Do colleges usually look at your fafsa only after they accept you? Or at the same time as your application?
Also, many of my colleges fafsa deadline was February 15. Because of some confusion and corrections needed to be made, my fafsa was processed a week late. Is this ok?
Only your colleges can tell you the implications of a late submission of the FAFSA.
Colleges usually begin looking at financial aid applications concurrent with applications being reviewed. But they on,y go so far until they know whether a student had been accepted…or not.
@thumper1 is right, the answer depends on your colleges. Some “need blind” colleges don’t look at the FAFSA until they have decided to accept you, others that are need-aware may only want to accept some students they know can afford to attend.
The fact that there was a delay in processing is likely not the end of the world for your application status - but it could impact their ability to send you a complete package. By that I mean they might accept you, but not be able to tell you the financial aid along with the initial acceptance letter. For other schools, if you didn’t get everything required in timely, you might not be eligible for some of the initial merit aid packages.
There are millions of kids applying to schools all waiting for decisions to be made, and chances are pretty good that your school(s) have had to deal with this issue in the past.