Background: UC Berkeley student who withdrew after Fall 2018 and is now attending CC
So a bit before thanksgiving break I was going to the FA office to try to take out an additional loan to pay off what I owed in my account, I filled out the extra paper work and whatnot and turned it in, took ages to process and I kept returning to check up on its progress and they just told me to wait.
Come January still nothing has processed, they ask me for extra paperwork and I submit it. Wait a few weeks–nothing. So I emailed asking what’s up and now they tell me since I’m not enrolled (I withdrew partly because I could not afford Cal anymore) they can’t process another loan for me.
What can I do? I literally have no way to come up with the money right now. I can’t send my transcripts to other schools and now even if I wanted to return to Cal I couldn’t.
Find a job and work to earn some money to pay off the debt. Keep working until you have enough to pay for the rest of college. Then apply for readmission so that you can finish your degree.
What loan was UCB trying to process? Didn’t you get a fed loan in your initial FA pkg?
Or were your parents applying for a Plus loan?
You had free tuition via Cal Grant…so how much do you owe?
Very strange, but back in August you were already asking about transferring. Your story has red flags all over. You matriculated at UCB even tho you were already looking to transfer, and you matriculated even though you didn’t have the funding to attend.
How much do you owe UCB?? What was your EFC? What aid did you get besides Cal grant?
Your school is not allowed to process a loan increase if you are no longer enrolled at least half time, so there is no way to get the loan. There are lenders out there that will lend for prior term educational costs, but they are generally not the best loans (high rates, cosigner required, etc). My advice is tp work and pay off your prior debt, then return to school when you can afford the costs.
I was attempting to get another unsubsidized loan since my parents are ineligible for the PLUS loan. I owe around 2.7k since I had a ton of fees thrown on me that I was told would be covered by financial aid.
The problem with working and saving enough money to return to school is my calgrant can only be on hold for a certain amount of time before it expires completely. Yes, I am planning to work, but my plan was to save up enough money to pay for housing if I transfer or return. I was thinking of taking out a loan through my CC, but I’m not sure I can do that.
@kelsmom doesn’t the student need to be a matriculating student to be eligible to take federally funded loans?
To @bonusoceans what “fees were thrown at you” that you didn’t know you needed to pay…and when DID you know about these costs. Usually fees are included with the fall bill so you should have known when you started that you didn’t have sufficient aid to cover these costs.
Even if you can borrow this money now, these costs will happen again next year. How do you plan to cover them?
I only found out it wouldn’t be covered about a month before I entered. I then found out I couldn’t pay it myself through the year because my personal costs kept accumulating and I couldn’t work as much as I wanted to.
@kelsmom when a citizen’s parents are foreign, is there a way for the student to still get the $4k in additional loans? If so, how is that normally done (not in this case because the student left the school…so assume the student is still attending the school).
Would such a student be eligible for the extra $4k in loans?
You were accepted to UCB months before school started. You knew from the beginning that you didn’t have enough funding. It was a terrible risk to begin a school with an outstanding balance without a workable plan in place.
You’re in a pickle because of how Cal Grant works. You may need to contact a Cal Grant expert to see if there are any options that would allow you to “not go to school now,” but instead work to pay off that debt…and then proceed.
I was informed the outstanding balance would be covered by financial aid. The entire summer my financial aid vanished and I contacted the school multiple times and they assured me everything would be fixed. It did come back, but the fees that were supposed to be covered were not, my plan was to use my work-study, but unfortunately my job took a while to find, my mental health took a decline with academics piling up and I couldn’t work as much as I had hoped. I went to the school for an additional loan I was eligible to receive weeks before I withdrew, and because they took ages to do anything with it, it became too late to do anything.
Small update: I just had other fees added to my account, these ones for housing appearing out of nowhere, this is spiraling out of control and I’m at a loss of what to do now.
If you are a degree seeking student at the CC & enrolled at least half time, and if they participate in the Direct Loan program, you may be able to borrow there.
Students whose parents are undocumented are eligible to receive additional unsubsidized loans … your aid office can document this as a special circumstance & award you the additional amount.
Have you met with an aid officer in person? You need to try to figure out what happened. If it was the fault of the school, they may be able to award some grant money or an institutional loan to help you out. No promise that they can or will do this, but you won’t know if you don’t ask. If it was your fault - for example, if you didn’t turn things in or do something you were supposed to do - they most likely won’t be able to help. Even if they were at fault, they may not be able to help … but it is worth finding out for sure.
It sounds like your parents didn’t apply for and get denied the Parent Plus Loan. Is that correct? If so, your college would NOT have been able to give YOU additional Direct Loan money.
That is correct. The loan has to be applied for & rejected first, although some schools will skip the parent application if they have evidence that the parents are not going to be eligible. The key is to talk with an aid officer. Too many people try to figure things out without talking to their aid office. Their job is to help students!!
Reading between the lines…were you told to have your parents apply for Parent Plus, but then they didn’t do that because they’re undocumented? If so, that’s the problem. The school was probably waiting for your parents to apply, get denied, and then they could award the loan money.
Sadly, because you’ve left the school, who knows how much help they’ll give you. I doubt that they’ll award grants to cover this. You may have to get a full time job and pay that debt off so you can move on with school.
You need to contact Cal Grant office to find out how to proceed in your situation to preserve your CG status.