The FAFSA Dumpster Fire

Good news: the Department of Education is now processing FAFSAs.

Bad news: about 20% of them are being processed with incorrect tax or other data.

The majority of affected FAFSAs seem to include one of the following:

• Amended tax returns

• Tax returns that claim education tax credits

• Students reporting assets

There may be others.

Here's the thing: the Department of Education only intends to update FAFSA data if doing so would result in additional financial aid for the student. This sounds great, but it's only for one year. What about next year, when your incorrect data from 2024 is correct and you're eligible for less financial aid?

How do you know if your FAFSA contains incorrect data? One way is to compare the SAI estimate your student received via their emailed Student Aid Report (SAR) after submitting the FAFSA with the SAI shown when you log into your FAFSA account after it's processed. You can see the full FAFSA formula here if you want to calculate your SAI manually.

If your data is incorrect, you'll want to begin the appeal process ASAP-- even if you haven't yet received an aid offer. That's because college financial aid offices will be deluged as soon as actual offers come out.

If you need to correct the FAFSA data that you entered-- meaning, you made an error in your data, not that the backend processing by the Department of Education was incorrect-- you should be able to do so soon. Keep an eye out for emails from the Department of Education, or check their website for updates.