Was just on a college tour when an admissions officer encouraged us to sign up for FSA IDs well in advance of completing the FAFSA.
I’m planning to do that soon, but who needs IDs set up? It looks like there needs to be one for both student and parent(s). Do both parents need to create their own separate IDs as well? Thanks!
No; just one parent needs to establish a FSA ID.
thanks!
The student needs one.
One parent needs one.
There are a few tricks to getting the FSA ID. Sometimes it seems to work best if the parent whose name appears first on the tax return gets the ID because when you go to file the FAFSA, you can use the DRT to transfer IRS info. The parent and the child have to use different email addresses. Be VERY careful with the info like birthdate and SSN. Write down all the passwords and the ‘important date’ in your life. I think each person has to have 5 passwords, and capitalization matters. I did them for me and 2 kids and my imagination was about shot with coming up with 15 passwords. If I had to do it again, I’d be tempted to use the same word for every clue. Favorite color? Blue. Street you lived on in 3rd grade? Blue. Dog’s name? Blue.
My kids opened new emails for all college stuff, but they have to remember to check those emails. Stuff gets sent to spam all the time.
thanks for the tips - what are the benefits of using the DRT for transferring (besides being a timesaver i guess)? any other benefits?
If you use the DRT successfully, you are less likely to have to provide tax transcripts as a verification process.