10 Things to Know About Your FAFSA Submission Summary

The time has come for the federal government to start releasing FAFSA Submission Summaries to students who filed! Here is a list of the top 10 things you need to know about your FAFSA Submission Summary.

1. The FAFSA Submission Summary is the new name for your Student Aid Report (SAR). It contains a summary of what information you provided when you filed the FAFSA and will need to be reviewed for accuracy to ensure you get the correct amount of aid.
2. Your FAFSA Submission Summary will be available online. Once you receive the email notifying you that your Summary is ready, you’ll be able to find it at studentaid.gov. For a video tutorial on how to find your Summary, check out this video from uAspire.
3. Your FAFSA Submission Summary is going to include useful information you’ll need to make an informed decision about financial aid, including your estimated eligibility for the Pell Grant and federal student loans, your Student Aid Index (SAI), FAFSA form answers, school information, if you have been selected for verification, and next steps.
4. You may get error notifications in your FAFSA Submission Summary. Some of the most common notifications are:
  - Contributor Consent – You are not eligible for federal student aid because you did not provide consent and approval to retrieve and disclose your federal tax information. You can fix this during the review process.
    - It’s important to note that contributors CAN provide consent after your submission, but they CANNOT revoke it.
  - The Social Security Administration (SSA) didn’t confirm that you are a U.S. Citizen or eligible non-citizen. You can fix this by submitting documentation of U.S. citizenship to the financial aid office.
  - The date of birth (DOB) that you reported on the FAFSA does not match SSA records. You can fix this by contacting the SSA to correct their records and then submit proof of your DOB to the financial aid office.
  - Your FAFSA form has been selected for verification. This is a process where your school can request copies of certain financial documents. You can fix this by following up with your school(s) to verify the information reported in your FAFSA.
5. Your FAFSA is not considered complete until you finish the review of your FAFSA Submission Summary.
6. You can make changes to your FAFSA by editing the information in the FAFSA Form Answers section of the summary.
7. You can add and remove schools from your FAFSA while reviewing your Summary. This is an incredibly important tool for anyone who has changed their mind about a potential school or applied to a few extra institutions since filing.
8. Your FAFSA Submission Summary has a ton of information about your potential schools, including graduation rate, retention rate, and average cost. Be sure to review this information so that you can find the best fit for your situation.
9. Your FAFSA Submission Summary will provide you with Next Steps. So, if you are missing any documentation or need to submit a correction, this section will walk you through what you need to do.
10. After you submit any changes that have been made, and the Department of Education has processed your Summary, you can download a copy for your own reference by revisiting your dashboard on studentaid.gov.