Exactly that. Some FA representative at one of 20 schools DD applied to went in and changed our family’s number of students in college next year on FAFSA without contacting us. The change went to ALL 20 schools (more like 10 that were on FAFSA file at that point).
I think I know what drove it.
I do not remember on FAFSA or CSS there was a question about what college siblings currently attend and the year of graduation. My son will graduate with an ASSOCIATE degree this year and will continue with BS. It looks that someone interpreted this as Bachelor and without asking changed the number of students in college next year…
The problem is NOBODY knows what school did it for sure. I suspect it is Richmond, since they mention to meet full demonstrated aid and mentioned number of students in the family on acceptance letter. They also came with the highest family contribution to this day we got out of all schools. Now I need to call every single school and sort it out, and DD is accepted in 18 out of 20…
Like I have nothing else to do…
Oh, man that’s rough. I am so sorry. 
And on top of it schools can cancel FA if there are less number of students in the family :).
I literally have no words. Why a school even have the power to change MY FAFSA without consulting me. This is a mess.
They shouldn’t be allowed to change anything on your side. 
Apparently, they can… and do. Without asking!!! And messing up all FA at ALL schools. It is crazy.
Daugter apparently got email " You FAFSA was changed by one of your schools."That is it.
We were visiting one of the schools where she was accepted and I was speaking with FA. I was asking how FA will change when two students will be in college instead of 3 and she said, well you have 2 already. I was “what do you mean?” Then we discovered that a week ago someone changed FAFSA.
Well, that is concerning and annoying! Whoa.
But I thought U Richmond uses the CSS? But for schools that use FAFSA that could make a difference!
I think question about graduation dates was on CSS. And based on CSS someone changed FAFSA… They “corrected it”… This is second time when I have issues between CSS and FAFSA because of way CSS asks questions. First one was state your income… Well I did pre-tax… Apparently, I am supposed to report after tax. How should I know? Instructions did not explain it. Then I’ve got a call from one schools that my FAFSA does not match CSS by 50K…
And BTW CSS is not fixable… So first time I have called all CSS schools. Now I have to call all CSS and FAFSA schools.
Actually…if there is some discrepancy found on the FAFSA by the college…the college is REQUIRED to make a change.
@kelsmom can verify this.
@momsearcheng you need to contact each college financial aid department where you got need based aid…because this is where the number of students matters for this school year only. For 2024-25, that multiple kids in college at the same time is no longer in the FAFSA formula.
But I’m confused…you posted this:
We do not expect any FAFSA anyway. This is purely for merit and institutional aid and let school know that there are 3 students in college not one.
If you are talking merit aid only, colleges don’t care one bit how many kids are in college or what’s on your FAFSA for merit aid purposes. This is based on academic strength of the college application and how the college awards merit aid. But your FAFSA number of kids in college does not matter for merit aid.
Institutional aid is need based aid…is that what you mean??
Has something changed whereby you are hoping for need based aid?
@thumper1, when I posted the quote that you used ( I think it is quite an old one), I was under impression that we do not qualify for any FA through FAFSA. Then someone pointed to me that FAFSA changes about the number of students and their FA did not come into effect for 2023-2024. So we got lucky for a year with 3 students in college. We are going to have 3 in college actually for 2 years, but FAFSA will count it in our favor only for next school year. I hope I make some sense.
Schools are required to make changes if there is conflicting information in a student’s file. Apparently, the school that changed it believed that they had conflicting information, based on the fact that you indicated a graduation date that was prior to the upcoming academic year. If you didn’t note that the student would enroll for a new program, the financial aid officer assumed the student would not be in school. In a perfect world, the aid officer should have reached out to you for clarification. Unfortunately, almost all financial aid offices are very short staffed these days, so they based the change on the information they had. It went to all schools, as changes often do. Schools should be watching for changes to EFC on new FAFSA transactions, but when strapped for time, they may focus on EFC increases rather than decreases (since an increase may yield more aid).
So, yes, it’s annoying, but it can be fixed. You only need to worry about the schools your child has narrowed the list down to. As @thumper1 indicated, number in college won’t matter next year (at least not for FAFSA).
Thanks. This is exactly what I intended to do.
I actually remember when I was filling (I still can’t figure out was it FAFSA or CSS) that I was puzzled what to write. All options were bad.
The question was terribly worded. It exactly asked about the CURRENT school and graduation date. If I put the wrong graduation date for the current school, I would be lying. There was no place to put a future school. It was a trap and I walked into it.
What makes me very upset, is as I mentioned above that it is second issue with CSS, they refused to fix any issues and they charge money for their in my opinion not professional enough services.
Not to mention that half of the CSS schools did not get a flag on CSS report to school that IDOCs has all documents. I lost count of how many schools sent me messages that I do not have documents available. Every time again, I had to pick the phone, get FA rep and ask them to log while I am on the phone…Surprise, everything was sitting there from October!!!
I want a REFUND (of fees that I paid them for every school) from CSS for making my life a living hell this year 
I absolutely loathed completing the CSS Profile form, and I worked in financial aid! It’s been years since I had to do it, but I recall not knowing how to respond to questions … and I remember having to give them SO MUCH information.
Let me clarify. We do no qualify for Pell Grant and everyone qualifies for loans. DD does qualify for some FWS almost at every school. FAFSA by itself does not give us any money. Institutional aid in many schools depends on FAFSA. Some small private schools do not use CSS and rely exclusively on FAFSA EFC, so institutional aid is severely impacted by FAFSA changes.
I also need to apologize to the students (and their parents) who were accepted to Richmond today. I feel that this thread was totally derailed and did not allow the proper celebration of any accepted students. It supposes to tell about Richmond, and now it is about FAFSA vs. CSS.
So @skieurope, should it be totally moved out to a separate thread if you guys want to keep info about my troubles 
for future users?
My daughter was deferred from EA to Regular and waitlisted today. They waitlisted THOUSANDS and take under 10. What a joke! Daughter already has a full ride to Colorado College, University of Florida, and Dickinson College that she is considering, and is waiting to hear from many more schools. Their loss 
My son also deferred from EA to Regular and waitlisted yesterday. It wasn’t a top choice for him and he has other acceptances he’s more excited about, so no terrible loss. For those interested, 4.17 WGPA, 33 ACT, 1460 SAT (he reported both) 11 APs, all 4s and 5s on the tests, good ECs and strong application.
Isn’t it ridiculous?! My daughter has offer from Dickinson as well. Few more decisions to hear but Dickinson is looking the strongest.
Did they mention the waitlist in your letter? My son 's letter says “we are not able to offer you admission at this time” but doesn’t mention a waitlist. Maybe that means he is just rejected.
Yes, daughter has wait list mention - although list is thousands so it’s not going anywhere.
Yes, thanks. Been down that waitlist road with other kids.