user2007
Posts: 3
Registered User
New Member
03-01-2009 at 10:59 am edited March 2009 in Financial Aid & Scholarships
I would only prefer answers from those that work in financial aid or college administration.
I am 34 years old. When I was 18 years old, I went to college my first year and at the end of the year I had a 2.2 GPA. My parents refused to help me for a second year, so I got a student loan (which I have completely paid off, no lates) for the second year, and at the end of my second year, I had a 1.8 GPA.
I hated school. I didn’t want to be there. So I quit and got a job.
When I was in my late 20’s, I decided that I really wanted to be a teacher. I knew I was smart, but no college would look at me because my GPA was below a 2.0.
So, what I did, is I simply applied to a university and didn’t tell them I had ever been to college before…I paid cash my entire way (because I knew this loan showed up on my financial aid history and was afraid that someone would see it), and I graduated last May of 2008 with a degree in Chemistry and I have a 3.8 GPA. I obviously, took every single class over again.
NOW FOR THE PROBLEM:
I just, this week, got accepted for a very good pharmacy school to the tune of over $20,000 a year tuition. Pharmacy schools are highly competitive and graduate schools in general, are very unforgiving. I never disclosed I had been to another school…and I only turned in my transcript from the school I got my Chemistry degree in.
I was readily accepted…no waiting list. I performed well on the PCAT.
I do not have $20,000 a year to pay for school. I need financial aid. However, I don’t want to take out private loans because there is no cap on the interest rates…I refuse to do that.
My fear, is if I apply for financial aid, some financial aid worker will key my social security number into the system and see the disbursement of a Stafford loan to the college that I never disclosed and I’m afraid that they will report that to admissions.
I don’t know if my fears are unfounded or real.
I feel like I have paid a very dear price for my mistake, but I sure as heck don’t feel like I should be punished for the rest of my life or lose my spot in Pharmacy school because of stupid mistakes I made, academically, when I was 18 and 19 years old.
If someone could please guide me on what I need to do. The only thing that I don’t want to hear is “Honesty is the best policy”…b/c what no one understands is that there is NO QUESTION that I will lose my admissions spot if I disclose, that I did not disclose, a previous college.
So, that is why I need an opinion from someone that WORKS in an upper-level position in financial aid to answer my question…I need concrete answers, not an assumption, not an “I think”…I don’t want someone to quote what is on the bottom of the application…I need to know how the procedure REALLY works.
Post edited by user2007 on March 2009