<p>I went to University for a year and owed money at that university. Now I can't get my transcript until my balance is zero.
It will take one or two years to pay the balance. Will I be able to attend another college before my balance at previous university is paid ? Back while I am in college, I am not eligible for financial aid and now I am eligible for financial aid. And I do not want to waste some more years without being in college and when I asked admission requirement to some universities, I was told that I need to have official transcript to apply. So what are my options ? Is there any university of community college that can accept even though I owe money at previous university ? I don't really care about the credits I get from previous college and if I have to start over and take some classes again in order to get admission from other university, I can do that. Any suggestions ?</p>
<p>I don’t believe that it is possible to just “start over.” Schools can determine if you have attended other universities, and covering this up is dishonest and can cause your acceptance to be rescinded. If it is a requirement to submit an official transcript upon admission, you will need to do so before you can officially start at the new school, which means taking the time to make the payments on your past due balance at your previous school. </p>
<p>You are required to provide transcripts from ALL previously attended schools when applying to any college. If you have an outstanding balance…your school won’t send that transcript.</p>
<p>PLUS…why would any school grant you any aid when you have stiffed another college? </p>
<p>You need to pay your debts. Contact school number one and arrange a payment plan. How much do you owe?</p>
<p>I have paid a little bit over $10000 for first semester and I could not pay my second semester tuition fees. I owed
$9996 or $ 9992. I went to my university on the other day and I was told that I can pay the balance and get my transcript. And they didn’t send my debt to collection agency.
For the financial aid part, I read a forum which says as long as I don’t own pell grant money, I am eligible for financial aid, It also says owing money at university won’t stop me from getting financial aid. I am not sure it is completely true.</p>
<p>I was in the same boat, but my debt WAS in collections.</p>
<p>I left school, owing them a few thousand, and couldn’t move forward without lying, which I knew would be a stupid thing to do. </p>
<p>What I would do: talk to the old school. See if they have a program that will allow you to release your transcript on a contingent basis. It wouldn’t be as if you had no debt and could release your transcript anywhere. They may allow you to release it only once, and only once with permission. They may require you to start making payments to them immediately on the debt, which I did. This isn’t guaranteed, but it’s a good start. </p>
<p>My current community college let me come provisionally but I can’t register for classes the next semester until the transcript is released to them. However, I’ve finally paid half the original balance to the old school (not including the collections fees), and they’re sending my transcript ONCE to a school. Before I go back to four-year, wherever I go, the debt will be paid off. </p>
<p>And I did get finaid from CC but it was a grant from the school. However, I was prepared to pay it out of pocket. I couldn’t get my Pell Grant because the transcript from my old school wasn’t available. </p>
<p>For anyone in this boat, I would recommend going to a community college that’s affordable. You can at least go along while you’re trying to pay the old school.</p>
<p>There are also other options. If you have good credit or know someone who does, like a parent, and will be willing to cosign, you can get a debt consolidation loan. Make sure it’s low interest and have a plan to pay it off as soon as possible.*</p>
<p>*Some people would disagree, saying “NO LOANS EVER!” but when you’re getting old and you need to get back to school and you’re blocked from not only that but from financial aid AND you can’t get a better job because you can’t go back to school…it hurts even more than a loan would. It’s still important to watch out for yourself and make sure it’s a good loan, but this is an option, especially if you have a job and can pay it off. I paid off the last big payment with my credit card that has no interest for now.</p>
<p>The issue is enrolling at another school. You can’t get financial aid if you aren’t enrolled - and a school won’t be able to accept you without all of your transcripts. </p>
<p>@kgos16, there are some schools that will allow you to enroll provisionally while you get the transcript. They’ll give you anywhere from two weeks to a semester to get it. My community college did. However, I was prepared to pay out of pocket for my college costs, and the finaid I got was bottom of the barrel leftover federal money they gave to anyone and everyone. It covered tuition and books for me, a part-timer, so I’m really not complaining, just being honest. </p>
<p>I would not recommend lying, but I did think about it as well. However, it’s a different time, where anyone can find out someone has been a college student, no matter where they were. Be honest about your situation, find people who understand and work with them only if at all possible, and it could work out for you. The worst part of this whole thing is having to explain my story to different people, and they go with how they’ve been trained to handle everyone, and not someone in my situation. </p>
<p>A lot of schools won’t even award an aid package to a student unless they are completely admitted. So the missing transcript is going to be an issue from the start. </p>
<p>Actually, you cannot receive any federally funded aid, including the Direct Loan…unless you are a matriculated student. This is usually true for institutional aid as well.</p>
<p>school number one needs to be paid. Otherwise, it will be very difficult, if not impossible…to matriculate at another college.</p>
<p>@swoonsong I don’t think my school has a program that will allow you to release your transcript on a contingent
basis. I was aldy told that I can’t get my transcript until after my balance is completely paid. They told me I can do the payment plan though.
You mentioned you community college let you come provisionally but you can’t register for next semester until transcript is released ? I don’t quite get that. Does it mean you community college let your enroll for a semester before you get the transcript ?
You said you get grant from school and didn’t get pell grant ? What is the difference between grant from school and pell grant ? I know FAFSA form is supposed to be for financial aid application, Which form you need to submit for grant from school ?
Do I need transcript from previous university in order to apply financial aid ?
If you don’t mind me asking, can you tell me the name of your community college ? I would like to see it has my major and online courses. And can you also recommend any colleges and universities that can let me enroll even though I have balance at another college.
Thank you very much</p>
<p>@thumper , I will try to pay the balance. But since it is going to take one or two years, I would like to enroll at community college and get some credits and pay the balance at the same time. That way, I will have some credits towards my degree after the balance is completely paid off. I will also be ready to transfer from community college.</p>
<p>You have to ask. Try to speak to people who specialize in the finaid office. The student workers or entry-level or whatever will say what they have been trained to say, but I when I get to senior people, they may have a way. Sound contrite, advise them that you’re having difficulty with your life and career due to this, and you’re working to pay it off. See if you can take care of half of the balance and see if they can release it provisionally while keeping the hold until it’s paid off. Try to dig on the website as well. I had to deal with this situation constantly at both schools when going over my issues, they would trot out the one thing they are supposed to say even though it never applied to me. </p>
<p>(For instance, the community college DID NOT know what to do without the transcript. I advised that I’ve already planned out my courses to take and transfer, I don’t mind taking the prereqs for math and general college kids, it’s been almost eight years since I’ve been in school, but they still wanted to waste both our time to get even an unofficial one so they could try to place me out of stuff. Um, I haven’t taken math since I was a teen and I’m in my mid-20s, let me take the test.)</p>
<p>I told CC what was going on, that I was working on getting the transcript released, and they let me enroll by taking the block off for one semester. I’ve been paying off the old university this whole time and knew that by the end of this semester it would be free to go to this one school. However, while registration is open for everyone else, I have a block for spring because of the missing transcript. It should be arriving this week though. </p>
<p>I did not anticipate any financial aid. My award letter came as if I HAD submitted the transcript, but the funds could not get disbursed until the transcript was submitted. In the end, the Pell Grant was rescinded due to missing transcript, but I got a college grant they give to everyone after financial aid has been disbursed. I got one for $600 as did my boyfriend. We did not fill out any paperwork for it. </p>
<p>I go to Dallas County Community College. I don’t know of many places that will do this. The best way to do it is find someone who has an open ear and is willing to listen instead of go through the regular process. And be prepared to do a lot of legwork yourself, and take some time, more than others, because advisers and whoever may not be equipped to help you. My boyfriend got his school stuff including testing done in two trips. Mine took four, which was really exasperating because I have a strict job and I can’t get away easily. No one advised me of my placement results even though I brought the sheet to an adviser, they said I was fine, didn’t explain the results…someone at the registrar did. Then it turned out I had failed a placement test! I was in borderline tears when I got to my last adviser, but she was ok with listening. </p>
<p>@swoonsong When I went to my University, I talked to someone in student center and then I asked him about what I can do and stuffs like that, I even asked him is there any way they can lower my balance to like $7000 instead of $9992 or so many stuffs. And then he started calling phone to director at business office. She said it was not sent to collection agency and she said she can’t lower balance , if she does that, she has to do that to other students who owe money or it is going to be unfair for other students or sth. Next day I went to meet with her and since I used to work at business office while I was in college and she knew me and she was one of my supervisors and she told me that she understood my situation and she knew how was struggling with money since the first semester. She said I can’t get transcript until balance is paid.
There is one college near my place that will accept me as visiting student.I was told that I cannot attend as regular student until after I get my transcript. I have to pay school fess by myself and cannot get any scholarship as a visiting student .Do you know anything about visiting student ? I am afraid the credits I will get as visiting student won’t be able to transfer at another college.
And another thing is I would like to fill out FAFSA form just to see I am qualified or not before I enroll at the college. I never applied one before , so I am willing to fill out one just to see how much I can get as pell grant by listing some universities. I am not going to get the aid until after I enroll at college, but I just want to see the estimate I can get.
Can I fill FAFSA without getting transcript ? Can I also know estimate after I fill it out.</p>
<p>Use the FAFSA4caster. Remember all the FAFSA will allow you to get is federal aid. The college you enroll in will determine if they have their own institutional aid to award. Use NPC for that estimate, but it isn’t always right for transfers, intended for freshmen only.</p>
<p><a href=“https://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/estimate”>https://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/estimate</a></p>
<p>BrownParent…this student can’t GET need based federally funded aid unless he is a matriculated student. And he can’t become a matriculated student until he gets his transcripts from the previous college. And he can’t get the transcripts until he pays college number one what he owes them.</p>
<p>Sure, he can fill out the FAFSA…but how will he become a degree seeking student at college number 2 without a transcript from college number one?</p>
<p>^ Exactly, Thumper. I might say that completing the FAFSA would be a waste of time. </p>
<p>I didn’t suggest he file fafsa. READ MY LIPS.</p>
<p>@thumper1, he just wanted to get an idea of what would be available in the future should he clear his account and be eligible again. It doesn’t make sense to file an actual fafsa right now so I am suggesting this instead the forcasting tool on the fafsa website that gives you an estimate of what you would get.</p>
<p>As a visiting student the credits that you earn may transfer to other schools but it really depends on the other school’s policy. If you have a specific school in mind it would help with the research on seeing how they treat visiting student’s credits from others.</p>
<p>Depending on the school and the laws of the state where you wish to attend, a community college might let you attend without having a transcript of previous work. Call the registrar’s office of several CCs you might be interested in.</p>