Send an email to campus housing saying you are withdrawing and need to remove your belongings from your room. Then withdraw. Bigger bills are looming if you don’t withdraw.
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You have evidence of efforts to contact them. The cost of room, board and tuition/fees and a transcript full of W’s is a lot worse than an improper checkout fee. Withdraw online then deal with your stuff.
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@GoldenMindset
All of these heartbreaking events are causing you to stress more than what you merit. These are very adult challenges that are unfamiliar and stressful for any young person. It’s very normal for you to feel frustrated.
All of these people, on this post, are looking out for you and are concerned. Please let them stress for you.
You know what you have to do. So breathe . . . , breathe . . . . , recover.
- You have a plan.
- Take it one step at a time.
- The first step is to find a ride to the school.
- Head to the university offices to start the process of clearing out your things and withdrawing.
- Then get your things.
- Withdraw and recover.
Now, try to put it aside because you have your initial plan.
You’ve done everything to help yourself.
Next, you will be thinking about health-related jobs to see if Health Ed is really in your future.
We are your cheerleaders, your back-up peeps. We don’t mind questions.
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And I appreciate your advice so much. From all of you. This is a difficult and unexpected situation for me. I never thought I was going to end up like this. But lesson learned.
Since no one has been answering, one of my parents tried to call the school with me. No answer. So my parent sent a lengthy e-mail to someone in charge of student affairs explaining our situation, including any extra funds, withdrawing, and moving stuff out the dorms to ensure we won’t be charged.
I was also told to fill out an application to a university in my hometown to try and see if I’d be accepted to take some courses there. I’m also looking for a receptionist job because I feel like it’d suit me the best since I have some experience in it from my previous university.
Nonetheless, we’ve been calling and e-mailing. The biggest step is to actually get up to that school.
We also found out why my previous university is charging me. It is because a pell grant was applied the semester I transferred. So…we’ve gotta take care of that. Lucky is about $600 which is still a lot of money, but obviously not as much as this fall bill.
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Yes you have to pay Pell grants back, if it was part of your aid while you attended. But I do not understand why you had a Pell grant applied when you weren’t there. Did you withdraw too late then?
I hope you have withdrawn from your current school online. An email about withdrawing will not work alone. Just go online and withdraw asap if you haven’t.
You do not have to apply and be accepted to take courses as an unmatriculated student, Just go online and register for courses through continuing ed or whatever they call it at that school.
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How’s the withdrawal process going? If you receive a $1200/year Pell Grant your EFC (estimated family contribution) is probably ~$4800/year. It shouldn’t be a surprise to the college that your family can’t come up with a figure ~7 times that amount.
Make sure to withdraw completely. You have to withdraw from classes, cancel the housing, and cancel the meal plan too. They’re handled by different offices (usually the registrar for classes and residential life for housing and the meal plan).
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This is not accurate unless the student withdrew at a certain point in the semester. Pell Grants do not need to be paid. Stafford loans, both subsidized and unsubsidized, must be paid back once the student graduates or separates from schooling. For this reason, it is in the OP’s best interest to remain enrolled somewhere to to not have begun repayments.
Parent Plus or private loans are a very bad idea and are predatory in some cases. I always say if one of these loans is necessary then that school is an unaffordable option. It has been my recommendation from the beginning of this thread that the OP withdraw as soon as possible and attend a community college to figure out next steps. If the OP has a $0 EFC then the Pell Grant will likely cover most, if not all, for a local community college.
My post was accurate. I indicated IF he was enrolled for that semester. We have gone through some mid-term withdrawals and had to pay the Pell grants and state grants back so withdrawal once enrolled costs money even with a refund of what was paid.
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Also I wouldn’t stay enrolled if that means still more loans, just to avoid paying the ones already borrowed. (The moratorium on paying loans has been extended btw.)
It is my understanding from reading that the OP did finish the semester successfully, and in that case, pell would cover it.
This is what I posted:
Yes you have to pay Pell grants back, if it was part of your aid while you attended. But I do not understand why you had a Pell grant applied when you weren’t there. Did you withdraw too late then?
In other words, I asked if the student withdrew during a semester when they had a Pell grant. Perhaps I wasn’t clear.
I have not gotten an answer.
Far from the biggest issue, but it’s making me nuts that you aren’t using the word “withdraw” correctly. Your plan is to withdraw from your college (verb). Good luck in all that you do, sincerely!
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The student was probably packaged Pell for the spring under the assumption they are continuing so maybe that’s an additional source of confusion. Federal financial aid laws dictate that students should easily be able to identify how to completely withdraw from the institution. If the OP shares the HBCU, I will be happy to look at their process. My original guess was Spelman, but based on recent comments, I’m thinking I may be totally wrong.
Any luck contacting the college this week?
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Yeah, I don’t remember who it was, but I think it was someone in my old post that told me to reach out to the financial aid office about my situation, so I did.
Well, I actually reached out to someone titled executive vice president. Have no clue what she does regarding my school, but I e-mailed her anyway and told her my entire story. Basically said I’m going through a lot and that I’ll probably have to withdraw. So she responded back to me, relatively quickly, and said she would refer me to someone higher up in student experience.
She e-mailed me the next morning and said she will have someone higher up in my financial aid to assist me and my family with our situation by Monday. So I’m waiting on that e-mail.
Don’t know what else they could possibly do for me, but when my university held a meeting the other day and I remembered them saying they want students to consult the university first before totally withdrawing because they want to “service us” in any way they can. Just wanted to see if there was anything else they could do, even a payment plan at most I don’t know.
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I withdrew a couple of weeks before the spring semester was going to start. So I wanna say it was about early January. When I checked the bill for this university, they applied the Pell grant in April of that year, several months after I withdrew. Which doesn’t make any sense since I was technically no longer a student there and I wasn’t enrolled in any classes.
Did you address this or did you pay? This seems like an error on their part.
I actually just sent them an e-mail and told them. I haven’t paid this off yet until I figure out if it is something I did or what they did.
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A payment plan for the money you owe for fall would be helpful. But it’s clear from your posts that the college costs more than your family can pay. You need to withdraw immediately and you need to be very clear about that with whoever you talk to. You can discuss options for paying the fall bill after that’s taken care of.
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It’s Friday so I thought I’d check in to see how things are going. Has the college been able to help you?
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