FAFSA to more than 10 schools

To send FAFSA to more than 10 schools, it is suggested to remove some of the colleges listed on the FAFSA form after SAR notification is received, add the school codes for the new colleges, and submit the corrections for processing. I wonder if we have to update the assets information also during the second submission since assets might have changed since first submission

If you don’t do this on the same day…and your assets change, then yes, you are supposed to update as assets are supposed to be as of the date of filing.

@kelsmom

Adding a school code is an addition to an existing FAFSA. Because it’s not a “new” FAFSA, no changes should be made. Just change school codes to add new schools, sign & submit.

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Thank you!

Also, to clarify, you should remove all schools from the previous submission. Otherwise, you might double submit to some schools.

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Thanks, good to know.

Thank you, I thought the same.

It’s not an issue to double submit (filing an update doesn’t change the process date for your original schools ). But it’s good to remove all of the original schools for this reason: If you have to change anything, you’ll only be submitting the changes to the schools on the most recent list of schools. For simplicity’s sake, having one transaction with schools 1-10 and a second transaction with schools 11-however many will help you remember to make the changes for every school. And if a school makes a change on its end that gets sent to all listed schools, it will allow you to narrow the list of who to call to ask about the change. I just think keeping it tidy may not make a difference, but it could be helpful.

Do schools 1- 10 know they have been removed? Do they care? Will Schools 11 and up care that you filed the FAFSA on 12/25 but are only submitting to them on 1/15? For schools that are concerned about yield protection will they care or read into it?

Schools 1-10 won’t know that they were removed.

The other schools are far too busy to notice or care about the difference between the date of original filing & the date their school was added.

@kelsmom plus…colleges can’t see anything about what you have submitted and when to other colleges. Right?

They won’t see any of the other colleges. They will see the initial date the FAFSA was filed, although for schools that have a filing deadline, the date on which the update to the FAFSA was made to add the school (if it wasn’t listed on the initial FAFSA) is the date that will be used for purposes of determining whether the student met the individual school’s filing date.

Years ago the schools could see the entire application including the other schools on it. That was changed around 2016 because it was deemed unfair to FA applicants as it could be used by need aware schools, no idea if that was the real reason but that was what I heard at the time. I believe they can no longer see the other schools or the order on which they were added. Still what happens if a school decides to make a change to your FAFSA and they are no longer on it? I have had schools make changes in the past, in one case it was in April and I found out later it was a school that my child was not planning to attend but of course they did not know that and they had not been deleted yet.

I guess my question is, for the higher stats kids who do you put as the first 10 schools (assuming all deadlines are more or less similar) which do you add initially and then delete? The need blind reaches the kid really wants, the ones that are need aware even for US, or the ones that track demonstrated interest whether they are need aware or not? After you delete them, and add the next batch, do you ever put them back? Very confused

You need to keep track of which schools are on which transaction. Transaction 1 is the initial FAFSA filed for the award year. Transaction 2 is the second group of schools.

If schools make changes to the FAFSA, it can make things confusing. Most schools aren’t processing financial aid for the next year in October - they are busy with the current year. So if you delete schools & add new ones, you are probably updating transaction 1. However, if a school changes something before you make your update, it’s possible that you might update the FAFSA that the school corrected. For this reason, when asked which transaction you want to update, choose transaction 1 if there is more than one transaction listed.

When schools make changes, some do it just for their school, while other changes may be done globally (that is, all schools listed on that transaction will get the changes). Schools typically monitor for updates like this by running change lists & comparing transactions to see what was changed. They may or may not agree with the changes, and when they don’t, they are able to switch back to the unchanged transaction in their system.

It doesn’t matter which schools you list first, and you can delete schools/add more as soon as the initial FAFSA is processed (a few days). I encourage students to keep track of which schools are on which transaction and to delete every school on the initial transaction before you add more. That just makes things easier to keep track of. There won’t be a reason to add schools back. If you discover a mistake & have to change your FAFSA, you’ll make the changes to transaction 1, wait until it’s processed, and then make the same changes to transaction 2. This assures that your changes reach all schools.

If you have a state scholarship program that uses the first school listed on the FAFSA, you have to make sure you let them know if you decide on a different school. That’s something to keep in mind. If you have to put in a code for the state scholarship program, you’ll want to keep that on your FAFSA if you delete schools & add more.

I thought some states still wanted to be listed first…maybe NY? @sybbie719

Or perhaps that is old news from before the change where schools no longer can see where else you have sent the forms.

@kelsmom this is what I mean!

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In our situation state schools are not an issue.

My concern is that certain schools where the student is above the 50% in terms of scores, and tracks demonstrated interest and may possibly be need aware such as Lehigh, assuming my child is very interested in the school but could not ED or ED2, should they keep Lehigh and other similar schools on the FAFSA through both versions or will Lehigh then get an update that more schools have been added?

Other than making sure everything has been sent to everyone, is there is a reason to have batches rather than removing and adding a few at a time? Assuming my child keeps a spreadsheet to keep track

Also after they are done with the second batch, do they add the first one back on? Assuming those are schools they are more interested in. Or doe it simply not matter either way

You’re overthinking this. Once upon a time, schools did see how they and other schools were listed on FAFSA. They no longer know anything about which schools are listed in what order, and they have no clue if they are removed from the FAFSA on a subsequent transaction.

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