<p>My son inputed the wrong DOB in the fafsa, leading to the "Independent Student" status and a zero EFC. He did not realize the send would submit and not prompt to review the data first. So the fafsa was sent out and processed. We thought we wait to make the correction later. Two days later the "Make Correction" appeared. We clicked on that and was informed that the correction must be made on the paper form. We called and informed that was the only way to make the type of correction! It would take as long as 1 1/2 months for the back-n-forth mailings.</p>
<p>We will miss the college deadline for sure! It seems unreasonable that one mistake is made and it does not allow online correction. A sad and nervous day for us --- can the knowledgeable CCers help in providing guidance and suggestions? Thanks!</p>
<p>Suggest you send a PM to kelsmom, who was a FA officer until recently. It may be that the colleges can change it if it processed…but you would likely have to contact each school and explain the error. Schools catch and correct FAFSA errors regularly.</p>
<p>Sent her a PM for you and this will bump the thread up. Basically, just hit the Private Message link under your name at the top right of this screen and then look for “new message” in the list of options in the bar on the left of the message screen.</p>
<p>He should not need to do a paper correction for this. In fact, paper corrections should be avoided - they just become a pain if changes are ever needed in the future. I do see that the FAFSA site states SSN issues require paper changes, as do changes to the first two letters of the last name … which I can understand, knowing how these drive the FAFSA and how it links at the schools. (although the school where I worked prefers a whole new FAFSA, instead) DOB is not a problem. So I am wondering if because the DOB does not match, the FAFSA logic thinks SSN is also an issue.</p>
<p>Can he go in and update his date of birth? He will then be given all the prompts for the parent info. At the end, both he and you will be asked for your PINs to sign the changes. Try that … Here is info from the FAFSA website:</p>
<p>1.866.549.6195 Home / FAFSA Help / FAFSA Corrections
FAFSA Corrections
It’s not too late to fix your FAFSA</p>
<ul>
<li>Note: If you made a mistake in entering the student’s social security number, you will need to make corrections using the 10-page, paper Student Aid Report. If you made a mistake in entering your Social Security Number, or if a misspelling of the student’s last name affected the first two letters of the last name, please phone us at 1.866.943.5220 to speak with one of our Student Aid Advisors. You may need to submit a new FAFSA to avoid potential confusion, and we will guide you through this process.</li>
</ul>
<p>Online FAFSA Corrections
After your FAFSA has been signed and is fully processed, you can log on to the
What steps do I follow to make online corrections?</p>
<p>•Go online to <a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/FOTWWebApp/complete014.jsp[/url]”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/FOTWWebApp/complete014.jsp</a>
•Select the school year for which you are making corrections in the drop-down menu on the screen that appears, choose “Next,” and then continue to follow the on-screen instructions to make changes to your FAFSA.
•Simply enter the correct information next to the original response (and don’t worry about clicking the “Delete the Answer” check box).
•Be sure to have a parent sign the online correction if you are a dependent and are prompted to do so. A signature is typically required when information about a parent is corrected (such as tax or financial information). The parent signature may be provided electronically with a parent PIN or by following the on-screen instructions to have the parent print, sign, and mail the signature page.
•You must complete all steps and receive the confirmation stamp in order for your changes to be effective.</p>
<p>Kelsmom:
Thanks!
When we called fafsa yesterday, we were informed that the DOB was wrong. It was the wrong year 1944 instead of the correct year 1994. So the fafsa contact saw the mistake there but he said this kind of mistake must be corrected via paper SAR!</p>
<p>We are all very stressed up now — a simple mistake leading to this.</p>
<p>To clarify, my sons fafsa is locked up not allowing to make corrections. It says</p>
<p>"The date of birth you entered does not match the date of birth in the FAFSA you are trying to correct. </p>
<p>If you need to correct the date of birth in your FAFSA, you must: • Contact Us to request a paper Student Aid Report (SAR), or • Contact the financial aid office at your college for assistance."</p>
<p>Can he get into the FAFSA with the wrong DOB, then correct it? I used to get reports that flagged all the SSN, name, and DOB changes made by students. They definitely were able to do the fix themselves in the past. Maybe it changed this year (I left the field in July).</p>
<p>A college can fix it on their end, but that doesn’t work if your son sent his FAFSA to more than one school. We asked for a copy of the driver’s license, passport, or birth certificate to verify the DOB, then changed the DOB ourselves.</p>
<p>He sent it to 10 schools. We contacted the financial aid office of each school; some say we have to wait until his online fafsa is active then make the correction, others say we could fax the paper (corrected) SAR to them, one said we could fax the birth certificate. </p>
<p>I called fafsa today and the lady said the correction can only be made with the paper SAR. This is so illogical but I guess a big lesson learned here. Others take note here … check carefully of the input data before hit the “send”. My son assumed the send could prompt to error checking and pre-viewing; but send means SENT!</p>
<p>“Can he get into the FAFSA with the wrong DOB, then correct it?”</p>
<p>We tried that but fafsa caught it as an error and did not allow the log in. So here it works for catching a wrong DOB but why not in the fafsa data form there?</p>