This whole financial aid problem is making me sick

So I “finished” my financial aid process two days ago by sending in my household verification. I had thought I had finished it all. I sent in my parent’s IRS tax transcript and all that stuff before the priority deadline of July 1st… but WAIT somehow on today, TWO DAYS BEFORE THE DEADLINE, I get a call saying my IRS tax transcript and Electronic Data from the US Department of Education are both received incomplete.

Now, I wouldn’t be mad if it wasn’t for the fact that at first… my ED from US Dept. Of Education was received and viewed as complete. And the school had access to the IRS Tax Transcript and assured me i was okay. But now that’s incomplete and I’m unsure as to what will happen for my financial aid package. I’ve been stressing over this and tried to call my financial aid office but they were closed by that time and I sent an email.

This is absolutely upsetting to me. It should be noted that on my school portal there’s this part called the Pathway to Enrollment that had tabs for each step to getting into school. They would highlight each tab as something to do right now or in the future. my Financial Aid tab was highlighted as a current step before the IRS Tax and ED were listed as incomplete. But now, it’s turned into a future step.

And I’ve been overstressing myself and I’m starting to feel sick.

Any help or suggestions?

Call them tomorrow and see what else they need. No sense stressing about it now.

When they called, did you ask what was incomplete about it? Do they need a transcript from you too? From a parent you didn’t already submit?

If you just turned the info in 2 days ago, it is very possible that your information has not yet been entered into the system, so they are calling to remind you (since they don’t have it in the system yet, they don’t “know” it’s received). Was it incomplete in the system … then complete … then incomplete again? If it has been incomplete all along, I would bet it’s just not in the system yet. But you absolutely should call to find out.

@kelsmom

Yes. It was incomplete, then complete, then incomplete. So that was really strange.

@twoinanddone

Actually, no one called messaged me or contacted me to tell me. And I’ll get to your later questions later in the post.

@mommdc

Just called them. And I figured out the problem. I had sent in my transcript and stuff but there’s been a very confusing set of information, seeing as my personal life has been a bit wonky as of late. I listed a stepfather on my household verification thing but then found out my mom listed herself as single. I could go on about this, but it’s a very complicated situation. I’ll have to take care of this.

But thank you to all who responded. It helped calm me down a bit.

Does your stepdad still live in the household with your mom? If yes, then your mom incorrectly submitted her information and needs to include your stepdad’s income and assets.

And if your mom is still married…and filed as single or head of household on her taxes…you have another layer of issues to solve.

Yes. Fix what needs fixing and represents the real situation. You need to be honest

I am confused as your original post said

The family situation is definitely the issue. When the aid officer got to your file, the review showed conflicting information. By law, this must be resolved. I am glad you found out the issue, but you will need to sort things out and provide the necessary information before your aid can be processed. Good luck to you.