Financial Aid Consultant SCREWED up.

Paying for College
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<p>Alright I don't mean to post multiple threads but this is a pretty serious situation for my family and I just want to get some advice ... maybe even legal advice.</p>

<p>We hired a financial aid consultant to take care of our financial matters for college [filling out FAFSA etc. to maximize our award, etc.] We first went to him the summer before my freshman year, and everything was fine. Throughout the year, during breaks and what not, we went to follow up meetings to keep everything on file and paid him again to do our aid for my sophomore year. Thing is, for the University of Maryland - College Park the PRIORITY CONSIDERATION deadline is the 15th [in essence you get the most consideration for aid and the most money if you apply by this deadline].</p>

<p>In my case, he missed the deadline by 10 days and sent my FAFSA on the 25th. My aid for this year has been drastically reduced ... When I talked to a financial aid counselor at my school, she was basically telling me that there were a few awards that I was awarded last year that didnt go through this year because I did not apply for the priority deadline.</p>

<p>Last year I received a financial aid scholarship of $3900, a Work-Study Award of $2200, and a Perkins Loan and Seog Grant of $800 a piece. These could all potentially have gone up for my sophomore year since also in part due to my good academic standing ... I finished with a 3.88 overall.</p>

<p>Thats a potential 7 to 10,000 dollars in aid I am missing out on ... Now the consultant helped us write an appeal letter etc, but if that does not turn out to work out in our favor, Its going to be very hard for my family to pay for my college tuition. My family's EFC is $821, and the total amount of unmet aid is $19,040.</p>

<p>While I can't say I have 0 fault in this case (I should have kept track of the dates better), if you hire someone to do a job they should be expected to know deadlines especially if your job is helping students with financial aid. Would I have a case if we were to take legal action?</p>

<p>SORRY for the long read, but I just need some feedback ... I've learned my lesson to always keep track of things better but in this case its my college education on the line</p>

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<p>I don’t know what to advise, but hiring a financial advisor is really not necessary. There’s nothing he could get you by filing your FAFSA that you couldn’t have done yourself. HE didn’t get you more money… you wasted your money with him.</p>

<p>How much did you pay him so far? (what a scam!)</p>

<p>Last year I received a financial aid scholarship of $3900, a Work-Study Award of $2200, and a Perkins Loan and Seog Grant of $800 a piece.</p>

<p>You would have gotten this same award no matter what. </p>

<p>If you have some kind of written contract with him that he won’t miss deadlines, etc, then you can try suing him…</p>

<p>You were scammed…you paid for NOTHING.</p>

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<p>I do agree with you its not necessary, but you really are taking it to the extreme when you are saying that I was scammed and that I paid for “NOTHING”. He’s a CPA Accountant and there are many financial aid consultants around that do in fact sit down with you and go through your FAFSA and help fill it out [which information to put down, what information that wasn’t necessary] in order to minimize EFC.</p>

<p>English is not my parent’s first language, and being a high school student at the time we thought hiring a financial aid consultant would be appropriate since the financial aid process was a bit confusing. Last year basically whatever we had to do financially, we would give to him like Verification and what not so basically it was also a burden off our shoulders.</p>

<p>With that being said, he did mess up, he has many other clients who obviously go to different schools but its still his job to know what is due when its due …</p>

<p>But no we don’t have a written contract with him that he won’t miss deadlines … so is legal action not even an option?</p>

<p>And yes now that I do know a lot more about the financial aid process, I can do it by myself and help my parents out as well … but theres still the issue that I have currently</p>

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<p>How much did you pay him last year?</p>

<p>How much did you pay him this year?</p>

<p>What does he advertise?</p>

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<p>Paid him a few hundred both years.</p>

<p>And what do you mean what does he advertise ?</p>

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<p>I agree with you that someone like that can be handy, but many community organizations (schools, in particular) often have volunteers who do something like that for free. Of course, if you didn’t have something like that available in your community then I can get that, but I can see mom2’s point about how hiring a “financial aid consultant” to fill out the FAFSA is often not worth the money you pay for it since there’s not much you can do to change your EFC that dramatically for most low-income / low-asset families.</p>

<p>If you’re intent on pursuing legal action you should consult a lawyer. I would never recommend taking legal advice beyond the generic on the Internet since there’s no way that anyone can tell you what to do based on the information you’ve provided so far.</p>

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<p>She might mean, “What does the consultant specifically claim to do for you? What promises did he make to you?”</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>Right.</p>

<p>There’s nothing to put on the FAFSA that wasn’t from the family’s tax forms, saving acct statements, etc. It’s not like he could magically come up with something that would result in more aid. The student got the same aid no matter what.</p>

<p>As for the advertisement… </p>

<p>How did you learn of this person? Does he advertise his services? Or did you learn about him thru word of mouth.</p>

<p>What did he say when you mentioned that he filed late?</p>

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<p>And yes, I get your point that you can’t magically come up with something that would result in more aid but like I said being that my parents don’t understand English that well and we just thought it would be the best option to get some help throughout the process.</p>

<p>One example, when I first filled it out on my own [didn’t submit it] there were questions that I did not know what value I should put down … for example How much are you [the student] expecting to make next year. I was definitely planning on working throughout the year so I somehow came up with some value like $8000 … the consultant told me that I shouldn’t put that down because they would take that into consideration when calculating aid and just told me to put $0. There were also a bunch of questions we had, in addition to doing Verification and what not.</p>

<p>But thats over. I know the process now, so that’s that …</p>

<p>But through word of mouth. He’s an accountant working for a small firm but does this on the side … We heard of him through some people from church who went to him to take care of their children’s college financial aid matters … and supposedly he did a good job etc.</p>

<p>Anyway right now he just helped us write an appeal letter … so I’m just hoping that goes well</p>

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<p>Just curious, What was his explanation as to why he was late? You should not pay him anything, because he cost you your FA. Any good business person should make good on what was expected. You can write him a polite letter asking him to forfeit his fee because you will now need that money for school. I’m not sure it would be worth pursuing a lawsuit, because I don’t think your family can afford the fees based on your EFC. You will be spending money that can go towards your education.</p>

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<p>CPA’s are licensed professionals and subject to the standards of their profession, which includes a fairly rigorous code of conduct. As with attorneys, violators are subject to disciplinary action ranging from censure to suspension. I would probably start by asking him to return whatever fee he charged you for this year’s filing. If he refuses, contact your state board or the AICPA to find out how to file a formal complaint. </p>

<p>Meanwhile, please don’t ever assume that someone you hire to take care of your financial matters will never make a mistake…at the end of the day, it’s always in your best interest to invest a little time and gain enough knowledge to monitor the process, even if you choose to hire it out. This applies to bill-paying, taxes, investing, and virtually every area of your financial life. You’ve learned a difficult but, thankfully, not devastating, lesson. I think the most you’ve lost is probably $4700 - SEOG does not often go up as funds are extremely limited on most campuses, Perkins loans can be replaced with other subsidized loans (btw, this year’s subsidized Staffords actually have a better rate than Perkins), and ws jobs can be replaced with non-work study, often at a higher pay rate. I don’t think the “damages” are really worth the time and expense of a formal civil suit (and it’s doubtful you could get UMD to commit to quantifying them to support your claim) although I do understand your ire.</p>

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<p>At the end of the day, the one person responsible for meeting the deadline is you, not the ‘financial aid counselor’. If you knew the deadline was the 15th you should have made sure that he remembered the deadline was the 15th and not assumed that he would remember.</p>

<p>Did you make calls ahead, saying “Will my filing be ready on time to be submitted by the priority deadline?”</p>

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<p>My aloof grandmother often intoned “Having staff does not eliminate problems – it changes them.” Yep. You have to monitor your staff. Tough lesson and you have every right to complain (but not to your university). You could ask for a copy of the last two years FAFSAs and look through them. You may decide you can do them yourself. </p>

<p>You can console yourself that you learned a hard lesson and it could have been worse. Many people believed Bernie Madoff and did not bother to monitor closely and ask lots of questions. They lost their life savings. </p>

<p>So, you can whine (a lot) or you can use the situation — you can go to housing and say “wow, I blew it. Is there a triple instead of a double for me? Can I work as an RA?” You can also go to your departmental chair and say “I blew it. I need to make up some lost ground here. Any departmental scholarships still available?” and so on. No one will know you need help unless you start talking.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the replies … Yeah I DEFINITELY did learn my lesson … Like I said before I do acknowledge that i am not at 0 fault here because it is also my job to make sure that I know when the deadline is … but at the same time if you do hire someone and entrust them to do a job then they should do it.</p>

<p>With that being said, sk8rmom I do somewhat agree with you that the damages are probably not worth the time for a lawsuit … but also your estimate of how much I actually lost is much lower because you are forgetting about the $3900 financial aid scholarship I received last year … When I talked to the counselor she said that those generally go up if your grades are in good standing but mostly to the priority deadline …</p>

<p>EITHER WAY … lesson learned … Olymom I will definitely talk to my department and see if they can help me out , as for RA’s, the selection process is already over</p>

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<p>Did the consultant say why it was late? Did he acknowledge that he or his dep’t made a mistake? </p>

<p>You must not remain passive in this matter; this is your FINANCIAL AID we are talking about, we are talking about thousands. If it his negligence that lead to you losing on potential thousands of dollars of “free” money, then I would definitely take it upon my own hands to act for compensation in one way or another.</p>

<p>He helped you write an appeal letter, that’s the least of things he should do. You pay him to expect everything be done ON TIME and CORRECTLY. </p>

<p>It’s a shame that this happens… even if you send the appeal, I don’t know if that will change anything, because usually when FAFSA’s are turned in late and aid is drastically reduced, it means they just don’t have enough funds for you.</p>

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<p>Believe me, right now I’m just going with the flow since he helped us with the appeal letter and what not … once the results from that are back there will be no passivity towards him I’m definitely going to act on it … but when you say “take it upon my own hands to act for compensation” are you talking about legal action? Or what would you recommend …</p>

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<p>All in all I’ve taken what I’ve needed to from this experience, ***** happens so I know what I have to do from now on … I’m just hoping the situation resolves itself in a more positive manner so my parents don’t have as much a financial burden</p>

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<p>Verification is NOT hard at all. The school sends you a form, 2 sides (80% of schools use a generic form from the US govt., the others may add a logo or change the graphics but it is all the same information), and you have to send along your basic tax info as well–1040 from parents and student if you, student, worked, and W-2s. (It says what to send, on the form). Paying anyone to do ANY of that is “non-strategic” or more bluntly, crazy. Also, the financial aid office OF THE SCHOOL can help you with that stuff. </p>

<p>The US Govt. has tried, to their credit, to make the federal process easier–and FREE, so that it IS available to all comers.It irks me that people are taking money families need for college expenses, to do this.</p>

<p>Maybe it is just that I have done a lot of FAFSAs as the College Advocate in a local HS, but it REALLY aggravates me that anyone would charge, or pay, for this. With tax information you can do the FAFSA in 20 minutes. Without tax information you can ESTIMATE the FAFSA, and SHOULD do that, to meet the deadlines, also in 20 minutes. (It can be corrected as needed–just don’t lose your PINs).</p>

<p>Schools don’t particularly care that you estimate income as $12,000, and then correct it up to $28,000 (or whatever) once you do your taxes. The point is that UMD and many schools have a LONG line of students asking for money, they need to make the line shorter, and having deadlines shortens the line. </p>

<p>I am sad that you ended up far back in the line, however (losing out on $$that you need). Just remember that old addage, Knowledge is power. You can REALLY do this yourself, from now on, even with non-English speaking parents.</p>

<p>There. Now I’m done!</p>

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<p>Nyc, the $4700 figure I used was based on your loss of scholarship and SEOG. What counselor told you the need-based scholarship would go up based on grades and did they say by how much?</p>

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<p>When I talked to the counselor she said that those generally go up if your grades are in good standing but mostly to the priority deadline</p>

<p>What counselor? What school is this? I’ve rarely heard of scholarships increasing because of good grades.</p>

<p>As for suing. Depending on what state you’re in, you can sue in small claims court for little money. However, depending on the state’s limits, the amount you can sue for will be between about $3k-10k or so. But, it might help.</p>

<p>Don’t wait until the appeal process is over. At least do the footwork now, then execute it if you get a bad appeal result - because at that point there may be little time to do anything.</p>

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<p>This is true for NYU as well. If you do well in your subsequent years, the aid increases at NYU.</p>