After submitting your FAFSA, check your Student Aid Report (SAR) for errors within 3–5 days if you filed online with an email. No issues? Great—your school’s financial aid office will calculate your award based on your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and cost of attendance.
What happens after you submit your FAFSA?
Once your FAFSA is processed, you’ll get a Student Aid Report (SAR) in about 3–5 days if you filed online with an email. (Paper filings can take up to 3 weeks.) The SAR sums up what you reported and flags whether your application needs verification. Even if everything looks right, your school might still ask for extra paperwork before finalizing your aid package.
Next, your school figures out your Cost of Attendance (COA)—think tuition, fees, room and board, books, and other expenses. Then they subtract your Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which comes from your FAFSA data, to decide how much aid you qualify for. The timeline here varies; some schools move fast, others take weeks.
What should you do next?
- Check your SAR: Log in to your FAFSA account at studentaid.gov and pull up your SAR under “My FAFSA.” Scan for typos in your personal info, income, or household size. Spot a mistake? Fix it right away by clicking “Make FAFSA Corrections.”
- Confirm your school list: Make sure every school on your FAFSA actually received it. Adding a new school? Just log in, hit “Add a School,” and type in the school’s Federal School Code (you can find it on their website or via the FAFSA School Code Search).
- Watch your financial aid status: Each school’s aid office will reach out through email or their student portal (like MyAid or Student Self-Service) about your application. Check your portal daily—some schools post award notifications in batches, so updates aren’t always instant.
- Send verification documents (if asked): If your FAFSA was picked for verification, the school will email you a list of what they need—tax transcripts, W-2s, proof of untaxed income, etc. Upload these to the school’s portal or drop them off by mail/in person before the deadline (usually 30–60 days from the notice).
- Accept or turn down your aid offer: When your school finalizes your award, they’ll send an official offer. Look at the breakdown of grants, loans, and work-study. Decide what to accept or decline in your school’s portal (usually under “Financial Aid” > “Award Offer”). Taking out loans? Finish entrance counseling and sign a Master Promissory Note (MPN) at studentaid.gov.
What if something goes wrong?
- No SAR in sight: Haven’t gotten your SAR after 10 days online (or 3 weeks on paper)? Check your spam folder first. Still nothing? Call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243. If you used an email, double-check for typos—even a small mistake can hold things up.
- Award still missing: If your school hasn’t sent your aid package within 3 weeks of submitting verification docs, email their financial aid office with your full name, student ID, and FAFSA confirmation number. Delays happen—sometimes because of high volume, sometimes because documents are missing.
- Award too small: If your school’s COA or EFC seems off, you can ask them to reconsider. Send a letter explaining your financial hardship (job loss, medical bills, etc.) and attach proof. Schools have wiggle room to adjust aid in these cases.
How can you avoid problems in the first place?
File your FAFSA as early as you can—the window opens October 1 every year. Early birds often get more aid, especially for state grants that run out on a first-come, first-served basis.
Keep your FAFSA and school portals fresh. If your family’s finances take a hit (say, a job loss or divorce), tell your school’s aid office ASAP. They might tweak your package based on your new EFC. And don’t forget to renew your FAFSA each year—just log in and pick “Renewal FAFSA” to reuse your old data.
Watch out for little mistakes that gum up the works: forgetting to sign with an FSA ID, mixing up Social Security numbers, or skipping the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT). Always double-check before hitting submit. For 2026 filings, the DRT pulls income data straight from the IRS, so you won’t have to type it in yourself.
