Maybe it is me, but the username, passwords, keys etc, are a major PIA. I never seem to get the right combo. 8 years of this for 2 kids who receive no aid, only institutional merit. They say I need to fill it out yearly. If the one I just finished is for next year…maybe I’m done??? YAY!
I thought it was just me that found the access to be too ridiculous and cumbersome!! I could tell the whole story, but let me just say the FAFSA is %$#!! (There is no corresponding swear word, it is just an outburst of fury)
I’ll tell you one. So I finish the FAFSA for D2. It says press this button to submit for D1!! WOW, could it be that easy??? NO!!!
I wonder how many frustrated tears I’ve shed trying to get it done. I don’t cry much, but at least once a year. Can we give FAFSA a lower than an “F” grade for user friendliness?
Print out all the stuff. Write your passwords in bright red ink on the top of the paperwork.
Trusting yourself to remember these things will just lead to frustration.
So funny, you’re right. but if you saw the manila folder I have had for 8 years…It is covered with names, passwords pins, keys, etc. I’m out of folder space. And they are full of printouts. I think they have changed the process a couple of times also. I cant wait for the Fafsa burning party. At least I’m not alone. I feel better
I use lastpass so that part was a breeze for me. The rest, not so much… 
ok, this is a bit off-topic, but your frustration with the new, changed, “more secure” FAFSA key (etc) made me think of a new thing on TurboTax this year…they too asked for ANOTHER unique identifier, in the name of “increased security”. Not required this year, but implied that it will be in the future. Suggested IDs were driver’s license or passport number. Excuse me, but isn’t it all this personal information in supposedly “secure” databases that have caused millions of people to be potential victims of identity theft? More personal information is going to IMPROVE the security of my information? I don’t think so.
I love the statements on all the Financial websites that say “its a myth that I make too much money to qualify for Financial aid through FAFSA” No its not a myth, we live paycheck to paycheck typical middle class with just a little savings, and FAFSA comes back and says we can pay $29K for college, hum really, wish they would show me how. At least the hard work our daughter put in is getting her some scholarship money. So we will take out loans and go deeper into debt. College tuition prices are so ridiculous, esp when they pay the Head football coach here $5M year. Sorry just frustrated.
You really do qualify for financial aid … everyone does. Loans are financial aid. So they aren’t lying … But it is frustrating for many to find that they qualify only for loans. It especially s**ks when you are just above the cut-off for need based grants. I recall working with many parents who had no idea their aid would be loans only. When I used to speak at financial aid nights, I was always honest about it (but I don’t know how many people actually took it to heart).
As for the FSA ID, it is a big topic of discussion on the financial aid listservs. It is causing issues for many. Just think - the poorest students need money the most. Many of them do not have home computers … the requirement that the parent & each student in the household must have separate email addresses is an issue. I realize security is important, but this new sign-in has created a lot of problems.
I did the FSA yesterday. I kept putting it off. I thought it was more confusing to start than in years past. However I thought before I had to enter the financial info under my id and then link it with DS’s. Instead it was all entered in DS’s and all I had to do was “sign” it with my id. The extra emails are weird because when you do the FSA they also ask for an email and that is the one that the info about processing it goes to even though he had a different one for the FSA id. Ugh.
Oh and one thing I hated was the confirming questions and make up two of your own. When I made a mistake with entering the date of something important it came up with an error and I had to retype all the other confirming questions and answers!
I thought the FAFSA was okay and made a file with all the pins and passwords and wrote down the security questions. I think it is probably too complicated for a high school senior who has never had to complete tax forms. My son is only getting merit packages at state schools. Today we got selected for verification. I have to wait on him to log into his guest account so I can see what they want. He might be going to that particular school anyway. I wish he would deposit somewhere…
I did the FAFSA eight times…and the Profile four times for my undergrads. And I did the FAFSA once more last year…for the last time.
I never found any of it cumbersome. I have a small notebook, and I just wrote everything down…for myself…and at one point for both of my kids.
Both kids need the password and username for access to direct loan info. I asked both if they thought it was a OITA, and both said no.
I think you just need to write those passwords and usernames…and the security questions and as were down someplace safe…where they won’t get lost.
I also kept a file of the financial aid “stuff”. But at the end of each academic year, I tossed the previous academic year (that year was done…and the next year forms were already filed).
But I guess every person has a different tolerance for completing these forms.
I filled out the FAFSA at 17 by myself with my parents’ tax forms (and did every year of undergrad and 2 years of grad school). Really, I’ve never understood the big deal with FAFSA. And now that there’s a direct link to taxes, it seems that much easier.
Seems a very, very small price to pay for aid, even if that “aid” is just federal loans.
The FAFSA is an interesting Government construct. It tells the schools what they can charge you. According to this great piece of US Gov’t logic, my EFC is 26% of my gross earnings. If I actually had a spare 26% sitting around to put in a savings account for the last 18 years, then I wouldn’t need to fill out the form in the first place. Let’s be thankful that there is no FAFSA for car dealers, or else we will all be paying MSRP.
Um…no it doesn’t.
The FAFSA calculates an EFC…expected family contribution. This number is used to determine your eligibility for federally funded need based aid.
Some schools use the information on the FAFSA to determine institutional need based aid.
That’s it.
The FAFSA EFC should be viewed as the minimum you will be expected to pay for college.
It ie each college that actually uses the information to determine how much YOU will lay t THAT college. The federal government has nothing to do with that…at all.
It was 8 years for my H. - for one kid, college + medical school. He said that it was easy, took about 15 min. or so. Maybe it will be easy for you, OP, next time around? Do not get discouraged. D. did not actually have to use it at all. We filed it just in case that she would need to, but thank goodness, it never happened.
That FAFSA tells the schools nothing but what the gov estimates you can pay, and if you are eligible for federal funds–schools can charge you whatever they want. They can use the CCS/Profile, they can use their own financial aid form, they can give merit scholarships, they can ask for special circumstances, etc etc. It is simply wrong to say it “tells schools what they can charge.”
It’s actually the government’s form for computing what the government will **give you/b.
Some schools use that information to decide how much of their own money to give you but many don’t.
The actual data entry may be simple, esp if one has the info at hand. I think some are saying just getting in is frustrating.
I’m sorry, but if any entity tells you your contribution may be higher than you feel you can afford, you need to go to Plan B and C, D, whatever.
The FAFSA is nothing compared to the CSS profile that many private colleges, especially the elite ones, require. You need to estimate your current house value, add up your retirement funds even though they’re supposedly not counted, etc. That was the one that always drove me crazy (though not this year since my son will soon graduate!). And a lot of info was redundant between the two forms.
^Totally agree. The CSS profile was a killer for me, especially since I purchased a business since the last tax return. This is the first year of going through all of this as a parent for me. I was so stressed out about completing the FAFSA because I thought it was going to be as difficult and time consuming as the CSS profile. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t.