<p>Hello- haven't been on in awhile and wasn't sure where to post this whether under Berkeley or under financial aid--
My daughter is currently a senior at Berkeley. The first three years financial aid went smoothly. This past year we applied timely, doing everything as before. However in late July 2010 we received a "request for verification". They claimed they had first made the request earlier in the year, but if they did, we did not receive it. As soon as we found out about the verification request in late July we submitted all required information post haste, within a week. They stated that if it was received after a deadline (which had already passed!) she might not get any aid.
At one point back in Sept. it was communicated to me that I had made an error on the FAFSA. I had checked that I could file the short form but actually did not file the short form. This was an oversight, and they corrected it on my FAFSA.
MONTHS LATER WE ARE STILL SITTING WITH NO AID AND NO ANSWERS AS TO THE STATUS OF OUR AID APPLICATION, although my daughter has made multiple attempts, visiting the aid office almost weekly and getting the run-around. About a month ago on one of these visits she was told they would know something in "about two weeks".
Today I received a "past due" bill with monthly late charges and a notice that her registration and transcripts were blocked!
HELP!!! What can we do?!!</p>
<p>bummmmmpinnnnng</p>
<p>Unbelievable- I emailed the only address I could find for the finaid office and I received an auto-reply stating that due to the high volume of inquiries I could expect an answer in 3-4 weeks!!</p>
<p>Wow… I can’t help you with the Berkeley financial aid office, but I’d suggest that you call the Bursar’s office and let them know you are waiting on financial aid - maybe they can tag your account in some way, or perhaps they can even offer some suggestions. (If the financial aid office is really backed up as indicated by the auto-reply, you might not be the only one. The Bursar’s office might possibly be a little more efficient, simply because they are in the business of collecting money rather than giving it away.)</p>
<p>Your daughter needs to go to the financial aid office (they should have walk-in hours). She needs to insist to talk to a manager.</p>
<p>When you incorrectly check the tax return box, the FAFSA online allows you to skip providing asset info. This results in an unofficial EFC when the FAFSA is updated to the correct filing status. Did you ever get an official EFC? If not, the financial aid office cannot verify your file … the EFC needs to be official first (or you can submit an asset verification form & the aid officer can enter the asset info for you & send the changes out to get an official EFC). Due to the way some offices handle updated FAFSA’s, if you update the FAFSA with the asset info yourself, the aid officer may never know that you did that … and it will sit in limbo. That is why I suggest your D meet with a manager to go through exactly what needs to be done to get things in order.</p>
<p>Most schools are going to 100% electronic notification for things like verification. It is up to your D to watch her school portal/email for info requests. If her FAFSA was rejected, though, she may not have even received requests … but you would have been notified by the federal processor that there are problems with your FAFSA that need to be fixed.</p>
<p>thanks everyone-
today I received a reply to the email I sent last night to the finaid office (although it contained few concrete answers, the unnamed author promised to follow up), then my daughter went into the office and waited in line forever …and she now tells me her aid “should be paid out tonight”…
up until my email of last night I had left this to her to handle via email and going to the aid office- I can’t help but think they may be blowing off the students, but will pay attention when the parent gets involved-
in my email i politely requested to know the name and contact information of the Director of Financial Aid- but that information was never supplied</p>
<p>The Berkeley Director of Financial Aid is named Cheryl Resh; I am sending you her email by p.m. (I was going to post it here, but decided that would be overdoing things and could backfire for you)</p>
<p>See [Campus</a> Struggles With Financial Aid - The Daily Californian](<a href=“http://www.dailycal.org/article/110865/campus_struggles_with_financial_aid]Campus”>http://www.dailycal.org/article/110865/campus_struggles_with_financial_aid) for a detailed account of current UC Berkeley financial aid department woes, including numerous quotes & explanations from Resh.</p>
<p>(I have no connection whatsoever with Berkeley other than being an alum … but for some reason I am very, very good at finding stuff on the internet)</p>
<p>THANK YOU SO MUCH- you are a lifesaver!</p>