<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>I've applied for the first time for a Pell grant this summer (still 2012/2013). Skip to bottom for summary if this is too long to read.</p>
<p>Before writing this, I have searched and read a bunch of info all over the net, and also phoned my school several times, and I am now even more confused.</p>
<p>From my understanding, a school gets my FAFSA SAR as soon as it is marked as "Processed" and I can see the SAR on the FAFSA website, right?</p>
<p>Well I had 2 schools on my SAR. School #1 nearly immediately asked me for more documents and showed that I also qualified for the tuition fee waiver (BOGW).</p>
<p>School #2 is the one I really wanted to go to. I did a correction on my FAFSA over 2 weeks ago and added this school. It all went through ok on my end and I could see the amended SAR the next day. I called the school and they said to wait another 2 weeks. Ok, no problem, still lots of time at this point.</p>
<p>After 2 weeks I still heard nothing so I called and trying to figure this out, and the school claims they never got my FAFSA and that it will be 2 weeks until they get it.</p>
<p>This does not seem right to me. 2 other schools I had on there got the info right away. The reason this is a big deal is now I have to pay for my classes before getting the Pell, which makes no sense to me since the BOGW (tuiton fee waiver) went through nearly instantly at school #1.</p>
<p>Yes I mostly asked my school these questions, but they are not giving me straight answers. This is my first time doing this so I have no idea what to expect here.</p>
<p><strong>Summary for those who don't want to read it all:</strong></p>
<p>If they can see my FAFSA now, why would I have to wait 2 more weeks and have to pay for it myself??</p>
<p>I can’t answer your question with any certainty, but I can make one suggestion (that might or might not help): go in and amend your FAFSA to move School #2 to the top of the list, if it isn’t already there.</p>
<p>At least one other CC’er has posted that they could not get an award at all from a California CSU until they moved that school to the top of their FAFSA list. Don’t know if that’s what’s going on here . . . but it’s an easy fix and can’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>The other thing you can do is call the school FA office again, and move up the chain of command until you reach someone who’s actually able to help you. Be polite, but insistent. You might want to check the FA office website ahead of time and see if you can get the names of the people who work there. That way, you can just call and ask to speak with Mr./Ms. X right from the get go.</p>
<p>Good luck!!!</p>
<p>Thanks, coincidentally I did move the school up the list yesterday. I’ll give calling them a try again and see if I can talk to someone else.</p>
<p>I can tell you without hesitation that the order in which schools are listed on the FAFSA makes absolutely no difference. None whatsoever. Moving the school code to the top of the list is a waste of time.</p>
<p>Are you sure you put the correct school code on your FAFSA? Make sure it isn’t a different campus, a law school, or a med school. That can happen.</p>
<p>Sometimes the FAFSA info gets “stuck” when it gets to the school’s computer system. In that case, the school has to find the stuck FAFSA and bring it into its system. If you are sure you used the correct school code, the FAFSA should be there if it has been a couple weeks. Unless the school is one that rarely imports FAFSAs (definitely not the case for the majority of schools), your FAFSA should be in their system by now. You need to find someone who can help you. Don’t just take “wait and see” for an answer. Ask to talk to someone who can look up your FAFSA in the federal system, see when it was processed, and determine why it is not yet in their system.</p>
<p>It is also possible that it is there, but it your aid hasn’t been packaged yet. No matter the reason, you need to find out what is going on. Be polite but firm, and insist on talking to someone who can look at YOUR situation & figure out what is going on.</p>
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<p>Kelsmom, I beg to differ. We’ve had at least one family report here that a CSU would not release their student’s financial aid award until that school was placed at the top of the student’s FAFSA list. It sounds bizarre, but that was apparently the practice at at least one California state school.</p>
<p>I agree it should make no difference but I tried it anyways, when you get desperate sometimes you turn to superstition “just in case” :D</p>
<p>Regardless, this time I tracked down the exact person I needed to call and emailed her with plans to call in the morning if they did not respond. However, they were great and replied that morning. It was obvious that this person actually knew what they were talking about.</p>
<p>She still did not have the document from their last download a couple days ago (from before I resubmitted it). So, she ran a download again, and lo and behold there was my application!</p>
<p>So, I have no idea if putting the school on top did anything at all, or if the correction itself caused it to show up, or its all just a coincidence, but regardless, it’s fixed now. </p>
<p>In case anyone else is wondering, the system is pretty straight forward. IF you apply for FAFSA with a PIN, your app will be processed (resulting in your SAR) pretty quick, all mine took about a business day. Then, the schools on the list should basically have instant access to them (however FAFSA says 1 business day for schools to have access). The school just downloads all the records periodically.
It takes a lot longer if you don’t use the online PIN method, of course.
The next stage is the school making up your “package” or asking for more documents, etc. How long that takes is just dependent on school.</p>
<p>Congratulations - glad to hear you finally got some answers!</p>
<p>And, as superstitions go, moving a school to the top of the FAFSA list is a lot easier than making voodoo dolls! ;)</p>
<p>Maybe so, but a school that wants their code at the top of the FAFSA has a pretty dense bunch of folks working in the finaid office. A student could have a hundred different FAFSAs, each with a different school listed. Duh. What a dumb rule, if there is a school that has that rule.</p>