<p>This thread is immensely helpful in filling out FAFSA.</p>
<p>We submitted yesterday and my SAR reported that SSA didn’t approve my son’s citizenship status:( More paperwork to deal with now:) Kids who are naturalized - please update your records with SSA sooner to avoid sending more paperwork to colleges proving your citizenship.</p>
<p>Hello all, I’ve scoured this forum, called FAFSA and several financial aid offices where my daughter applied, and still have not gotten a conclusive answer on what to do when you apply to more than 10 schools. Her FAFSA was processed yesterday, and we called several schools, some said they wouldn’t be downloading her information until March, so we can’t delete them. Other schools are saying 5 to 7 days, you just have to keep checking. However, they will mark the date she sent her FAFSA to them, so is important. But she can’t send it to the other four schools until she finds somebody who has actually downloaded her information, so her place in line with those schools will be pushed further and further back as we wait. Also I asked FAFSA representatives what happens when we go back to add our real tax info–they claimed we didn’t need to do anything that even schools which had been deleted to make room for other schools would recieve the info. The financial aid folks a the schools say this is not so. So I feel like–what was the point of doing the FAFSA so early, especially when i can’t send them to some of the more generous schools yet.</p>
<p>OK, I ramble on. Most schools are now saying that they won’t download FAFSA until April, and one rep told me that they think what FAFSA is suggesting is that you don’t need to apply to more than 10 schools. Wish someone had told me this beforehand.</p>
<p>A lot of help… Definitely needs to be bumped, again</p>
<p>Kimberly12-So what are you going to do about other schools? My DD applied to 13 schools so we are in similar boat. To be honest the 3 were the merit potential schools. There financial aid was the worst, but had great scholarships. Was thinking of not sending any FA info at all to them unless they somehow move up her priority list.</p>
<p>lacrossemom-(or anyone else) do you have any link to the information on average amount of FA offered by each school? I think I had a link, but now cannot find it. And for some reason, I cannot start a new post to ask someone who might have the link.</p>
<p>Another question: Do you have to delete all 10 schools originally submitted or can you add them one at a time as the colleges process your FAFSA info?</p>
<p>Marybee - I used the financial aid calculator for each school she showed any interest in. We used that to determine final list of schools. The three we didn’t send FAFSA should hopefully give merit or will probably not consider.</p>
<p>We’re in the same boat. I found this on the FAFSA website - </p>
<hr>
<p>Your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) can list up to ten colleges. Once you receive your Student Aid Report (SAR), you can make the information available to more than ten colleges through one of the following options. Each option will allow the college to receive an electronic copy of your SAR, and you will also receive an updated SAR:</p>
<ol>
<li> Go to the FAFSA on the Web home page and click Start Here to log in. You will be given the option to Make FAFSA Corrections. Remove some of the colleges listed on your FAFSA, add the additional school codes, and submit the corrections for processing.</li>
<li> Give the additional colleges your Social Security Number, name, and the Data Release Number (DRN) from your SAR so that they can add their school code to your FAFSA and receive an electronic copy of your SAR.</li>
<li> Call the Federal Student Aid Information Center and have them add the colleges for you. When you call, you must provide the DRN from your SAR or confirmation page. Refer to the Contact Us page for contact information.</li>
<li> If you have a paper SAR, you can replace the colleges listed on the SAR with other colleges, and mail the SAR back to Federal Student Aid. Note that the paper SAR only allows you to change up to four colleges.</li>
</ol>
<p>TIP: If there are ten colleges on your FAFSA, any new school codes that you add will replace one or more of the school codes already listed.</p>
<hr>
<p>It seems that <em>maybe</em> options 2 and 3 don’t require deleting any of the original 10 colleges?? Once we get our SAR, I think I’m going to start by trying option 3 so that I can hopefully talk to someone about it and get more facts. I’ll report back what I learn. (BTW, their contact number is 1‑800‑433‑3243.)</p>
<p>I have done option 1 both in the past for one child and in the current year for another. This year, I submitted the first FAFSA with 10 names on it on January 2. Once I received an email that the FAFSA was processed on January 4, I printed out the SAR with the first 10 college names on it. I then went in and deleted all 10 colleges, and added the second group of 6 colleges. This second “corrected” FAFSA was processed 2 days later, and I printed out a second SAR with the last 6 colleges on it. On the FAFSA account, when we log on, we can see FAFSA change history and access both SAR’s.</p>
<p>I know it makes people nervous to delete the colleges, but I have not run into any problems with this. As a matter of fact, my nephew got an email just this a.m. from a “deleted” school (one of the first 10) that they had received his FAFSA.</p>
<p>Catie33–I really want to do number one option, but I’ve called three different financial aid offices, and they all claimed that if I removed them before they had downloaded my forms, then they wouldn’t get my information. Do they not know what they are talking about?
Even the school counselor does not have a clear answer to this question.</p>
<p>Do you know for sure that all of the schools you applied to got the SAR?</p>
<p>No, I don’t know for sure because I’m not going to make 16 phone calls to verify. I just know from experience that I had no problem when I followed the number 1 option 2 years ago with my first nephew based upon advice I got here at CC and based on what it says on the FAFSA site [If</a> I want to apply to more than ten colleges, what should I do?](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/help/fotwfaq14.htm]If”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/help/fotwfaq14.htm) My nephew got financial aid offers from all of his schools, which means they all got the FAFSA. And, as I said in my first post, my second nephew got an email yesterday from one on the deleted schools that they had received his FAFSA. I highly doubt they downloaded it on January 2 or 3 which were the only days on which that school was not deleted. If we hear from other schools, I’ll post again here.</p>
<p>As a follow-up, I spoke with someone from FAFSA today. As she was adding the extra schools, I asked if they were truly being added to the list or if they were replacing schools on the original list. She said they were replacing originals ones, so therefore that’s the same regardless of whether you call it in or do it yourself online. I asked her if this would be a problem if the original schools hadn’t already downloaded/processed the form, and she said no, that they will still get it and that this procedure essentially just adds a “page 2” to the report. She also said that when we go in to update our preliminary numbers with the final ones, we’ll have to do the 2-step process again to make sure all of the schools get the update.</p>
<p>What would stop anyone from doing this process, one school at a time, if you don’t want every
school to see every other school? … if what Fosterte says is correct? Or do you want them to see where you applied?</p>
<p>Can someone give me a bit of help-</p>
<p>There seems to be a lot of different paths this thread is talking about.</p>
<p>Okay, I have more than 10 schools, sent my 10 schools.</p>
<p>A day has passed, I recieved an email that my FAFSA was processed. I also recieved a link about my SAR, and it had a DRN number too.</p>
<p>Am I safe to delete some schools and put the rest on or do I have to wait longer?</p>
<p>sjosty- I am right where you are. I think we are safe to go and do as the others have instructed and add the additional schools. I still have to find the link, try it, and see what happens. Since this was my first time doing this, I was nervous about hitting the submit button last night on the first set of schools. Now I know how the HSers must feel when submitting their applications. I am going to try it tomorrow.</p>
<p>Kimberly12 - I called up fafsa cust. service today to clarify how to make sure if the schools have downloaded my fafsa info. He said once fafsa submitted, the information is loaded into school’s databse but the school may not view it right away. They can download it into their system whenever fin-aid office wants to. That tells me even if we delete first set of schools to accommodate next set, the first set of schools do have fafsa information in their database, even if they download after a month. Hence option 1 seem reliable.</p>
<p>@ Marybee.</p>
<p>If the concern is having schools see what others you have applied to, I don’t think it matters, since the FAFSA is going to the Financial Office and NOT the admissions office where they are independent of each other.</p>
<p>However, there may be some schools where FA office and Admission office work as one. Oh well, as they say “it is what it is” 
</p>
<p>so one question unanswered:
what do you do when you apply to 10+ schools using 2011 tax info but you have to update the newest 2012 tax return info? when you delete the first group of schools, how do you update info for them?</p>
<p>stevenydc - When you go back to add your actual 2012 numbers you do the same thing as you would for your estimated numbers. Break up your schools into 2 groups, and send first to the schools with the earliest deadlines. From what I can see you can delete and add schools all you like. </p>
<p>I sent to 5 schools on January 1. On January 21 I deleted those schools and added just one to be processed with a Feb 1 deadline. Once I’ve filed my taxes and can use the IRS Data Retrieval, I’ll add back my original 5 to the 1 from the January 21 filing. After those 6 are processed, then I’ll send to our 5 remaining schools. I decided on the processing order based on what each individual school said it wanted.</p>