Does the financial aid at a private university have the right to lower the amount of federal funding you receive without permission.
I was offered a Tuition Waiver by the graduate program at my university. The waiver was based on academic performance and not a hardship waiver. I have the conditions of the waiver in writing emailed by my graduate program advisor. I additionally took out federal funding to help manage my finances during each semester. My tuition expenses were covered by my federal aid. My waiver that I received was added to my account as a Scholarship and not as a waiver. This caused my federal funding to surpass the allowed amount to be borrowed by a student per year which is (COA)cost of attendance. If the waiver was applied correctly as a waiver it would have lowered the cost of my attendance and I would have been able to receive the correct amount of my federal aid back in a refund.
The school refused to apply my waiver correctly and instead lowered the amount of federal funding that I requested (without informing me) in order to apply the waiver as a scholarship and keep from refunding the amount of the waiver. This didnt allow me to receive the amount of funding that I needed as the amount I burrowed in federal aid was lowered.
to my understanding the school did this because they would have to pay out the waiver amount to me bacuse my fees were already covered by my federal aid. They did not want to do this so they adjusted my aid to keep the money from the waiver.
the critical question that they will not answer is “what is the difference between a scholarship and a waiver.” Which I informed them many times.
Is this a breach of contract as I did not receive the waiver?
Are you saying you were trying to get aid that exceeded the cost of attendance? And this would have been possible with a waiver but not with a scholarship?
Yes. With a waiver I would still meet the cost of attendance cap without going over the federal limit.
They applied it as a scholarship so that it would intentionally put me over the cost of attenndance and they could deny me the funds.
With a waiver I owe the university less in tuition and they did not want to refund me the waiver amount because my tuition was aleady payed.
The amount you can borrow is based on your COA. If your COA goes down then you cannot borrow as much. It doesn’t matter if it’s due to a scholarship or waiver.
Yes. they are covered by my subsidized federal aid. I am an adult grad student with a family and a mortgage not a new kid with no responsibilities. I had to quit my job to go to school as I could not work full time. I am being penalized the amount of the waiver and not receiving the federal aid amount. That is the whole reason for the loan in the first place is to pay my bills.
I was not asking for a judgment on what one thinks about my position as I was only looking for some feedback on the right of financial aid.
The college has a calculated cost of attendance for your program. All aid cannot exceed that cost of attendance which includes living expenses for off campus lodging, etc.
This college has met its obligation and has given you full funding for your grad program…at their calculated cost of attendance.
I want to clarify something. You do not have any subsidized aid. Grad students can only receive unsubsidized loans. Unsub loans begin accruing interest as soon as they are disbursed.
As others have noted, your tuition waiver has to be accounted for in some way in your financial aid package. There are a couple different ways it can be done, but the bottom line is that either the waiver has to be considered a resource (financial assistance) or the COA has to be reduced to reflect the lower tuition cost.
@thumper1 I looked on the college website. There is no policy or guideline only the signed waiver by the department stating the requirements. That is why I was seeking outside help.
@kelsmom The couple of ways they can do that are what is so critical. The university first processes and pays all fees with our federal loans. Then the university refunds us the part of the tuition that is part of the waiver. COA is not actually reduced. its a rebate.
I would have been ok if I was just informed directly. When I asked financial aid about the university policy on waivers and scholarships they replied…
“we are doing it in YOUR best interest”
If they do this to alot of student they are giving away fake funding and cheating student out of promised funds. Many student came to the program because of this waiver.
No…what I meant…your schools calculated cost of attendance is on their website. The school has a number there. If they have met your full cost of attendance, they have met their obligation to you.
You are not entitled to aid that will exceed the cost of attendance. And yes, I understand you think you would have gotten more with a tuition waiver. But in reality, a tuition waiver reduced would have reduced your cost of attendance by that tuition dollar amount.
You are fully funded for grad school. Do you have any idea how many students wish they had that level of funding?
I realize your current expenses seem to exceed what the college is giving you. But that’s not the college’s issue.
@thumper1 “The Grad Plus loan” is designed for working students that need to suppliment their income. The cost of attendance was paid for by my Fed Loans which have to be payed back. That has nothing to do with the obligation fo the school because they dont pay any of it. smh. you clearly dont have 80k or more in student loans because then you would understand what a waiver means when all the money is borrowed .
Again thank you for your efforts to help even though your answers are slightly biased.
Please try not to inflict that bias when answering other peoples questions.
This is a pointless thread because the OP doesn’t want to understand the terms under which a Plus loan is disbursed, administered, accounted for.
This isn’t bias OP- this is reality. Anyone who doesn’t like how a grad plus loan is being administered by the program or by their college has the option of going to a bank or credit union and trying to borrow instead.
You are getting angry at people who are trying to answer your question- yes, financial aid can “take back” a tuition waver (although they aren’t taking it back, they are complying with federal law).
I borrowed a lot of money for my 4-6 year grad program, back in the day. (I had to work in-between to help my disabled parents). No, I didn’t have a mortgage. I wasn’t married. I had financial expenses and obligations. I also took out loans for my expenses but I was required to meet with financial aid to discuss my understanding of funding, repayment, and COA. My graduate stipend/ “waiver”, was funded via the school’s endowment, which was a separate account. In no way, was it tied into my Federal graduate loans. I still was required to work to meet my family expenses.
The problem you have is that the graduate program promised you a “waiver” without, apparently, consulting/ keeping the waiver funding separate from the FA department and federal requirements.
The federal dollars are funneled through Financial aid department at your school. Your “waiver” apparently was “in-house”.
You need to consult your grad program. If they have a waiver, it’s on them-not FA at the school. The Financial aid department is legally bound to the federal government. They CANNOT exceed COA.
Your beef should be with your graduate program. You are very lucky that you are eligible for federal loans.
(Helpful hint: As a grad student, if you are writing a thesis or dissertation, please use a spell checker/ grammar checker since there are a number of communication issues here with your spelling/writing. It will impact your first panel review.)
@“aunt bea” You actually understand what I am asking. Because they applied it together it messed up both the waiver and my federal aid.
@blossom thank you but @“aunt bea” has given me the correct explanation to my question. Reality is that that saying I can go to a bank if I dont like the terms has nothing to do with helping answer the question. It is a statement of opinion. My point of bias is saying that “you should be happy you got anything” is another such example of opinion because you dont know my situation. Having a federal loan is a big deal and the reason that I am upset. The waiver was taken back as it should have been seperate “in house” which @“aunt bea” helped me understand.