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I need an expert's advice on the following. I know that both the paper and the web FAFSA have only six fields for school codes. Does that mean that I cannot send FAFSA to more than six schools? If there's a supplemental form I can send in, is there ANY limit on the number of schools? I'm applying to 17 schools....

By Calmom (Calmom) on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 04:38 am: Edit

Why 17 schools? That seems like a lot.

In any case, here is what you do: complete the FAFSA for 6 schools. Do it online and get a PIN number, it will help speed things up. After you get the SAR, do a "corrected" FAFSA, and delete the first 6 schools, and add 6 others. Then wait for the SAR, and once you have it, do a THIRD "corrected" FAFSA, delete the second set of 6 schools, and put on the remaining 5 you are interested in.

By mummy on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 11:04 am: Edit

The only problem with doing it that way is that you erase the 1st 6 schools. When you make corrections after you complete your 2002 taxes you will need to re-add all the schools again.

Do you know if the Fafsa and Profile send each school the whole list? I'm pretty sure they do, which means they then know all the schools you're applying to. Does anyone know if you send copies of the FAFSA to the next 6 schools, could you black out the 1st 6 schools, or would it be considered an altered document?

By Stressssed on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 09:37 pm: Edit

HELP ME

I'm so dumb. I sent a paper application on 1/16/03. One of my schools INSIST that the PRIORITY deadline for the fafsa filing is on 2/15/03. I couldn't send the FAFSA to this particular school, because there's a 6-School limit. I guess I won't receive my SAR until AFTER 2/16/03, right? If so, would they take disregard my financial needs if they are gonna receive it LATE? One more thing is, I already sent the PROFILE and the deadline for the PROFILE for this school is also on 2/15/03. SO.. they have my PROFILE, but my FAFSA will be late.

Ok, what do you think of my situation? What should I do??

By nyguy on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 05:25 pm: Edit

yeah same here, i have applied to 13 schools and now need to submit the fafsa to them all by february 1st. any ideas?

By mummy on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 07:47 pm: Edit

I had 12 schools. I had the SAR for the first 6 schools in about 5 days, made the correction today to add the other 6 schools, and had the completed new SAR in about 2 hours.It was much faster than I thought it would be. The schools receive your processed SAR electronically within 3 days of filing, but you have to do it online.

By ravi on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 - 12:28 am: Edit

MUMMY IS RIGHT. I TOO DID IT FOR 15 COLLEGES ,ONLINE IN 10 DAYS.

By Quarky (Quarky) on Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 10:28 pm: Edit

Umm.. I am the one who started this, under the name LIMIT. I talked to a rep from the FAFSA and was told the same thing -- do correction forms. Well, after I filed the FAFSA on Jan 2, I did it in three sets 6-6-5. It took me only 4 days to do it for all 17 schools. Now I will have to do it again with the 1040's.

By Heyjude (Heyjude) on Monday, February 03, 2003 - 12:35 am: Edit

Quarky,

What do you mean, "Now I will have to do it again with the 1040's"? Do we have to re-do the FAFSAs and CSA profiles (done with 2002 estimates) once we have completed our 2002 taxes, or can we just mail the colleges copies of our 2002 tax forms?

By the way, I'm still waiting for my son's PIN number because he entered his email address incorrectly. So although we submitted the first 6 a week early, the colleges still haven't received them because of this error. Any advice for us out there?

By nyguy on Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 09:30 pm: Edit

make a correction of your email and call the fafsa people, they have a number and they are generally helpful

By Quarky (Quarky) on Thursday, February 06, 2003 - 09:58 pm: Edit

You don't HAVE to redo the FAFSA, but you will most likely end up doing it with the correct values taken directly off the tax forms. Some schools are fine with estimates, while others request SAR (student aid reports) after taxes are done. For instance, one of the schools I sent FAFSA to sent me a letter saying that they need the FAFSA with corrected values. Other schools have not sent me such letters yet probably because it is very early. But I don't think CSS Profile can be updated, so I will just leave it as it is.