Financial aid nightmare...check your bills !!!!

<p>I had a great financial aid preliminary award using my dad's disabled veteren's tuition waiver and a Cal Grant. I turned down other schools with similar or only slightly worse offers. Everything's on track until today when I see the tuition waiver has been added and then REMOVED from my bill. So a call to the financial aid office reveals that they "just found the mistake" that Cal Grants and vet waivers are mutually exclusive and I suddenly owe an unexpected $8,000 !!! One third of which has to be paid in the next few days, SURPRISE ! To top it off, my Cal Grant won't disburse becaue I am only registered for 11 units and waitlisted for 8 more, so I can't register for another freshman seminar that would give me the one credit needed to get the aid to disburse until after classes start and the limit goes up to 22 instead of 19, however if I don't pay before classes start, I'll be disenrolled unless I come up with 7K in cash. I'm so screwed that I didn't pick one of the private colleges with awards that didn't depend on cal grants or vet waivers. It's even too late to register for junior college for Fall semester. 4 years of hard work, top of my class, and this is the result?...</p>

<p>Man that sucks really bad. I’d contact the financial aid office again with your parents and raise hell because you seriously got shafted. I’m sorry man. The financial aid department has been nothing but extremely helpful to me… :-/</p>

<p>I guess it’s too late now but ALWAYS ensure you are enrolled in 12 or more units if you’re receiving any financial aid. For now, drop a class that you’re waitlisted in (preferably something like Chem or Math… Spots ALWAYS open up) and fulfull that 12 credit requirement ASAP.</p>

<p>what exactly was your financial aid package before today? what is it now?</p>

<p>Thanks for the sympathy and advice. When and if I ever get to register agin, I’ll definately go for at least 12 credits. Before this, my fin-aid was a mix of loans, academic grants, cal grant, and tuition waiver that added up to nearly all my costs since my parents’ income is less than 25K. My parents will talk to someone higher up in the financial aid office again tomorrow.</p>

<p>No worries man</p>

<p>BTW, I assume you are aware of this plan? [UC</a> Blue and Gold Opportunity](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/blueandgold/]UC”>Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan | UC Admissions)</p>

<p>The university waives all fees for kids whose parents make less than 60k a year</p>

<p>Blue and Gold is great and already had some in my package. Today’s financial aid guy seemed to think that it may be too late to use it further because the packages were already approved and disbursed. Maybe the higher up person can access some emergency funds to help out since they messed up in the initial balancing of the award. That’s my hope anyway. I’ve been very lucky with everything concerning UCSD so far until this. So I’m trying to keep calm, but JEEZ…</p>

<p>That sucks. Good luck getting things sorted out.</p>

<p>Dern… Ucsd…</p>

<p>My parent’s income is less than 60000 but I did not (or at least I don’t think it’s stated) that I got anything from this Blue and Gold thing…</p>

<p>Is this automatically given?</p>

<p>you must have filed your FAFSA and also have applied for Cal Grants</p>

<p>Come to think it, don’t fret dude. UCSD “appealed” my financial aid package halfway through the year and gave extra grant money and nullified alot of my loans.</p>

<p>I did do both on time.</p>

<p>I looked at the website and I am eligible for UC Blue and Gold Opportunities but haven’t received anything from it yet. Has anyone received any rewards from this?</p>

<p>dude u said you were not enrolled in the min 12 units. go drop one of your waitlisted classes and enroll in any class to get your min 12 units. you should get your aid. thats happened to me before too. if you’ve already done that, and still you dont get ur aid back you should call. but keep in mind it takes like 3-5 days for the fin aid to find out that you’ve enrolled in your 12 units and give u ur money back. just chill dude.</p>

<p>Any combination of grants that add to up about 15k is the Blue and Gold Opportunity. If you’re still unsure, call the finaid department</p>

<p>got it. thanks!</p>

<p>bman14, those are two separate issues. The aid that was taken out was because two kinds of funding they counted in the package don’t work together. The second issue is that the remaining aid that is not affected by the funding conflict is being held until the 12 units appear. That just causes a problem in terms of how much I have to come up with by 9/18 in order to not be disenrolled. It is not practical to drop a waitlisted class when I am first on the waiting lists. I’m pretty sure I’ll get into those classes and the remaining funds will show up (just not the missing vet waiver), the problem with registered credits is timing of the payment being due versus when the waitlist moves. I could maybe get a grandparent loan for a few grand for a couple weeks while the waitlist sorts itself out but not for the whole 7K.</p>

<p>SD Triton, that is great news and I do feel better knowing that there is such a thing as a mid-year appeal. That means there is extra money around somewhere that it is not too late to apply for. Maybe the financial aid office can work something out.</p>

<p>Your situation sucks harder than mine</p>

<p>I have 9 credits, so i get 3/4ths of all my financial aid, until I either drop a waitlisted class and sign up for another (too late, all classes I want to take are waitlisted like no other)</p>

<p>or I just wait balls out until I get into the class I want (position 1, 1, and 2 for the 3 waitlisted classes)</p>

<p>or pay the cash</p>

<p>sucks.</p>

<p>I asked them to increase my maximum registered classes and they refused</p>

<p>Damnnn… that blows… good luck man</p>

<p>Why dont you try getting TRIP. That way you can pay whatever fees that you have to in thirds throughout the quarter. With that, you only pay a third of what you have to right now and then when the other financial aid comes in, you’ll be able to use that then</p>