FAFSA is Open! (and a little broken)

Hey guys, it’s Eric at Solution Prep and the FAFSA is open. FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and it’s your first step for getting things like loans, grants, scholarships, and work study to help you afford to put your kids through college. And in some states, like New Jersey and New York, it is right now a high school graduation requirement, so you do want to get on that at FAFSA.gov.

Now, in a normal year, it opens on October 1st, but last year they rolled out a brand new FAFSA late, and this year they gave themselves until December 1st to work out those kinks to make sure it was ready to open nationwide. And then they surprised us and opened it almost two weeks early on November 19th with a little bit of a bug. Something is not quite working and I want to explain it to you.

In order to fill out the FAFSA, a parent and the student need a Federal Student Aid ID (FSA ID). And in the past both were able to complete the FAFSA while their FSA IDs were pending. Meaning you can create your FSA ID and, even though it takes 1-3 days for it to finalize and confirm you really are you, you can still use that in-process FSA ID to fill out your FAFSA. Now, last year was the first year that whoever did the first part, whether it’s the parent or the student, sends an invitation to the other one to then log in and complete their side. And this year, that invitation can’t be accepted unless and until your FSA ID has finished processing.

Now, I’ve been in touch with FAFSA to find out what the heck is going on. They tell me it is a known bug they’re working on fixing, but no real end date in terms of when we can expect that to happen. So the short version is you want to create, either for the student or for the parent, an FSA ID immediately. Yes, you can do both. There’s no harm in that, but you want to get at least one of those done. That way, in 1-3 days when you get the email saying that it’s processed, then the other party can do their side of the FAFSA, send that invitation, and the one who already has the FSA ID can then accept that invitation.

And if you already have an FSA ID for the parent, because you have older kids and you’ve gone through this before, then you are already good to go because you can use your FSA ID forever. Just do the student FSA ID, the student side of the FAFSA, send the invitation to that already registered parent, and you’ll be able to just go ahead, accept that invitation and get the rest done. So get working on it.

And if you have questions, call us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.