7 Solutions to Common FAFSA Issues

The FAFSA rollout continues to have speed bumps and there are a lot of questions that have arisen from the revised FAFSA process. Going Merry put out a nice list of 7 solutions Counselors can suggest to families if they run into issues when filling out their children’s forms:

Use a different browser. Some users have had success with switching internet browsers, clearing their browser history, or disabling browser extensions or plugins. 

Come back later. Try accessing the FAFSA® site late at night or early in the morning when it’s not as busy.

Contact the FSA Office. If you’re still having trouble, ask the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Office for help. You can reach them at customerservice@studentaid.gov or 800-4-FED-AID.

Try the live chat. The FSA Office has also launched a new chat feature called Ask Aidan. The chat is designed to help you get basic questions answered more quickly than via call or email.

Be patient. The FSA Office won’t release FAFSA information to schools until the end of January 2024. So, you have all month to work on your form, and there’s no advantage to submitting it earlier than that. 

Do other prep work in advance. If you’re having trouble filling out the FAFSA right now, use your time to prepare instead. Check out this FAFSA® Prep assignment. 

Submit the form no matter what. Every year, the FAFSA® helps millions of students gain access to Pell Grants, subsidized federal loans, and other lucrative sources of federal aid. If you skip the form, you could be leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table. Stick with it and keep checking back!

Here is their blog post with a more detailed guide to managing FAFSA issues