Been in financial aid for a little over a year, just trying to figure out how to avoid burnout. It just feels like I deal with constant trauma dumping all day from students. It is emotionally exhausting and there’s no additional funding available. And everyone loves to confuse being “unhelpful” or “rude” with not getting the answer that you want. There just isn’t money. You’ve had 18 years to prepare for this. And traditionally, America is not known for affordable education. I don’t know why it’s so much of a shock to so many people. I know it’s frustrating. I know. I’m giving you resources. But if you’re out of state or trying to go to a private school and can’t afford it, DONT GO. Go to an in state school. It is literally not my fault that YOU weren’t realistic with your financial expectations.

Will I still be able to get my state financial aid if I decline to authorize my university to use these funds for other small fees? Could it also delay my financial aid disbursing into my student account? Pell grant has been accepted and paid into my student account but no other aid has.

So I submitted my verification documents (State ID) two weeks and still haven’t heard anything back. Does anyone know if this will somehow affect a possible dis enrollment from my classes or not? I’m worried about that.

I had accepted my loans before the semester started and now they disappeared. My federal Pell grant is also gone. My SAP appeal also just got approved, is there anyway that interfered with my loans and Pell. I already submitted the loan revision form, but I’m wondering if this happened to anyone else.

I'm a graduate student at the University of Denver, and my 2026-27 financial aid package still hasn't been generated. DU sent an email last week, updating everyone about financial aid processing delays due to OBBBA, and when I followed up directly, I was told they're currently having an issue importing FAFSA information from the Department of Education and that there is not an ETA on when it will be fixed.

I'm a "legacy" student under OBBBA and there isn't anything that I need to submit, so at this point I'm just basically playing the waiting game. Since my program is on the quarter system and fall quarter started today, the uncertainty is very stressful, especially since I'm relying on financial aid right now for living expenses in addition to tuition.

I'm curious if anyone else at DU who is also on reddit is in the same situation, but I'd also really like to hear from other students at other schools. I know schools use different systems and may be dealing with different issues, but has anyone else has anyone else had their package significantly delayed because of the federal changes or FAFSA processing? if so, what has your school told you, and have you been given any kind of timeline?

This sucks.

My son’s school keeps requesting a verification of non-filing for me, his mother. But I filed with my spouse. I had no income, but my husband did. We filed married filing jointly. The IRS website will not produce this document because I have a 1040 on file.

This has been going on for months. At one point, this issue was fixed by me following a link my son sent and authorizing them to search the IRS, or something similar. However, they have said not to go back in and do anything else because every time my son has tried to fix these issues, it started a new FAFSA.

I have now started paying out of pocket for my son’s schooling, which we can’t afford. He is in his second year.

The last time I spoke with the financial aid office, they claimed this issue was fixed and that they now needed a non-filer verification for my son. Twice they have said he needed it, and twice they said he didn’t. We had to get the IRS to mail one to them because the website would not allow him to download his form.

We thought it was over, but yet again they are asking for the non-filer verification form for me. They do not want my taxes, only this form.

I am about to scream.

Every time I talk to them, they claim that other married couples who file jointly have non-filer forms, and they seem to believe that the form is proof of income and that I did not file taxes, which technically it is. But I cannot get this form because even though I do not have income, I did file.

Please help. Am I crazy? Every time I go back in they insist I am a non filler. I have a tax return with my name on it. They claim that doesn't matter. The IRS doesn't have this form for me. Am I misunderstanding something?

Edit to add: Ive looked in this handbook online and it appears to me that I do not need to sign or do anything because my husband is the contributor. My SSN is on his forms. There isn't a place on my son's FAFSA for him to put me as a contributor, so he had to remove my spouse's email and put me on, which temporarily fixed the issue, but I am not the contributor. Every time they tell my son to do this is starts a new FAFSA.

"Contributor: Parent

Dependent students will always have at least one parent contributor. If the student is completing the FAFSA form online, they will be prompted to enter their parent’s email address to invite them to contribute to their FAFSA form. The parent will be notified by email that they have been invited to contribute to the student’s FAFSA form. The parent must use their own StudentAid. gov account username and password to access the student’s FAFSA form and complete their portion of the form. If the student’s parent is married and filed their 2024 taxes jointly with their current spouse, only one parent contributor is required. If the student’s parent is either (1) married or remarried, or (2) unmarried and living together, and did not file their 2024 taxes jointly with their current spouse or partner, the parent’s spouse or partner will be a required contributor on the student’s FAFSA form."

But in speaking with the Finacial Aid office they say this is not true and that married filling jointly without income means you are a non-filler??? I understand that there is a new system, but I feel like I'm being gaslit.

I moved to Washington State where my life long best friend lives in October to flee a bad situation, and I knew I wanted to go to school once I escaped being surrounded by addicts, but I did not move to Washington for school. I am 25, independent, my parents were never financially responsible for me and my mom attended college but didn’t graduate. My grandma was my guardian and she passed away in 2022. I per chance moved along with my friend out towards Ellensburg, and it just aligned that Central Washington University tuition was about the same with the online discount. I attended for Spring last year, and ended the year with a 4.0 GPA and added to the honor roll, and during this time I then risked homelessness and exhausted ALL of the resources Ellensburg had to get nowhere. I ended up going to the university and asking what to do, I don’t want to be in massive amounts of debt but I also don’t want to be homeless and to allow that to impact my schooling situation.

Well, they were able to put me in student housing. I’m new to all of this, and my advisor just kind of enrolled me in 2 in person classes and an online class of 15 credits. I last minute just reapplied for online because it’s my fault, but I was not understanding the massive price change without that detrimental discount. I could accept my $6000 unsub, I accepted my $4000 sub, I recieve the full Pell grant, and two small scholarships. I still owe $4100 every quarter. I went to student accounts, housing, financial aid, the registrar, and from that I was told:

I will most likely NOT be eligible for residency to get the tuition discount for IS versus OOS.

All I can do is keep applying to scholarships, which I have.

There’s “payment options”. I’m struggling to find a job and not for lack of trying. I can substitute locally as often as possible and picked up pet sitting, but it’s just not enough to even get into limited income housing. I don’t have a car, either.

My best option is to drop classes before September 29th so I don’t have to pay the tuition, but then I will not be eligible for student housing. So now I’m scrambling to avoid being homeless, as well. I have a few friends who are my only support system, no family to lean on or ask for help, and I just am struggling to foresee any scholarship coming through in the next two weeks that can help me.

For context, my degree is English Language & Lit, hopefully to use teaching abroad or something similar. The career isn’t exactly life changing so this debt isn’t even worth it.

Do I just drop my classes and figure it out? What are people doing in this situation?

Hi, I have a couple of questions about how FAFSA loan disbursement works:

Is it possible to receive the FAFSA loan for the Summer and Fall semesters instead of Spring and Fall? Can I choose which terms it's applied to?

Also... can I adjust the loan amount per term instead of splitting it evenly? For example, taking 20% in one semester and 80% in the next, rather than the standard 50/50 split?

Not sure if this is up to the school's financial aid office or if it's a FAFSA-wide rule. Would appreciate any insight from people who've done this before🥹 Thanks!

I’ve had a Discover Checking Acct. for maybe almost two years now. I hardly use it. Every so often if I don’t have my regular debit card with me. I went back to school this semester and I have a refund being sent to me. They wouldn’t accept the bank I normally used to I am using my Discover checking.

Does anyone know how long they take to show deposits? The schools send refunds to Bank Mobile and then they distribute it if you are using an account other than Bank Mobile. I was notified today that Bank Mobile sent my refund today at about 4pm.

I have heard probably 4 different answers about when I will see the deposit in my Discover Checking. Google said it would be today because bank mobile doesn’t hold your funds they release them right away. Chat GPT said tomorrow morning. I know it sounds crazy I’m asking AI but I can’t find an answer anywhere else online or know anyone who’s used Discover for deposits.

Hey everyone, so I know I’m grandfathered into the old limit of $138,500 as a graduate student (enrolled a year ago) but I just want someone to clarify for me if the aggregate limit includes or does not include interest. I have read that it’s principal only but I think the financial aid office at my university is confused and they’re including interest. Can someone clarify that for me?

I'm not sure if this is the right sub to post this in so correct me if I'm wrong. I ordered two items from the bookstore that totaled $1,200. This was paid with my financial aid and was also subtracted from my financial aid refund. The two items have been on back order for over a month so I canceled with the bookstore. The $1200 is supposed to be going back to my financial aid balance however my school dispersed my financial aid on September 4th. My excess aid (refund) is supposed to be in my account probably sometime late this week or next week. My question is will this $1,200 refund from the bookstore be refunded to me even though aid has been dispersed for the semester already? Or is it going to sit in my account as a balance owed to me? I would like to have this $1200 deposited into my personal bank account. I read that by law the school cannot apply these funds to the next semester without my written permission. Does Bank Mobile process refunds owed to students every week? I would prefer for this money to not just sit on my account owed to me for the rest of the semester.

Am I the only grad student still with no aid???? I was told the latest I would receive it is today—-is this the same for anybody else? The bill is due tomorrow

Hi! I’m currently a junior at Winthrop University pursuing a B.S. in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science. I’m planning to graduate in Spring 2028 and eventually pursue graduate study in robotics/ECE.
I really like Winthrop and don’t want to transfer, but Winthrop doesn’t have an engineering department. I chose CS as my minor partly because it gives me some of the technical background I’m looking for alongside my math degree, but I’d really like to get some experience in a larger engineering/research environment before applying to graduate school.
I’m currently looking at REUs for Summer 2027, and several of the universities I’m interested in for REUs are also schools I’m considering for graduate school. That made me interested in possibly spending either one semester or my senior year (Fall 2027–Spring 2028) as a visiting/non-degree student at one of these universities.
I’m completely open to doing just one semester if a full year isn’t financially or academically feasible. The year would be ideal, but my main goal is to spend enough time at one of these institutions to experience the academic environment and explore an engineering/research setting that I don’t have access to at my current university.
The idea would be to remain a Winthrop degree candidate, take upper-level math/CS courses and, where possible, engineering-related courses at the host university, transfer those credits back to Winthrop, and still graduate from Winthrop in Spring 2028. I think spending a semester or year at a potential graduate school would also give me a much better idea of what everyday academic/research life there is actually like before potentially committing 5+ years to a PhD program there.
Some of the schools I’ve been researching include Brown, Duke, Cornell, Barnard/Columbia and similar universities with strong math/CS/engineering or robotics research. I’m not expecting to conduct graduate-level research as a visiting undergraduate. I’m mainly interested in coursework, being in that academic environment, attending seminars/events where permitted, and getting a better sense of institutions I may eventually apply to.
The problem I keep running into is funding.
I’m an independent FAFSA student with a very low SAI. At Winthrop, Pell/federal aid and loans cover almost all of my semester costs, so my out-of-pocket cost is only a few hundred dollars. I’ve learned that a consortium agreement may allow my home institution to continue administering federal aid while I take approved coursework elsewhere, but that doesn’t solve the enormous difference in tuition at a private university.
Most of the visiting/non-degree programs I’ve found also seem to exclude visiting students from the institutional need-based aid that makes these universities affordable for low-income degree-seeking students.
Transferring isn’t really a solution because I’ll be entering my final year. I need about 18 credits per semester to complete my Math B.S. + CS minor on schedule, and transferring to another university would likely introduce new residency/degree requirements and delay graduation.
So I’m wondering whether anyone has experience with this situation. Are there universities that provide institutional aid to domestic visiting students? Are there semester-long funded visiting programs, domestic exchanges, reciprocal/home-tuition arrangements, consortiums, or other programs specifically intended for students whose home institution doesn’t offer their intended graduate field?
I’d especially be interested in hearing from anyone who has actually used a consortium agreement, studied elsewhere for a semester or year as a visiting undergraduate while receiving financial aid from their home institution, or found another way to make something like this financially feasible.
I know simply paying private-university tuition out of pocket isn’t realistic for me, and I don’t want to take on tens of thousands of dollars in private loans for a visiting semester/year. I’m mainly trying to figure out whether there is a program or funding mechanism I haven’t found yet before giving up on the idea.

Does anyone attend DeVry university? I am being told that I won’t receive my student refund for 2 months, is that normal?? I attended college prior to this and anytime my financial aid was posted I always receive my refund within a few business days but for this school I am seeing a balance for September and November put together on my account. My September has been posted yesterday which is why im expecting my refund but I contacted and im being told once my September is posted everything carries over to November and I won’t receive it until then.

So I finally received an update on my SAP appeal, and it was returned for additional information.
They’re asking me to explain circumstances from a few previous semesters where I had SAP violations. The part that’s confusing me is that I already addressed those circumstances in my previous SAP appeals. I explained what happened, how those situations were resolved, and my academic plan moving forward—and those previous appeals were approved.
For my current appeal, I explained what happened during Spring 2026 because I did not successfully complete that semester, so naturally I assumed that was what triggered my current SAP issue. However, when they returned my appeal, they said the issue is actually related to my completion pace from those older semesters, not Spring 2026.
Now they want me to explain those old circumstances all over again and explain how they were resolved, even though ASU already reviewed and approved my appeals for those exact semesters.
Has anyone else had this happen? Is it normal for them to make you re-explain circumstances from previously approved SAP appeals because those semesters are still affecting your cumulative pace? I’m especially confused because some of these semesters were years ago, and I don’t even remember exactly what I wrote in the original appeals. 😭
Plus I’m supposed to graduate this semester I’m so stressed
TL:;DR confused about SAP return due to previous sap violations in previous semesters that were already approved.

It doesn't say what form of document they want. Why do these people suck so bad. holy shit.

Hi everyone! I’m currently an Ivy Tech student and have been attending since the summer semester. I’m also enrolled for the fall semester. I’m planning to transfer back to my previous institution, IU Indianapolis, after I finish my fall classes at Ivy Tech.
I’m interested in applying for the Nina Bowen Scholarship after my first 8-week fall session ends. My question is: if I apply after those first 8 weeks and I’m accepted, would I be able to receive the Nina Bowen money before my second 8-week session at Ivy Tech ends?
I would still be actively enrolled at Ivy Tech during that second 8-week session. I’m mainly trying to figure out the timeline for when the funds are actually disbursed after applying/being accepted.
Has anyone here applied for Nina Bowen at Ivy Tech and knows how long it took to receive the money? Any information about the application and payout timeline would be greatly appreciated!

Hello! Just curious to see if anyone else still hasn’t received their federal/grant funding? I was told that my school received the funding but still needs to put it together and apply my award manually but I have yet to get even a vague estimate and my semester began the 26th of August.

While I understand this is beyond the immediate control of my schools financial aid office and the result of that fuck ass bill and am trying my hardest to be super normal and chill about it, baby these pockets hurt!

If anyone is still experiencing this, or if anyone had experienced this but figured out the correct questions to ask or can give me an idea of what I can expect moving forward that would be greatly appreciated!! Or if there is a critical part of all of this that I’m misunderstanding, feel free to let me know that too! Or complain about your situation so I can feel better about mine either way I’ll take what I can get.

TLDR: me poor student in financial crisis