I currently attend a community college. They told me in August I had around $15k worth of financial aid for the full year. This included a pell grant and subsidized and unsubsized loans. I accepted their award. Then I got an email that my financial aid award changed. The grant was gone and it was just the loans, and the total was around $10k for the full year and after tuition costs & books were purchased, I went to the bursar to make sure I had enough aid to get a laptop. The bursar told me I did and gave me a voucher to get it from the bookstore.
Well now all of a sudden my financial aid is cut in half to $5000 for the year and now I owe them money that I don’t have, around $1000. I would have never purchased the laptop had I known I would owe money. I demanded an explanation providing proof of my previous award offer. I got no response. What can I do? I can’t afford this and it’s too late to withdrawal from the semester. The bookstore doesn’t accept returns unless there is something wrong with the item and it’s already been over 30 days.
Go see them in person. Take your documentation.
@yelyahsturg as noted, you need to talk to the financial aid folks at your community college.
What aid did you have? The full Pell Grant is $6095, and freshmen get the $5500 Direct Loan. That comes to $11595 for the full year. If you are independent for financial aid or your parents were denied a Plus Loan, you would get an additional $4000 in Direct Loan money.
Were you selected for verification?
Did you indicate you were independent for financial aid when you are not?