<p>How long do you have to wait to add schools to the original six you put down?
How long do you have to wait for them to process your app?
AND If you want to update and you have already sent in the fafsa to six schools, will those schools get the update or just new schools you put down?</p>
<p>Wait until you receive your SAR. If you sign online electronically, you should have the SAR back in a day or two. About 3-4 days if you mail it. (They say longer, but the system wouldn't accept my PIN for some strange reason - so I mailed the signature form on a Friday afternoon from California, and the SAR was available online the following Tuesday)</p>
<p>If you update information other than the colleges, the updates will go only to the colleges named on whichever FAFSA that you update. </p>
<p>So the easiest way to do it is this:</p>
<p>Do your first FAFSA with the 6 colleges that have the earliest financial aid deadlines. The web site will save this as transaction #01.</p>
<p>When you receive your SAR, make corrections to delete the first batch of colleges and add the next 6 -- this will be stored on the FAFSA site as transaction #02.</p>
<p>Later, when you want to update the FAFSA again after you have your W2's and tax info, you will log on, click the on the right to review your SAR, and you will see a page with links to both #01 and #02. </p>
<p>So, select #01 (your first list of colleges), make corrections to it, then submit. This will be transaction #03.</p>
<p>After you have done that, select #02, (your second list of colleges), make the same updates, submit. This will be transaction #04. </p>
<p>This time you won't have to wait for SAR's between updates because you have 2 separate FAFSA's to correct and each has a separate list of colleges. Assuming you have 12 or less colleges, you will end up with an even number of SARs, with odd numbers going to the first 6 colleges, and even going to the next set. </p>
<p>(Obviously if you have more than 12 colleges listed you will have to do another FAFSA and then you will end up with an original set numbered 1,2,3, and a second set numbered 4,5,6. )</p>
<p>It sound complicated but after the first FAFSA it's pretty easy.</p>
<p>Do we need to call colleges to make sure, or does SAR notification by email automatically mean they have access? No need to wait for them to download?</p>
<p>By the way, calmom, thank you for that very detailed and exact explanation. No one could explain it better.</p>
<p>Can we use 2004 info?</p>
<p>You can use 2004 info to estimate 2005 - if that is reasonable - but in the ende they want 2005. By "reasonable" I mean that if you (or your parent) had the same job in 2005 as you had in 2004, and you didn't get a pay raise -- then it would make sense to assume that your gross pay in 2005 will be pretty near the same. On the other hand, if you know there has been a big change - such as a big pay increase or bonus -- then you need to account for that. </p>
<p>It is in YOUR interest to be as accurate as possible because your ultimate financial aid award will be based on the final figures, not your estimate. So if you fill out the FAFSA saying family income is $40K, and it turns out that the income is $90K - what would happen is that you might get a financial aid offer from a rolling admissions school in February that looks really great, but in April after all the figures are in, the school ends up giving you a lot less. In the meantime, you might have chosen that school over others that admitted you later, without realizing that school #1 had based its award on inaccurate figures. </p>
<p>As to checking with the schools as to the SAR's -- I never had a problem. Every single SAR you get is retained with a transaction number on the FAFSA site and can be downloaded in PDF format or printed -- so if a school tells you that they don't have the SAR, you will always be able to find the latest one for that school and fax it to them or email. My experience with financial aid was that they would contact me and let me know when they needed more. That being said, I do think its a good idea to check status periodically with all colleges to make sure they have whatever documentation they need. It is worth an email or phone call.</p>
<p>Thanks calmom. My sar still didnt come yet. I sent in my fafsa a few days ago. And if my 2005 incomes come and they are just 500 dollars off from my estimate, do colleges really care if I update? And if I keep updating info, does that mean the federal govt will take more time to process my info and i get less aid?</p>
<p>Did you submit online or mail? Everything I said is about submitting online, except that I had to mail in my signature page because it wouldn't accept my PIN the first time. </p>
<p>It really is up to you to decide whether you need to update, if the figures are pretty close. The colleges are going to want final information, but they will give you a tentative award based on what you've got. When my son was applying to colleges a few years ago, by spring we had a better idea of where he was going to end up, and we didn't bother sending information to colleges other than his top choices. It's much easier in subsequent years when there is only one college per kid to deal with.</p>
<p>For what its worth, my daughter had a job this past year and earned a few hundred dollars. I guessed on the first FAFSA but when I was correcting for the second group of colleges, I had her final pay stub for the year and saw that she had earned about $150 more than we thought. So I corrected that part. The EFC came out EXACTLY the same as before, not a dollar more. I was suprised, because I figured +$150 in kid's income woould have increased EFC -- but maybe it didn't because she was earned less than some sort of minimum or something. You never know, but a lot of things that you think would cause problems aren't nearly as painful as you would expect.</p>
<p>Online and I sent in the signature pin too.</p>
<p>Check the site for the status of your SAR. You may need to wait until tomorrow (Tuesday), as today was a legal holiday. However, just because you don't have an email doesn't mean that the SAR isn't there. </p>
<p>FWIW, I haven't received hard copy of any SAR by postal mail yet -- in terms of time frame, I'm just talking about what is electronically available on the web site.</p>
<p>So updating wouldn't put me behind other people in terms of waiting for federal aid?</p>