Here’s a little background of my situation. I graduated a community college spring 2017. during that summer I decided to transfer to UCF which was completed and I was able to register for classes for fall 2017. At UCF i was taking 2 online classes which amounted to about 1440$ which my financial aid covered. (My EFC is 0$.) Since i wouldn’t be physically attending the college until spring due to housing being full off and on campus I decided to take two classes at the college I had received my A.A from. The two classes being Chem2045c and BSC2010c . I was registered for both classes with proof of the Florida shines acceptance application and i started the classes but later i (attempted to drop the chem because i didn’t like the teacher but that did not go well because of of being registered incorrectly in their system. ( This is another issue which is contributing to the balance that I owe.) Now at the begging of registering I was expecting to pay out of pocket for 1 class which would have been around 450$ but I saw that i was receiving financial aid at both schools which I know now is not supposed to happen. My classes at UCF were already paid for by financial aid, at the secondary community college I was attending for the 1 class said that I was receiving around 2800$ for a pell grant. I noticed this pell grant a couple weeks after I was supposedly supposed to receive a refund from UCF but i now know that my financial aid for some reason only covered two classes which were 3 credit hours each totaling 6.On OCT 12 i received around 1600$ in refund money from my community college which I assumed was being given to because of me taking 8 Credit hours which is really 4 because of they registered me into their system incorrectly resulting in me not being able to drop a class unless I appealed the W.( This was later accepted and I received a letter in the mail saying I would receive a refund which I did not understand because I assumed the government would be receiving that money back and not me. On November 1st, 1 month after the semester is supposed to end i logged into my account and I saw a financial hold of 2500$. I went to the financial office to figure out why and all they said was that " Your financial aid was taken away and you have to pay back the money that was sent to you because you can’t receive financial aid at two schools"…Now the thing I dont get is that If they knew I was a transient student why would they send me money knowing I’m attending two schools?It even said I was transient in my degree program for the community college. I personally had no clue that you couldn’t receive money at two schools because I thought the government knew and controlled the funds I was receiving. After finding this out I called the FaFsa student information center and asked If i was overpayed and they said I was not and my financial aid was fine and that I would just be in debt to the school. Now also around October UCF apparently was requesting from my community college the amount of credit hours I was enrolled in and today the 14th they sent me an email saying I applied for the Florida shines transient student application but didn’t actually register for classes so the “Stcostofattendance” would be removed from my to do list. Now, after realizing I would be in debt by 2500$, the community college said they would not send my grade to UCF who was going to take in account the amount of credit hours i was taking and release the maximum amount of financial aid I was eligible to receive. Which I would have used to pay back the stupid college who can’t seem to register students in their system correctly. My question is 1 how am I supposed to pay back a school who has put me in debt through their school errors and refuses to send my grade to UCF so that can obtain a portion of that money to pay them back. 2. Is there any sort of legal action I can take because I seriously don’t understand how this is my fault in any way shape or form. Also of the 1600$ I received 250$ went to my UCF student housing agreement and 250$ went to the UCF book store to pay for books that I thought was covered by financial aid which it wasn’t.
You can only receive financial aid from ONE college at a time (there are some exceptions but your schools don’t sound like an exception is relevant).
Bottom line…if you got aid you wer not entitled to receive…you will be required to pay it back. Period.
Contact the school and set up a way to pay this money back.
I know you think it’s the colleges fault…but really…you can’t be a matriculated student at two places at the same time…and you also cannot usually receive need based aid if you are enrolled less than 1/2 time.
I understand that but how one earth can a college potentially damage someones credit because they don’t know what they’re doing and not be responsible…?
They sent you a refund in error. If you weren’t sure why you got that money then you could have called them then and returned it.
Work out a payment plan with them, if you have to work for a semester, then go back to school.
Don’t let this go, don’t let the debt go to collections.
You should have $1,000 left of the refund money, that should help in repaying the balance.
Also be careful using Pell grant money for summer study, it counts against your limit.
If you have to, work in the summer and pay for classes out of pocket. But make sure they will count towards your major at the school where you are a matriculated student.
Because you’re supposed to know what you’re doing.
The idea is that now you’re old enough to know, or to ask questions when you don’t know.
Your credit rating is dependent on you using credit well. Yours will recover, once you’ve taken care of paying for those classes.
The college debt will only affect your credit if you ignore it…and don’t pay.
edited my post
It is your responsibility to know what you are doing and to be responsible. You are an adult.
Btw, I never even made it through your original post. You are in college. Use paragraphs. Grammar and spelling matter.
Computers package aid, and then people later make sure there are no errors - which there can be in situations that are not typical - like students sending a FAFSA to a school where they are not enrolled as a degree-seeking student. The computer error was caught in your case. I was in charge of Pell for a university, and I had to remove Pell from the accounts of more than a few students. It’s not something the aid officer enjoys doing, believe me … but the rules have to be followed, and the Pell has to be removed. Repay the money, and make sure you read all the rules associated with financial aid in the future.
OP, you made a mistake, and there are consequences.
While you may have had some legit concerns about mistakes made by the second school who sent you a refund which you weren’t entitled to, it doesn’t change the fact that you were not entitled to it.
I don’t think there is any legal action you can take, because you are at fault. You didn’t understand that - but move on, it happens.
Presuming you can eventually come to grips with accepting the majority of blame in this situation is a direct result of your mistakes, then you need to figure out how to try to resolve this.
Have you tried contacting the dean of the school that is following their policy (and the same policy of virtually all colleges) that it cannot release grades until payment is made? Acknowledge that there were mistakes on both parties sides - but it was your first mistake of attempting to simultaneously matriculate at two schools, that caused them to refund you money that was not yours. When you called to clarify, they gave you incorrect information as it applied to your situation - although they may not have understood what you had been doing. But that being said, you understand that you need to pay them back, and if those grades do get sent to UCF, you need to verify that UCF will release monies back to you.
This may end up being a costly life-lesson for you, but I’d suggest that someone in the Dean’s office, or an advisor, may be able to help clarify the situation for you, and help come up with a plan. I suspect that if you take the time to lay out your position clearly, and accept the responsibility that you simply didn’t understand what you had done wrong, you might be able to get some assistance in getting this resolved.
Can you get a student loan? If your EFC is 0 you should qualify for a subsidized loan which is 2,500. You can use that money to get your transcript and then pay back the loan. The interest is small, but I don’t know how long it would take for the loan to disperse if you applied now. Your post is a little confusing. So you owe 2500 to the community college? And all you needed to pay to be enrolled was 1200 which the pell grant covered? Did you have the Pell grant at UCF too? Do you have to pay that back? When you become a full time student even if your EFC is 0 I imagine you’ll still have to take out the max amount of loans fafsa allows.
I seriously don’t understand how you could possibly think I’m the reason for the school sending me money on accident as if I control registration. Whats even more dumbfounding is that I wasn’t even allowed to register for Bio 1 or CHEM2045 on my own without it being overridden by managers at the school which required prerequisites.Either their computer system is a pos or the person handling financial funds doesn’t know what they’re doing. I’m assuming its their computer system because at the time of this happening they were transitioning to an entirely knew computer system. But its fine the money will be payed back when I get on a payment plan with whatever collection agency they eventually send it to.
The actual cost is around 1900-2000 once that CHEM course is removed. I figured if UCF credits me money for the 4 credit hours I was taking i’ll only have to pay back around 1500 which can be gone by next year. The loan money I’m taking out during the spring semester at UCF will be used to pay for my housing and if anything is left over I’ll used that to put forward to the 1900$ bill. It should be payed off before grad school.
You are in administrative hell. It’s very similar to the biblical hell.
You need to get a print out in writing of the accounts of each school. Get a student loan, figure out which financial aid you are entitled to, and what you have to pay. Clean up the mess. Go to one school on financial aid.
I personally don’t understand why you can’t get financial aid at more than one school if you are attending more than one school.
Be nice, contrite, avoid any blame, take the blame on yourself, and find someone nice at one of the schools to help you figure out the whole thing with both schools. I find begging in person and offering to wash people’s cars often works. (Nobody ever takes me up on the car wash offer, but they can tell I appreciate them).
I personally don’t understand why you can’t get financial aid at more than one school if you are attending more than one school.
Because in financial aid world, rules are rules. Suspend all logic when it comes to financial aid rules … just follow 'em.
I get that OP feels it’s the school’s fault & therefore, the school’s responsibility. The problem is, the school had to remove the money & now it is the student’s responsibility to repay it. Think of it in the same way as a bank that somehow puts too much money in your account … when they realize what happened, the bank will take the money out of the account … or if you already spent it, they will expect you to repay it.
Why wait for this to go to collections? Make a payment plan driectly with the school NOW!
Pay it back before it gets moved to a private collection agency. If you think you are in a mess now, you are really just in a drizzle. Private collection agencies will tack on fees and you will be in a tsunami.
Time is of the essence - work something out with the college, you do not want this going to collections. Private collection agencies will call you constantly, garner wages, tax refunds, social security checks and you may never be able to reduce the principal because of outrageous fees.
OP- you are getting a lesson which at the end of the day is worth whatever you need to pay back. You will need to learn this lesson well.
OPM- other people’s money. Their money, their rules.
I have young people on my staff who have trouble with this concept but it’s pretty simple. You go to the bank to borrow 100k to buy a condo. You don’t get to take the 100K and decide that you’d rather invest part of it in your buddies business and part of it to fund a trip around the world. No. You might say, “but the money is now mine and paying it back with interest” but you’d be wrong. The bank lent you that money because the loan was secured by the property you are buying. If you went to them for 100k loan for your buddy’s business there is a strong likelihood that you wouldn’t get any money- or you’d get it at much higher interest and fees.
You work for a company which provides cash advances when you travel on business. So you get 200 bucks every other week or so. You don’t get to take that money and head to Vegas. The money is to cover taxis, tips, anything that you haven’t charged on your company credit card. And when you fill out your expense report, you need to pay back the unspent balance of that money (down to the nearest dollar).
See? It’s not so hard. When you are spending other people’s money, they get to dictate the terms. My young employees don’t understand why they can’t just run a balance and every now and again (twice a year?) reconcile their travel account. It’s “such a hassle” having to fill out expense reports and account for the money. Plus paying it back- before you know it, they are going away again and getting another cash advance.
Well, it doesn’t work that way. Because it’s not their money.
So in your case- you are now trapped in OPM. You got someone else’s money and you are aggravated that due to an administrative flap, you now OWE money. But you didn’t read the fine print- you can’t get financial aid to attend two colleges at the same time. Sooner or later, the system was going to catch up with you. And now you need to repay the money.
It stinks but this is a good lesson now before you start getting mortgages and car loans and cash advances and all these other grown up things.
Pay back the money as quickly as you can. Get on a payment plan with the college, do NOT let it go to collections. These collections folks make the mafia look cuddly. They will call you on Xmas eve. They will call you on Xmas morning. They will find the phone numbers of anyone you’ve ever lived with (hello mom, former roommate, Aunt Sue) and call THEM on Xmas eve.
Pay it back now. And lesson learned.
They said I need a third of the money to put down to be placed on a payment plan which is about 600$ with that CHEM course removed.
It sounds like the college is willing to work with you and has offered you very generous terms by allowing you to only repay 1/3 right away and make payments for the rest.
Keep copies of all your statements, take screen shots of your college billing, keep records of everything you pay back, make sure it is credited correctly, screen shot payments and when your balance is paid in full - and keep those records - forever.