<p>I received my award letter today, but the difference between my COA and aid is almost $7,000. I am an independent student enrolled with 13 credit hours. According to my FAFSA, I should have been offered the full pell grant (which I was) a $9500 loan and work study at the very least. Other than the grant I was only offered $3500 for the whole year. I have already taken on a full class load, but don't have the means to support myself. I have no transportation, no home, no school supplies, just my tuition and books are covered.
I asked at my school today, and was informed that this school will not allow you to get more than $3500 a year. They said that when students don't pay loans, it hurts the school so that's that.
I am in a bind now. I have been planning this and researching for the last 8 months to be able to support myself. I don't understand how if the government is offering me loans, the school is deciding that I cannot have them.
Now I have no choice but to make it through this term because they told me if I were to let 2 of my classes go in order to work full time that all of the money would be taken away.
I don't know how to afford to make it through.
Has anyone else encountered this?
I am 40 years old. I should have the right to take out the full loan if I so choose.</p>
<p>What school is this? You are entitled to borrow the full amount of your authorized Stafford Loans up to COA, assuming the school participates in the Stafford Loan program. However, some (particularly for-profit) schools do not participate. If this is a for-profit school, you should consider attending a different school next year.</p>
<p>As polarscribe suggested, ask if the school participates in the Stafford loan program. If it does, then it does not have the discretion to limit the federal loans you receive.</p>
<p>If it does not, and you can’t afford to attend, then you need to withdraw. Get paperwork from the school documenting your withdrawal . . . so the school can’t come back later and say (1) that you still owe tuition or fees or (2) that you received the Pell and the federal loan when you didn’t.</p>
<p>It’s not clear from your post whether you’re talking about classes that have already started, or classes you were planning to start in the summer or next fall. If the classes are NOW, then you need to verify that it’s not too late to withdraw without being charged. Since you just received your award letter, you should be permitted to withdraw . . . but if it’s a for-profit school, there are no guarantees. Be VERY careful about getting the documentation I mentioned above. You do not want to find out later that you owe money or that your Pell grant was credited to your account even though you never took classes.</p>
<p>It is Jefferson State Community College.
I am already attending classes and was told that I can’t change anything or I will lose all of my funds.
I am receiving the $5550 grant and a federal sub loan for the $3500.
They told me they will not allow the unsub loan due to the fact that students don’t repay loans and schools suffer. They said this is their policy.</p>
<p>it is a public school btw</p>
<p>(1) Does the school participate in the Stafford loan program? If yes, it does not have the discretion to deny you a federal loan that you are eligible for. If this is the case, I’d contact the federal Department of Education and ask what to do. (No, I’m not kidding!)</p>
<p>(2) If you submitted your financial aid application on time, and their award letter was delayed, they are legally obligated to back you out of your enrollment, grant, and loan. You could not agree to this financial aid package when you didn’t know what it was!</p>
<p>(3) If your financial aid application was not submitted on time, then you may be stuck, and I’m not sure what you’d be able to do.</p>
<p>Edit: It appears that Jefferson does not participate in the Stafford loan program.</p>
<p>he says that he is getting a fed loan, so if his school doesn’t participate what is he getting? Only Perkins?</p>
<p>Anyway…I’ve never heard of a “school” getting hurt if students don’t repay loans. Is that really true?</p>
<p>BTW…your FAFSA would not have indicated that you surely would get work-study. It may have suggested that you might get W-S, but there would be no statement that it would be definitely given.</p>
<p>A school can decide which of the several different student loan programs it participates in. In this case, it appears that the school has elected not to participate in the Stafford program. </p>
<p>As a result, the OP received a $3500 subsidized direct student loan, but was not able to get the additional $6,000 in unsubsidized Stafford loan funds that he/she would have been eligible for as an independent student.</p>
<p>Not all schools participate in the Stafford program . . . and the only way to know for sure is to ask the school.</p>
<p>And for a student like the OP, who needs that additional Stafford funding, when the local community college declines to offer it . . . well, that doesn’t leave many options. Sure a CC somewhere else in Alabama might offer Stafford funding, but how does that help a student in Birmingham???</p>
<p>I believe schools do have quite a bit of discretion about how they award and disburse aid as they are the first in line to repay certain types of aid when students don’t complete a certain % of a semester i.e. the school has to repay any federal aid and then go after the student to get it back from them.</p>
<p>It sounds like the OP has been awarded only the subsidized portion of federal direct loans. It seems fairly common for schools to do this, I’m not sure that there is a rule saying they must offer the entire amount available. Hopefully an FA expert like kelsmom will chip in.</p>
<p>As far as WS, it is *entirely *at the discretion of each school whether they offer a student WS or not. WS is what is called a campus based program. The three campus based programs (WS, SEOG, and Perkins loans) have *very *limited funding. Each school is given a certain amount of funds and they can get no more. It is entirely up to them how they disburse those funds including the eligibility criteria for those funds and the maximums (within the rules) they will awards. For instance at my son’s school the maximum SEOG was $200 a year while at my daughter’s it was $2,000. I believe the federal maximum is $4,000 but few schools offer that as they try and spread the funding around a bit more. There are usually many more students who qualify for the funds than the school has funds, but once the school has awarded what they have they can not award any more.</p>
<p>I know it is a bit late, but for future reference and any other students/parents who may be reading this, it is an extremely bad idea to start at a school before the financial aid package has been determined.</p>
<p>Stafford and Direct are the same thing (Stafford is the old name, Direct the new name).</p>
<p>Here’s what the school’s website says, which implies that they do allow unsub loans. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>However, the website also says that the maximum a student will be allowed to borrow under the Direct Loan program is $3,500. I do not know whether schools are allowed to be more restrictive than the federal guidelines.</p>
<p>
There are not 2 separate programs. The Stafford and direct loan programs are exactly the same thing, not two different things. Stafford loan is just a short name for the direct Stafford loan. The names are used interchangeably, but they are not different programs. </p>
<p>Up until about 2 (maybe 3?) years ago, there was a difference. A school could elect to do either direct Stafford loans (where the loans were all organized through the school) or Stafford loans (where the student had to go to a private bank). The programs had the exact same limits for subsidized and unsubsidized and the same rules - the only difference was the process the student went through to get the loans (private lender or not). Then the rules changed and every school had to take part in the direct loans program.</p>
<p>If you google it. They say that they do offer both sub and unsub loans, but it also says they only allow a student to borrow $3500 as a freshman and $4500 thereafter up to $31,000 for the lifetime including loans from other schools.
Let me clarify why I started before the financial came in. I was in California, where I had spent 6 months preparing to start school in this term, but had a family emergency. I had to come back to Alabama, almost in the middle of December so I was hard pressed to get everything set up for Spring term. This is the only college in this area that I had to choose from.
I will be looking into transferring in The Summer term if this school is going to only allow me this meager amount of aid when I have such a great need.
thanks for the replies!
Brandy</p>
<p>Brandy - Can you in fact afford to finish out this term with the limited funding you’ve been given? </p>
<p>To swimcatsmom, annasdad - Yes, I realize now that I misspoke in separating Stafford loans from direct loans. Thanks for the clarification!</p>
<p>I really can’t afford it but I am sticking it out regardless.
I am couch surfing and depending on others for rides. I can’t even pay for gas.
At the very least with the $1700 I am getting I have to find a running car just to get to school. I promised the person that has been taking me back and forth that I would not be imposing any more than possible.</p>
<p>Schools do need to watch their student default rates on loan repayment. I believe, if a school’s default rate is too high, it can affect their ability to participate in Title IV aid. (Worked for a for-profit, and this was a big deal, with a frustratingly high default rate due to students being horrible bamboozled by admissions reps, then realizing they couldn’t actually handle school, then being shocked to learn what they would have to pay on their loans, and then defaulting…</p>
<p>“Schools need to watch their default rates . . .” Yes, absolutely . . . but is this school considering the impact that inadequate financial aid has on student success rates? The overall graduation rate at Jefferson State is **[12%](<a href=“College Navigator - Search Results”>College Navigator - Jefferson State Community College)[/b</a>] . . . how many of those students fail to graduate because they simply can’t afford to stay in school???</p>
<p>The OP is one student who would gladly have gotten her degree from Jefferson State . . . but who now is counting the days 'til she’ll be able to transfer out!</p>
<p>You are correct about that dodgersmom. I am going to put it to them like that when I tell them the reason for my transfer. I really didn’t want to transfer either. This school has the program that I wanted. It seems to me we have a lack of schools to choose from in this area (at least CCs) and as far as Physical Therapist Asst - the 2 programs I found have such a high demand that getting into the actual program is like pulling teeth.
I wrote an email to the Federal Dept of Ed last night hoping to find out the answer to my question - does the school have the right.
Thank you all again for the input.</p>
<p>Brandy</p>
<p>Yes, the school is within its rights to limit loan amounts. CC’s especially will do this, for various reasons. If this does not work for the OP, then a transfer is in order.</p>
<p>Brandy - Kelsmom is an actual real life FA officer, so her information is golden.</p>
<p>Unfortunately you appear to be between a rock and a hard place this semester as you are too late in the semester to drop the classes without owing any money. I hope you are able to make it through the semester ok and transfer into a program that works better for you. Good Luck.</p>
<p>I know it seems unfair, since the fed’s limit is higher … but as long as the school has a policy that it enforces for all, they can limit the loan amounts. They do have the info published on their website, so it is not a secret … and by not allowing the squeaky wheel to get the bigger loan, they are doing the right thing according to their policies.</p>