So I’m in kind of a frustrating situation. I attended 2 years of college at a state college in NY. In those 2 years I paid out of state tuition using a student loan through Wells Fargo. After my first year I applied for residency- my school had super terrible administration and even though I was 1000% eligible for In State Tuition costs (to be backdated to the fall semester I applied for it) they denied me. I think the only reason was because I wasn’t able to provide pay stubs as proof of employment and rather gave them a letter from my employer stating the terms of my contract. I was told by some unaware student running the student affairs office that that would be okay but since everything else in my residency application was solid I’m sure this was it. Anyways at the time I was going through some hard things and was basically failing out of school. So I decided to leave this school instead of enroll the next semester and figure out why the hell they denied my residency. That has proven to be nearly impossible as I get shuffled from office to office being told they can’t help me and don’t know the information of who can. It’s ridiculous. I’m paying off student loans now and I don’t think it’s right for me to have to pay this college more than I really should owe them. I’ve checked all my credit reports and they aren’t reporting this tuition even though it’s been about 2 years since I left the school.
So my question is- has anybody dealt with this before? I’m wondering if I could just start over- not transfer the few credits I got while in that school and attend another school without figuring out this tuition thing. Specifically I want to know if that is possible outside of the US. (If I independently applied to a school in Europe or Australia) Will they ever report this to a debt collector? Will other schools I try to go to not accept me (even if I apply not as a transfer) because of this? I’m not sure what the statute of limitations is etc. Any insight would be super appreciated!
Unless your parents moved to NY state, it would have been almost impossible for YOU as a student, to establish instate residency status concurrent with attending college there...at a public university.
But let’s forget that part.
If you owe your previous school money, you MUST pay that money to them. Fact is...you attended...and it sounds like you owe them some money.
When you transfer, you are REQUIRED to list all colleges previously attended and submit a transcript from those colleges. Your first school will not release a transcript until you pay your debts to them.
Re: schools outside of the country? If they have a requirement to list all previously attended colleges, you will,have the same issue.
But more…your debt will NOT go away. Whatever you owe will be sent to a collections agency, and you will,be on the hook for the money borrowed, interest, and any fees charged by the collections agency.
There is NO stature of limitations on student loans. You will owe that balance forever…with compounded interest as well on your balance if you don’t pay.
I have nothing to add to Thumper’s excellent post except that there is a lesson for you buried here. You should make an attempt to find it.
Why oh why would you rely on a letter from an employer when the process requires paystubs? You clearly did NOT meet 100% of the requirements if you were unable to produce proof that you had worked from date A through date B which is why people ask for paystubs.
This is a very valuable lesson. There will be lots of times in your life when you don’t have a required document or proof of something or whatnot and you decide- all on your own- that what you can produce is good enough.
It almost never works. And it gets people in a jam all the time. When an employer needs a birth certificate or a passport for an I-9, you don’t get to print out the birth notice in the local newspaper all those years ago from a Google search and say, “here’s proof I was born in Alabama”. When a landlord needs a copy of the bill from the locksmith who fixed your broken door in order to deduct that amount from your rent, sending a copy of your visa bill with a charge “Joe’s locks” circled won’t cut it- they need the actual bill showing the date of service, the address of the service, how much was charged for labor, tax, materials.
Such a good lesson you have learned. It will save you a lifetime of aggravation. And you don’t need to wonder why your residency application was denied. It was denied because they asked for documentation which you did not provide. So maybe you are qualified and maybe not- but without the right paperwork it doesn’t matter.
I absolutely did qualify- What I meant above by the student running the office was that she was the one who took my letter of employment after I had received confirmation from higher up that this is what they needed (in lieu of pay stubs) upon receiving a letter stating that they needed proof of employment. The student was the one responsible for adding it to my file. I also did check repeatedly with this same office (every Friday for 3 months) that they had what they needed and my application was processing and was always told it wouldn’t be long before I received an acceptance. Every time. So it’s not necessarily a lesson there except to just not listen to a school whose administration is an utter nightmare. You can understand how shocked and put out I was when I got a letter that the APPEAL to my first denial had been denied and I wasn’t allowed to appeal again. Since I was never told I was initially denied in the first place. I was in the right office asking the right questions and being told the right things every time. That’s what has made this so frustrating and hard. Sorry I didn’t add those details before.
secondly-
As Thumper1 first stated it’s nearly impossible unless my parents moved- this is true- but not in my case. In my case I had been paying taxes independently since I was 18 and I hadn’t started school until I was 20. So that was two years of tax documents I submitted to them proving I had not been a dependent under a different state for the years I lived in NY. So while it is true it is very hard it wasn’t something that negatively affected my acceptance for residency. This outlines we’re clearly stated upon applying for residency- I was qualified for it at every turn. Just wanted to put that out there.
I know I attended and I owe them money- but it is frustrating when the amount differs by almost 20K and I can’t seem to get anyone in the school to help me understand what happened. As a person who has been on my own since I was 17 and never had a college fund savings or parents helping me it’s super frustrating to have a a bill due that is higher than I thought- and was reassured- it would be. Especially while already paying off the student loans simultaneously and wanting to go back to school within the year. I’m not trying to get a free ride or screw over anything I just want to pay the resident tuition for reasons I’m sure anyone would understand.
But thank you for the information on everything else. I guess I was just surprised that it wasn’t showing up on my credit or under collections and thought maybe it wasn’t necessary to deal with it (obviously that would be easier albeit not the mature route) I’m leaving the country in a month and it would have been one less thing on my to-do list. Sucks.
Fact is…you enrolled in the college hoping that your instate residency status would be granted. It doesn’t matter what the reason was for it NOT being granted. It wasn’t.
It sounds like you have unpaid bills to the college. In addition to your loans, the college debt will need to be paid.
OOS costs are $30k/year. Even if you lived off campus and paid your room and board costs directly with work earnings, the tuition charges must have run ~$30k. You can only borrow $5500 on your own. How were you able to secure a Wells Fargo loan for ~$25k/year?
Since you live(d) in NY to attend college your time there would not count to the 12 month residency requirement. If your parents did anything to help support you (like co-sign your loan) you would not qualify for residency. @intparent is absolutely right. Don’t attend college where you need a miracle to happen to pay for it.
You need to pay off any owed tuition before you can get your transcript. And there is a database of students that colleges check to make sure they know who is trying to slide by with outstanding school debts.
Additionally, if you plan to use federally funded need based aid, or a Direct Loan, plan to be paying your debts…or you won’t be getting any additional aid.