Financial Aid revoked for past academic year

Paying for College
1

So I am a rising Junior in college, going into my Bachelor’s of Nursing Science program. Unfortunately, because of extenuating circumstances, I had to take 3 years as an Associate’s degree student, which means I am technically going into my 4th year of college. The school I’m going to doesn’t technically accept their Fall 2017 Nursing student’s into classes until the July 1st (the point at which we get drug tested and background checks), so we can’t accept any financial aid or have our FAFSAs processed until that time.

Everything was fine until about a week ago when I got an e-mail notifying me that changes to my 2016-2017 FAFSA were processed successfully, which I thought was odd, considering that it was processed by the 2 year satellite school I had been attending, before transferring to my 4-year school. So I went in to check and see what had changed on my FAFSA and couldn’t find anything, except for the fact that the total amount of outstanding Student Loans I had, had been completely removed. I would like to say that this is from the 2015 tax year, so nothing should have changed. I’m still attending school and neither me nor my parents have been audited for 2015. So it was just kind of strange that when I reviewed my FAFSA corrections, it seemed like this isn’t the first time my school has gone in and made changes. It seems like they made around 5-6 corrections at different times, though looking at my SAR I can’t figure out what they have changed.

So then I get the issue that my 4-year school, which I have been successfully transferred to, and accepted to, no longer has me down as a student. Instead, my 2-year satellite school is trying to process my 2017-2018 FAFSA. So I try to call the 2-year satellite school Financial Aid office to see what is going on, and they tell me that I must have sent my FAFSA to both schools, so they are both processing it and the 2-year school laid claim to me. Then she tells me that I haven’t filed the official paperwork to be accepted to the 4-year school, which is crazy, since I filed it in December 2016 so that it would go through before Summer 2017 (it did go through and I have the confirmation). She says that I am down as a 4-year student, but that I have to file the official paperwork.

So then I go to check my official student information, and I’m locked out of it, because it says I have holds. I go to see what my holds are and all I can see is that it is telling me I have a Delinquent Transcript/Semester. I have no idea what that means, so I access the only thing I can, which is the bill for each term. I go through all 6 semesters to try and figure out holds I have and I see that for Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 I have outstanding debts which equal up to about $1800. Fall 2016 was completely paid for, and I even had an overage of about $300, which I put to my Spring 2017 bill in January, when I only had about $400 due. I got everything paid off and finished the semester with all As. Now I’m being told that there was an error on my 2016-2017 FAFSA, so they rescinded $1800 worth of aid, total. Some of that $1800 was money which came from a loan, and my loan company still says I took the same amount out, so I don’t know how my school is telling me they took back my loan. They told me some number and some line, but when I check, the number and line are the same as when I put them in, but they keep telling me that it was different. I literally have no idea what they are talking about and they’ve locked me out of applying for classes and transferring to my 4-year school until I pay the $1800, which I just don’t have the money to do. I already had to start saving for the 2017-2018 year. I’m actually freaking out because I can’t figure out what they are trying to do and none of what they tell me makes any sense. I don’t know who to appeal to since the Financial Aid office hasn’t been any help and they keep telling me the same thing.

I’m sorry this is so long, but this is such a strange situation and I can’t figure out what I should do to fix it. I’m not a rich student and my parents don’t have $1800 to just throw down for a sudden charge. Any advice is appreciated.

2

Do this: Compare your 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 FAFSAs. Look specifically at the amounts reported for Income Earned from Work, Adjusted Gross Income and Taxes Paid. Do they match? If not, that may have led to the issue. I would like to provide some info to you so that you have some idea of what might be going on - it’s possible your aid was automatically backed off due to a discrepancy between what was reported on the two FAFSAs. Did you use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool either year?

Just so you are aware, no school can lay claim to your FAFSA. There can be a dispute between schools if you attend more than one school in the same semester, but the FAFSA itself can be sent to as many schools as you want, and you can decide to get aid at whichever one of those schools you choose to attend (as long as you are enrolled as a regular, degree seeking student at that school).

The issue seems to have to do with the schools themselves, which I assume are the same school (just two different campuses). I suggest scheduling an appointment to speak with a financial aid manager … in person, if possible … to get the actual lowdown on what is going on.

3

Hi, I’ve gone down and compared everything on my 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 FAFSA, along with comparing the original submissions with the revised submissions. The only change seems to be that they removed my actual outstanding loan sum, which I found strange, since it is something that has to be reported to the IRS and shown on the FAFSA. It also seems like one school has removed the other from my 2017-2018 FAFSA. I used the IRS Data Retrieval Tool for both years (since we were using 2015 Tax Returns for both) and there were only a few lines that should have been different (such as my college grade level). However, when I spoke to a Financial Aid Advisor, she told me that someone must have noticed a value was off, but she couldn’t tell me which value, and the only value she did tell me was for a line that was blank on the original and revised submission.

I’m not sure how a mistake could be made on my part if I used the same year along with the IRS DRT. However, they continue to insist that something was incorrect and so they revoked aid I received in the 2016-2017 year. I just don’t understand why they would continue to be revising my 2016-2017 FAFSA when the academic year is finished. Any changes they make such as to how much aid I received is also quite important, since much of that information is reported on taxes. It has been rather stressful trying to deal with it, and I thank you for your advice.

4

They must be basing the return of $1,800 in aid on something.

Did the EFC change?

You said it was a loan amount? If the loan was based on the fact that you were a third year undergrad student, then you would have qualified for up to 7,500 in loans. If they determined that you only had credits for sophomore standing, then they might have awarded $1,000 too much in loans, because sophomores can only borrow $6,500. Not sure where the other $800 came from.

I would try and talk to the FA manager of both campuses to get some answers regarding if you owe money and why, and what your aid is going to look like for next year.

In the meantime I would work as much as possible to try and earn the money that they said you owe.

5

I was technically a 3rd year sophomore (because I was admitted to a Liberal Arts 4 year Undergrad program that would allow me to continue my education until I got accepted into the nursing program), but it seems like they made a change to show me as a 2nd year sophomore. I didn’t catch that as being important, so I may ask about that and see if it somehow affected my aid standing. I’m going to try to make an appointment for this Wednesday and see if they can show me exactly what they seem to be talking about, because these unsolicited changes seem to be wrong or misleading.

Which is also weird, because the Financial Aid office only allowed me to take out $6,500 in loans last academic year, which was about $3250 per semester. On my bill now, however, it is showing that I only have $5000, which is not equivalent to any number that makes sense in this situation. My loan company told me I still owe exactly the same amount and they also don’t know why my school is showing less. I think the Pell grant amount is also a bit lower, but I’m not exactly sure by how much.

I think it’s rather peculiar, because I remember going to pay my remaining sum after Federal Aid was dolled out and they told me it was about $1600 at first, then the number went down to about $400. I paid it off, and then got an alert that it was back at $1000, but apparently that was some kind of clerical error and it got cleared away. Then within the past 2 weeks, it seems like someone from the school has made corrections about 4 times for my 2016-2017 FAFSA and taken my actual 4-year school off of my 2017-2018 FAFSA. Is this something I should see someone about, since it seems like they changed a lot of correct information and made it incorrect?

(Again, thanks for any advice. I’ve been stressed out the past few months with work and getting all of my required records, so to have a bill come out of nowhere was quite shocking and upsetting to say the least. It seems like I haven’t done enough research and you lovely people are actually guiding me down getting things fixed.)

6

Were you a full time student? Pell and loan amounts can be adjusted if you fell below 12 credits. Did you take any incompletes, drop any classes? My daughter dropped one class, and fell from 17 to 15 credits. That didn’t change any of her school or federal aid, but one state scholarship is paid by the credit so we had to repay that amount (it was only about $250). Aid can also be adjusted if any of the courses are remedial or taken for the second time.

The $6500 loan amount may have been figured at the beginning of the year. One of my kids is ‘off’ a semester, so in the fall was a 2nd semester sophomore ($6500) but in the spring was, by credits, a junior. She had to let the FA office know that she wanted the extra $500 loan for spring.

7

I was a full time student. My Fall 2016 semester I had 17 credit hours, completed, with 3 As, 1 B, and 1 C. My Spring 2017 semester I took 15 credit hours and completed with 5 As. Before I got locked out of accessing my student records, I had to print my Transcript and it had me down as a full time student with the grades listed above for the past academic year. I’ve been told that because my charge is “delinquent,” even though it’s only been on there a few days, they can actually report me to my loan company, as well as hold my records and prevent me from progressing.

I am really going to have to speak with someone, because this is just ridiculous. I’ve never even made below a C in any of my classes and my school is treating me as if I’m some tax delinquent. Should I speak to an academic or student Dean and ask them if they’d help me (I know a few personally, but don’t know if that would be in bad taste), since the Financial Aid office has given me the run around for the past few days? Should I go in and make corrections to my FAFSA or should I wait and see what they have to say?

8

There are a lot of what-ifs, but the only way to know for sure is to talk with someone who really knows. Often when you call a financial aid office, you will get a tech or student worker or even receptionist - and these people may not be trained to the degree that they could give you a true answer as to what happened. I strongly encourage you to meet with (or talk on the phone with) the financial aid officer who handled your file … or if need be, insist on talking with a manager (assistant director, customer service manager, etc). If you want to PM me with the school, maybe I can find a name for you. I am a financial aid director, and I know that sometimes students get the runaround … it’s not intentional, but it happens. Your school doesn’t want you to feel like you are in the dark. Once you get past the folks who are just answering questions in generalities, there will be someone who can tell you what happened for sure - and fix things in the event there may have been a mistake.

9

Even though you are a full time student, and even though you are doing well academically, you may have triggered some formula that you are not making SAP because of the number of semesters you have already been enrolled.

Nobody is treating you like a tax delinquent- there is some formula out there which is being applied to your account. It’s not personal.

Dean of students would be great to use as an ally in getting to the bottom of what’s going on. Elicit help, don’t accuse. The school wants you to succeed, wants you to complete your degree. But once there are federal funds in the mix, the school has to follow the federal regulations on dispersing their money.