How do other colleges know if you've attended another college if you don't tell them?

<p>Hey,
So I’ve been reading up on similar situations as yours as well and what I found was that if all your concerned about is NCH, then all you have to do is file a FERPA block with the school that you used to attend. By law, the school can no longer release your information to NCH without your consent. This will also be forwarded to NCH and they will no longer be able to release your information, since they’re considered to be a third party. It doesn’t remove your information from NCH records, but they can’t release it anymore. HOWEVER, I would suggest reading the fine print of FERPA because it states that the school you used to attend can send any of your records to the school that the student wishes to transfer or enroll into. How they find out, I honestly have no idea, maybe they can look you up. Anyone know if previously attended colleges (that you didn’t graduate from) checks where you’ve enrolled currently?</p>

<p>I would advise against it due to the ethics of it, but it all depends on if you’re willing to take the risk. Filing a FERPA block is well within your rights, but lying on an application is completely different. In the fine print of an application as well that if you falsify or put any inaccurate information on your application, then you can be dismissed from the institution, or if you already received your degree they may rescind it (may being the key word). I’m sure you can fight for it but I’m not sure how successful that would be.</p>

<p>please help!!!ok so hears the deal. I attended three community colleges so far. I did horrible at the first one because of personal issues. the second one i only went there for a semester and didn’t do the best either because i didn’t know what i wanted to do with my life and the party scene was overwhelming. oops we all get carried away sometimes. so now I know what i want to do for the rest of my life so i applied to my third community college and told them i had not gone to any other colleges on my app. well they found out about the second college and just had me get my transcripts sent to them. well i want to give them my first colleges transcripts without getting expelled or in trouble. I have recieved financial aid and/or BOG from all three. So how do i go about telling my current
college about my first college’s transcripts with out getting expelled? also I am going to enroll in my last community college next year for a tech program, will i still get financial aid? Im done lieing because its just a long rope that will eventually hang me. I just really need advice on how to fix what i messed up?</p>

<p>If an institution participates in the federal student financial aid program, which provides Pell, stafford loans, plus loans, etc., then they are required to report data to the U.S. Department’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Schools must report data on enrollments, program completions, graduation rates, faculty and staff, finances, institutional prices, and student financial aid. </p>

<p>So, even if a particular student doesn’t receive federal financial aid, if the school offers it, then they must report data on ALL of their students. That includes graduation rates, which means we need to know when the student started in order to calculate when they graduated. We report our enrollment to the Clearinghouse. When a student stops attending our institution, then the student is no longer included in the enrollment file we submit. If the student starts attending another institution, that school reports their enrollment to the Clearinghouse. If the student applies for federal aid, then we check with the Clearinghouse to see if they are also receiving aid from another institution (it happens).</p>

<p>The school where I work is not particularly selective - we will be happy to admit a student who has a prior degree and wants to work on another degree, or perhaps had a rocky start when they were younger. If a student applies as a non-degree seeking student, then we don’t ask anything about their prior education. But if they apply as a degree-seeking student, then they are eligible for scholarships and federal financial aid, and if we are going to grant them a degree from our institution, we need to know their academic background.</p>

<p>There is also information that, according to FERPA, can be released without student consent. This includes student’s name and address as being enrolled. Height and weight if they play a sport at the college too. So, schools could still release just the basic info on you and be within their rights to do so.</p>

<p>MissRosie, did you attend the prior two schools recently or a long time ago? Were you on academic probation or suspended? Where I am employed, if a student is admitted with less than a 2.00 GPA, the student is admitted on probation and must work with counselors under close supervision so the student has the best chance to succeed. If the student is suspended, we require the student to sit out at least a semester.</p>

<p>We have an academic forgiveness program as well. If it has been at least 3 years since a student attempted school, we will wipe the slate clean and give the student a do-over. However, if the student did well in some classes, they won’t count. They are all wiped away.</p>

<p>And you need to know that academic policies are not the same as financial aid policies. If you have federal financial aid, then the federal regulations regarding satisfactory academic progress must be enforced. Those include passing 75% of the courses you received aid for in a semester. So by not passing or withdrawing from courses, you can make yourself ineligible for aid.</p>

<p>You need to be honest with yourself and your school. They can’t help you if you withhold information from them.</p>

<p>Would you not be accepted for admitting a horrible freshman year?? honesty is the best policy??</p>

<p>I attenced these colleges prior with a semester gap in between all of them. i was on academic probation. I ended up having a .06 gpa overall with all the D’s,W’s,and F’s…
then i had a semester off and attended another school were I did slightly better because I felt better about knowing what I sorta wanted to do with the rest of my life.Not to mention the better environment.went one semester there.The second school i had a 1.57for the semester. took a semester off. then started again at the one im at and I have one B and the rest A’s perusing 13units.</p>

<p>So how should I inform the school of this without being rejected from this school? Not to mention I really need financial aid because I get help from no one for school and I am genuine about perusing my career path now.Should I just get my first institute to send them to the one I’m currently at or should I go talk to a counselor?and if i go to a counselor what do i say?I don’t know what I should do because I really want to go to school and Im done messing up. I’m SERIOUS.</p>

<p>You take copies of everything with you when you go to visit the counseling center, and ask them what it is you need to do to get everything straightened out. You don’t have to know what to do. That is their job. Believe me, they have seen and heard this before, and they will do their best to help you get everything sorted out. Community colleges exist to give people second, third, and sometimes even fourth or more chances. It really will be OK.</p>

<p>Schools don’t have to go to the internet. They can look at the application you submit. If you’re not applying directly from high school, they’re going to want to see what you’ve done since HS graduation. A big gap that you don’t explain–That’s a huge red flag.</p>

<p>

You may be able legally to set up a FERPA block. However, there are two issues with doing so (aside from the ethical question):</p>

<p>1) Many applications state that you are waiving any such privacy rights. Your submission of the application is considered to be your consent to release of relevant information. Your prior college history is relevant to your current application.</p>

<p>2) If a school requests the information, and is told that the information cannot be released, there is nothing that stops the school from immediately rejecting the application. And this would be a likely result (“What is this guy/gal hiding?”).</p>

<p>I believe that all the talk about the National Student Clearinghouse is over-blown. I saw this same “threat” used in a “First in Family” thread, so I called the company. A very pleasent woman explained that they need the student’s name, date of birth and school attended and that they could VERIFY attentandance at a particular college. With only the student’s name, date of birth (and/or SS#) they could not verify college attendance. But, as another person wrote, throwing the existance of past student loans into the mix may prove to be problematic.</p>

<p>Nope. Think again. You as an individual can only get certain information over the phone because of privacy laws.</p>

<p>Colleges and universities can and do cross-check the entire database, and by voluntarily applying to an institution of higher learning, an applicant assents to that database search.</p>

<p>Different people and organizations with differing needs have different levels of access to sensitive information - just as you can’t call up the DMV and have them trace the owner of a car by their license plate, but a law enforcement officer can run plates on an in-car computer.</p>

<p>Interesting, I’m going to call them and ask about doing a check on me (I attended a school on their list 20+ years ago), we’ll see what they come up with.</p>

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on the page at <a href=“http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/colleges/files/ST_SearchOptions.pdf[/url]”>http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/colleges/files/ST_SearchOptions.pdf&lt;/a&gt; that describes the types of searches available they specifically list prior institutions attended as a search that can be performed for current applicants. So even if they don’t offer the service to you, an individual calling on the phone, it is one they sell to colleges.</p>