Forced out by FINAID- advice please?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Mount Holyoke College
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<p>Hello All,
I would appreciate opinions, advice, and support on this matter. It's been the center of anxiety in my life for many months now. I started at MHC as a traditional residential student in the class of 09. Life has its inevitable detours, or at least mine does. I won't include my life story here, but I took some time away to do some soul searching and some growing up- all to realize that Mount Holyoke was where I belonged and wanted to be after all. I returned to MHC, this time as a Frances Perkins student and a mother. So many facets of MHC were amazing in helping me to get back to school, from the FP coordinators, to the Dean's office, to the registrar. Professors were all supportive and understanding of course, as was everyone I interacted with...except, that is, for the Financial Aid Department.
There is a policy at MHC that your fin aid status when you matriculate stays that way until graduation. This is to protect the college's financial interests so that girls don't claim independence from their parents to get their family a break on their tuition bill. I had been financially independent from my family for years, and now had a family of my own. Fin Aid, however, rigidly insisted that my financial aid be determined by not only mine, but my PARENTS' income. This resulted in a balance that was completely out of reach for my husband and I to come up with, or even get a loan for. I was effectively barred from registering for the next semester's classes because of my balance, and effectively STALEMATED in the pursuit of my degree. I spoke to officials in finaid all the way to the top and was shocked by their seeming lack of humanity. I really did not think that MHC, with all of their support in so many other areas behind me finishing my education there, and all of their trumpeting about being a leader in providing women access to higher education, would contentedly slap me in the face with a technicality in policy that would make it impossible for me to continue studying there. I was a Junior, a few semesters shy from graduating, THE ONLY FP STUDENT WHOSE FINAID WAS DETERMINED BY MY PARENT'S INCOME, and these people were telling me my school didn't value keeping me as a student unless I could pay up. Nevermind that forcing me to graduate from a different school would forfeit some 80K that MHC had already invested in me in aid
So, I know this is a long and complicated story, I thank you for taking the time to read it. I was angry for a long time and set on graduating from a different school. But, I want to give another shot at pleading my case with the college. It is so hypocritical of everything MHC supposedly stands for to place a roadblock in front of a student in this way. I think Mary Lyon would be on my side on this one. What venues should I take in this fight? Has anyone experienced something similar from finaid? Any advice would be appreciated.</p>

<p>Thank you</p>

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<p>I doubt that MHC has very many students who leave as dependents and then come back years later independent. You can still file as independent on FAFSA, and get the federal funding you qualify for. MHC first accepted you when you were dependent under fin. aid. definitions. Whatever institutional funds they awarded you were gifts - they didn’t HAVE to give you anything. MHC had every expectation you would stay and complete in the customary 4 years. You made the choice to leave, made the choice to marry, made the choice to have a child. Did you not think your financial situation with the college might be affected? When you first entered as a traditional student, who was paying for school, or helping you pay? That is the picture the college had of you financially. Did the support stop because you had a child/married? That is why the college still thinks your parents should ante-up whatever they originally were agreeing to help you with, even if it was very little. When you returned to MHC as an FP, did you know what you would be expected to pay the college? Maybe that was the point when you should have acknowledged that you could no longer afford the school, and looked into UMass, or Westfield State (if you are in MA) to transfer credits.</p>

<p>I wanted my D to attend MHC, but she wanted coed. We probably couldn’t have afforded it anyway, so we made a choice based on affordability. Adults have to do that, even when it’s hard. </p>

<p>I am an alum from MHC '89. I knew a few girls who would have loved to have gotten married during school, and parents who probably would have loved to have gotten out from the financial burden by having their daughter go ahead and get married during school instead of right after graduation. MHC has to have such a policy. They basically are saying “We offer this award based on your status as of your acceptance. This is what we offer for your four years here.” Are you expecting them to give you more money from institutional funds just because you decided to make the choices you made? The college wasn’t asked if those decisions were acceptable to them, right? Why should they have to pay you more for those decisions?</p>

<p>I don’t want to sound harsh, but a smart girl who qualifies to be accepted to MHC in the first place should be expected to make well thought out, smart life decisions, and not expect others to have to sacrifice for her choices. If the college gives you more money, that is less money for someone else. How is that fair? The endowment isn’t a bottomless pit. Alumni can only give so much year after year. All things are finite, even at a school that gives wonderful aid.</p>