roomate works in our financial aid office and she says ppl come in last minute ALL THE TIME for summer aid. Just go in person with your fafsa confirmation number and beg lol. they usually have some kind of form you can fill out for emergency processing

its not worth the risk to lie on fafsa just to get more money. my cousins friend got caught and the kid lost all financial aid and had to pay everything back

One important thing to consider - if you do need to correct the FAFSA to list her father instead of you, do it ASAP. Many schools have priority deadlines for financial aid, and late FAFSA corrections can sometimes mean less institutional aid, even if the federal aid increases. Also, be prepared for the verification process to take 3-4 weeks, sometimes longer with the new FAFSA system delays.

Don't overlook community college for the first two years!! My daughter did her gen eds at community college while living at home, then transferred to her dream school for junior/senior years. Saved us over $40,000 and she's graduating with the EXACT SAME DEGREE as her friends who went there all four years. The payment plan was actually manageable for community college because the base cost was so much lower.

After reviewing your situation more carefully, here's what I would recommend: 1. First, check if your school offers an extended payment plan option. Some schools have 5 or 6-month plans that can lower the monthly amount. 2. Consider the hybrid approach someone mentioned - perhaps $1,000/month on the payment plan and a smaller Parent PLUS loan for the remainder. 3. Make sure your daughter has maximized her Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized loan eligibility before you take on any Parent PLUS debt. 4. Remember that Parent PLUS interest begins accruing immediately after disbursement, not after graduation like some student loans. 5. If you do choose the Parent PLUS route, consider making interest-only payments while your daughter is in school to prevent the balance from growing. The most cost-effective approach is usually the payment plan, but it has to be realistically affordable for your monthly budget. No point in committing to payments you can't make.

This is MY THIRD YEAR dealing with FAFSA and every single year there's some new ridiculous problem. Last year I couldn't link my tax info and the year before my daughter's school couldn't download the information. The whole system is a JOKE. Whoever designed this electronic process should be fired. The paper form at least WORKS even if it takes longer. And you can make photocopies before you send it in case they "lose" it (which happened to my friend's son last year).

Update: I tried several of your suggestions and finally got it working! I did three things that seemed to make the difference: 1. Logged in directly to studentaid.gov instead of using the email link 2. Went to the Action Items section where I found the pending signature 3. Used my phone on mobile data instead of my home wifi The signature went through! No more red error message. Our FAFSA is finally submitted after months of frustration. Thank you all for your help. Special thanks to the financial aid administrator who suggested the different network - that seems to have been the key factor.

Financial aid advisor here - this is a known issue with the FAFSA system after certain types of corrections. Here's what's happening behind the scenes: When you make a signature correction, the system temporarily removes your application from the visible dashboard while it processes the change and recalculates your SAI. This is different from regular corrections where data remains visible. Specifically for signature-only corrections: - The processing typically takes 48-72 hours - Your confirmation emails remain valid proof of submission - Your school's financial aid office can still see your FAFSA in their system - Once processing completes, your information will reappear If you're on a deadline for your school, contact your financial aid office directly and explain the situation. They can verify they have your FAFSA data even if you can't see it on your dashboard.

UPDATE: My information is back!!! Just logged in and everything's showing normally again. Looks like it was just the system processing like everyone said. Thanks for all the help and reassurance everyone! For anyone who has this happen in the future - just wait it out for a couple days before panicking!