Hello! I’m an independent student (late 30’s) who attended a community college briefly about 3 years ago. Due to personal reasons I ended up dropping out and failed my classes (it was my first and only quarter ever attending college). About a year later I attempted to register at the same community college but couldn’t because they told me I wouldn’t be able to get financial aid until I paid my debt with the school and I couldn’t afford to pay for the classes without financial aid.
Another year passed, and I enrolled at a different community college, I applied for and was approved for financial aid (pell grant and student loans). I didn’t mention the previous school to my new school when I applied because I didn’t think it was necessary (since there were no credits to transfer or anything like that).
I’m almost finished with my second quarter (and am still receiving financial aid and have been awarded FA for the upcoming Fall, Winter and Spring quarters) now and have registered for Fall quarter classes already. I’m worried though that something with the old school might come up that would cause my Financial aid to be cancelled. Is there anywhere I can look online to find out if I’m at risk of losing my financial aid or would it have already come up if it was going to? From what I’ve read here it seems like I would should not have been receive financial aid, but I did, does anyone know what might be going on?
@JenM2000
You know…most colleges require that you submit transcripts from all colleges you have attended. If that was a question asked, and you ignored it…you (frankly) were not honest in your application. And I’m guessing you know that…or you wouldn’t be worried.
What exactly do you owe your previous school? Is it payback of something like a Pell Grant…or what?
Maybe the best thing to do is…pay your debt.
There’s a National Clearing House that lists every school you attended, and every college you attend has access to it. Claiming you were a first time freshman on your financial aid forms may be considered financial aid fraud, especially since your previous college informed you that you wouldn’t qualify for aid until you paid them. If you’re caught, you could be required to repay all the grants you’ve received. If it’s discovered after you graduate your current college can rescind your degree.
How much do you owe? I would contact the first college and set up some sort of payment plan. When your transcript is released, get a copy to your current school.
I owe about $3000 to the first school for student loans, about 6 months after I left the first school my student loans became due and I got on to a income based payment plan (which was $0 due to my income). I am wondering how are my loans from the first school listed in the national loan database and I already started a payment plan to begin paying them (they are in deferment now though because I’m in back in school)? Do I owe the first school the money or do I owe it to Navient (the loan servicer)? Also, shouldn’t I owe for repayment of my Pell Grant to the first school since I dropped out? The Pell Grant is shown for the percentage I used in the first and now my current school (in the NLDS) but it doesn’t say I owe a repayment for Pell from the first school anywhere…
You need to contact #1, and clarify whether or not you owe them money. You might find out that you do owe them something in addition to the loans. If you do owe them something, you need to settle that debt directly with #1 so that you can indeed get your transcript. Then you need to let #2 that you have just realized that you never did get your old transcript to them, produce the transcript, and get your records straightened out.
If I had the money to pay my debt, I would.
@JenM2000, do you owe the school or are they federal student loans? If it came due 6 months after you dropped out and you can get income based repayment then it may be a federal loan. As long as you’re in school, you can defer payments on those.
Contact the financial aid office of the first school and find out exactly who you owe and how much. It sounds like there may be a separate amount that you owe the school. If they had to give some Pell back when you dropped out, you’d have to repay that. But that would be separate from the federal student loan.