Financial aid office is a NIGHTMARE

Colleges and Universities A-Z George Washington University
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<p>My daughter got her undergraduate degree from GWU and is now taking advantage of their 5 year Masters program. We had to seek financial aid during her senior year and for grad school so we have had three rounds with the GWU financial aid office. I am going to spare the details because all that needs to be known is that it is a total nightmare. The staff are lazy, unorganized and uncaring. The amount of stress that they have created for us and our daughter would honestly make us reconsider our decision to attend GWU. I, for one, feel that the price of tuition at GWU should come with a certain level of respect and service from the financial aid office.</p>

<p>So, if you are going to rely on financial assistance, I seriously urge you to factor this into your decision. I am not just some hothead who had a bad experience or who didn't know how to follow the process. Each time, the GWU office made mistakes, lost things or miscommunicated only to respond with complete and total apathy if not disdain. We found ourselves at their mercy with no escalation process. </p>

<p>Also, while I really wanted to vent about the financial aid, I will also provide my assessment of the overall educational experience. I would say my daughter had a good, but not great, college experience at GWU. On the plus side, she is working in DC now doing what she has always wanted and being rewarded for it. She created her own good fortune by interning and meeting her current employer, who was a consultant to the agency where she was working. That said, she will say that GWU is overrated from a cost/benefit perspective. I would agree. We made huge financial sacrifices to put her through GWU and, in retrospect, we would definitely reconsider that decision. I am not just saying this because of our experience with the financial aid office. I just wanted to add it here for additional perspective. </p>

<p>Sorry to be so negative, but this had to be said.</p>

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<p>with all due respect, but what private college isn’t overpriced anymore for its education? to single out GW for being overpriced is absolutely absurd when even the ivies are extremely overpriced. It is a sin to make education at a private school nowadays of 50k or more.</p>

<p>I am not doubting your experience with financial aid, but I myself have gone through it, loans aneverything, and have never had a problem. Applying for financial aid in general is very stressful; there is so much to be turned in and kept track of.</p>

<p>With that said, I have had a great experience at gw, and personally, any school that ends up getting you a job, especially in this economy, must have done something right.</p>

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<p>Hey PatM1401, are you officially joining my venture as GW spokesman and protector here on CC? It will require vigilance on your part. As you can see, people make CC accounts for the sole purpose of griping. </p>

<p>And I agree with everything in your post.</p>

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<p>I must comment that it’s mind boggling how individuals can comment on “the overall educational experience” at GW when they have not been the one who actually ATTENDED the college. Further, to make disparaging comments about staff such as “lazy, uncaring and unorganized” is just not cool! It makes one wonder how the financial aid staff were treated. I will reemphasize that most private, large school have their issues (and high price tag) however, if you advocate for yourself in an appropriate, determined and respectful way the admin staff respond accordingly!! This has been my experience at GW thus far.</p>

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<p>OK, MsBC. Deputized. It’s a big responsibility, but you have shown yourself to be up to it.</p>

<p>You are 100% correct IMHO.</p>

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<p>Why is it not cool or otherwise inappropriate to come on here and voice my experience. Lot’s of parents are on here commenting about their kids’ and their own experience dealing with Universities. I have first hand experience with the financial aid office and that is what I based my comments on. </p>

<p>For the record, I spent a lot of time on here during our college search 5 years ago. I just forgot my user ID and password. I felt compelled to share my experience so I did so. Are only positive comments allowed? </p>

<p>And as the father of my child, I think I am in a fine position to comment on her “overall educational experience” and to weigh that against the hefty price tag that goes with it. </p>

<p>Regarding the comment about wondering how the financial aid staff were treated and suggesting that it was something other than appropriate, determined and respectful, well pot, let me introduce you to kettle.</p>

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<p>There is always someone to escalate a problem to. Also, if your daughter was so dissatisfied, why did she choose to spend an additional year at GWU once she graduated from undergrad? Finally, as a grad student, your daughter should be classified as “independent” and your involvement shouldnt even be necessary. Lots of logical inconsistencies in your post…</p>

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<p>“is now taking advantage of their 5 year Masters program.”</p>

<p>She must really hate it here. Maybe GW needs a concierge to deal with these customer service issues.</p>

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<p>im2bob, I am in no way saying that what you have experienced is fake or not true. Like I said in my first post, I totally do not doubt your poor experience with the GW financial aid services. I respect you for coming on here to inform others of the poor experiences you have had to go through during the financial aid process. </p>

<p>Nonetheless, I, in my own experiences with the financial aid process, have had a good experience. With that said, I was simply posting that I do not think your experience is a good portrayal of the entire office, nor am I saying that my ‘problem-free’ experience is a perfect portrayal of the financial aid office either. I am just putting it out there to prospective students that the services at GW, as in all colleges, are run by people, most of the time students, who are bound to make mistakes, lose paperwork, and so on. Though such actions are far from professional and what would be expected, humans do make mistakes, and such experiences will occur, yet still do not make up for all experiences.</p>

<p>I would like to hope that all current students will agree that GW and its customer service is far from perfect, yet far from unacceptable. I personally know that a majority of the customer service here at GW is exemplary and are there to help those who need it.</p>

<p>Please understand that by stating my own experiences opposite to yours that I am in no means doubting or canceling out your claims</p>

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<p>I was expressing my opinions as a GW student im2bob, just as you were commenting about your experiences as a PARENT. Although your experience was not a good one, entitling a post “Financial aid office is a NIGHTMARE” and calling staff lazy, etc. is what’s not cool! Sorry if you see it differently. Thus, “Well pot let me introduce you to the kettle” is just so absurd.
Obviously all those horrible GW employees and medicore educational experiences did not deter your daughter from sticking around GW for another year.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry that you have not had a good experience with the financial aid office. I’ve never had an issue with them and found that they have been really helpful on the phone and that the Sr. FA officer called back within 1 business day when I’ve left messages. They were extremely generous in creating an aid package and helpful beginning with the initial FA application and a CSS profile issue. Their follow up has been very good. I’m not discounting what you have experienced, but don’t want readers to assume that the entire department “is a nightmare” as a whole.</p>

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<p>The financial aid staff is likely understaffed and overworked.</p>

<p>But, like I’ve said, I didn’t get a dime for them throughout my BA, so I wouldn’t know.
Did you receive aid? If so, be grateful for that. I would have been happy to have waited in lines or whatever to receive any sort of merit or need aid. </p>

<p>“That said, she will say that GWU is overrated from a cost/benefit perspective. I would agree. We made huge financial sacrifices to put her through GWU and, in retrospect, we would definitely reconsider that decision. I am not just saying this because of our experience with the financial aid office. I just wanted to add it here for additional perspective.”</p>

<p>I agree with this. It’s an enjoyable, if not fun, school and city-- but often not work it from a cost-benefit analysis.</p>

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<p>Deputized, as of right now. :slight_smile: It’s a big responsibility, but I have seen that you’re up to it.
Here’s some top-secret info for our eyes only: kingmaker101 is the same ■■■■■ that’s been posting as ravens56 and unhappygwstudent. Let’s ignore until he/she is gone for the third time in 24 hours.</p>

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<p>As a parent of multiple children who have attended three different universities in the last five years (my D graduated from GW in 2009), I can say that GW was extremely responsive and helpful when my D or I ran into an administrative problem. My S now attends a top 25 university and dealing with them administratively is the true nightmare. We look back on my D’s time at GW fondly.</p>

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<p>I agree GW’s Financial Aid office is a nightmare. This school does not have very good financial aid packages— so don’t expect much. Their financial aid offering was half of what every other school awarded my daughter. There were extremely unfriendly and they will not review or reconsider their offer. Probably a big reason why they have so few minority students at their school.</p>

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<p>Disagree. Excellent FA.</p>

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<p>With regards to the original post (im2bob) I have been posting on this forum about the very poor job GW does in passing its information to prospective students. They do not tell people the very basics: how to access their financial aid package. </p>

<p>Also, the e-mails I have received from them have been boilerplate and useless. The one time I called I was put on hold for 10 minutes while the nice, although clearly inexperienced, person tried to get the correct answer for me.</p>

<p>If this is how they run this critical office then I wonder how the whole university is being managed.</p>

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<p>So @phillydad1 how do I access my financial aid package?</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/george-washington-university/1321459-financial-aid-notification.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/george-washington-university/1321459-financial-aid-notification.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I have to chime in and say, as the parent of a prospective freshman, I’ve had an extremely difficult time getting any financial aid information from GW. </p>

<p>Beginning with their online admissions acceptance, which my daughter was THRILLED to receive, it was impossible to figure out if they had considered her for merit aid and/or need-based aid and, if so, was she turned down for one or the other, or both? There was simply no mention of financial aid. I find this bizarre and frankly, unprofessional. </p>

<p>My daughter applied to 12 schools, was admitted to 8, and every single one of them did a better job of communicating financial aid than GW. The fact that GW did not even refer to financial aid in their acceptance letter was truly strange. We had to come to this website - to CC! - to find out that GW’s merit aid had already been awarded so if it wasn’t mentioned in her online acceptance, then it wasn’t going to be awarded. It would’ve been nice if GW provided a simple sentence when she logged on for her acceptance stating this fact.</p>

<p>Our hopes remained high when we soon found out (again, through CC, not GW) that the decisions about need-based aid were still being made. We browsed CC threads to find the real story about this, as calls to the financial aid office were not entirely clear. Finally, we received a GW email saying something to the effect of “your potential financial aid will be available online at GW web after April 4th.” April 4th came and went, and there was nothing on her GW web account so again, we were frustrated, losing hope and assumed maybe she wouldn’t qualify for any aid at all, leaving GW as by far the most expensive school of all her acceptances and out of the question for us.</p>

<p>By then, almost 2 weeks had passed since she received most of her notifications from other schools and she was starting to focus on other schools, thinking GW at 60k/year (while other, more competitive, schools are offering her nice packages) would not be possible, even though it had been her “dream school” for almost 2 years.</p>

<p>Finally, yesterday, when she talked about it for the umpteenth time, I emailed the general GW Fin Aid email address and received an email late last night (clearly the staff is working major overtime!) that indicated we’d be hearing soon. When she logged on to her GW web account today, the financial aid determination was there. Sadly, it’s not enough for us to consider GW…even though they were able to offer some nice grants/aid, the final pricetag is tens of thousands of dollars more per year than other schools are offering. We had a hunch this would be the case, but it was still impossible to make a decision without today’s final determination.</p>

<p>I have to say, the entire experience has been really strange. Clearly, it’s not in GW’s best interest to string kids along like this. Either they have no sense of urgency about the financial aid piece of the college decision and they’re unaware of what a major factor it is for many families in their decision-making (hard to believe!), or their Fin Aid office is extremely disorganized, understaffed and/or poorly managed. It’s hard to know, and of course, I’m sure their hearts are in the right place, but they DO need to figure this out and improve their process if they hope to be on par with other schools of their caliber. </p>

<p>We’ll never know exactly what part GW’s slow response on financial aid caused my daughter (as well as us, as her parents) to switch gears and focus on other schools, which were quick to offer nice aid packages. But, I think it’s fairly likely we’d be talking about finding ways for her to attend GW if the financial aid decision had come at the same time as the admissions decision. By now (almost 2 weeks after we received other decisions) the train has left the station in the direction of another school and my daughter, as much as she loved GW originally, I think couldn’t continue to face potential disappointment. </p>

<p>Who knows if we would’ve found a way to make it happen at GW…but, since one of her options is a slightly more “prestigious” school and her friends have been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over her acceptance there, coupled with GW’s unresponsive fin aid communication, she seems okay moving in another direction - not over-the-moon thrilled as she was with GW, but happy and confident she’ll have a great future there.</p>

<p>C’est la vie! Personally, I’m very happy with where she’ll end up. But, if I were someone in GW’s administration, I would want to know that the Fin Aid process at GW is far more confusing, unwelcoming and slow than at other schools and would definitely want to make changes to that process in order to stay competitive.</p>