Official Transcripts and Use of VA VocRehab, Not SFA

Paying for College
1

I attended an online school in 2007 under GI Bill. Withdrew after second term within add/drop week. Three years later, found out school was billing for the classes. Department of VA certifies attendance and only pays for attending. Their record shows that I was not enrolled in classes the term hence, no GI Bill benefits paid.

Recently, applied to another online school, using VA Vocational Rehabilitation which pays 100% tuition. The previous school has official transcripts on hold due to said balance owed. Current school states that Federally, I must be in good standing with previous schools but they can’t provide the guideline that states this. What was found is that if Financial aid is in default at previous school, current financial can be denied, thus admissions denied.

Once again, I did not use financial aid at previous school and is not at current school yet they officially enrolled me, I assumed there was not issue with previous transcripts, previous school was unaccredited, and most likely credits wouldn’t be transferred in. Now after mid term, I am unable to register for fall courses due to a hold for not getting previous transcripts. It was very misleading as once the Veteran Affairs certified my attendance and sent the school the money, I was officially accepted, no conditions ever stated about previous transcripts and I was never contacted by anyone at the school for these transcripts.

Is there a federal law or guideline that states a school must receive ALL official transcripts despite the paying source of attendance? One note is that the current school tried extremely hard to get me to complete the FASFA even though I have 100% tuition paid. Seems like some red flags flying now.

Please help. Thanks.

2

Whenever you apply for admission to a degree program at an accredited college or university in the US, you are obligated to provide official copies of all previous transcripts - no matter how old, no matter where in the world you took those classes, no matter if it is unaccredited, no matter whether you think any of the credits will transfer. This is standard practice. There are databases where previous enrollments can be verified. Either your old school is also in the database, or the old VA records have caught up with you.

Some places will not catch a missing transcript at the time of application, but will discover that one is missing when they do a routine audit of student records later on. This happened to me in grad school. I’d been enrolled there for about a year before an audit found that my file was missing a transcript for one summer class taken more than 30 years (yes 30) years before. All I had to do was send for it, and my file was complete.

You need to contact your first school and get a transcript. If they can’t/won’t get one to you, you will probably have to go through everything again with the VA so that transcript can be released. So sorry you are in this mess. I do hope it can be fixed soon for you!

As for the FAFSA, if you file it you may find that you qualify for other financial aid that you can use toward your living expenses, books, etc. That is why many places encourage students who have tuition covered by VA benefits to file the FAFSA. Even if you do qualify for the money, you don’t have to accept it (or you can just accept a Pell Grant, but turn down the student loans). You can run your numbers through the FAFSA formula, and see whether it is worth it to you to file: http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/090214EFCFormulaGuide1516.pdf

3

Thank you @happymomof1. But I put all my previous schools of attendance on a transcript request form that the school had and they requested the transcripts. All but one, University of Maryland, required the student to request. The current school was made aware of the previous school, Axia College; University of Phoenix, transcript issues and my problem is that the current school, Liberty University Online, listed in my account that they had received all official transcripts. They then sent me an official acceptance letter by mail as well as email so that I was able to move forward with completing admissions.

My problem is with both schools but more importantly with the current because as I printed out my student account information, why would they list it was received and enroll me anyway? It appears that they wanted to get me in, get some government funds and now that it’s time to register for classes, well, to my surprise, I’m blocked due to a hold on my account.

I emailed the adviser and she compiled an email stating that I just need to get my transcript from Axia college. Basically, Liberty had me take some “throw away classes”, got some funds from Department of VA, and misled me into thinking that they had officially enrolled me. Keep in mind, I was not able to enroll in any classes until just a week before classes began because their enrollment policy was to have all official transcripts before one could be officially enrolled. I stressed over this for weeks before the beginning of classes because it became a 4 month process with Liberty.

Basically, they used some unethical practices, Lied to get me in however, and seems to be deceitful just as most online schools are these days. I hate to say it, but just because they are a Christian school, they are no different. I chose them because they “appeared” to be on the straight and narrow.

I completely understand that schools are to have official transcripts, this holds the current school liable to the college or university accredited associations that they belong to. Once I contacted the association, I was told that I can file a complaint because for one, if the school stated their policy was strict in official acceptance was to have all official transcripts prior to enrollment, that may be a violation of the association’s policies and guidelines.

In going through this, it appears that most people in a situation like this, have no legal ground to stand on and schools take advantage of this and one is enrolled in 1 semester then restricted from continuing. So sad and distasteful of a Christian School.

4

“why would they list it was received and enroll me anyway?”

Sometimes the transcripts do get lost. That happened to me. After I’d verified that the transcript was indeed in the file, I received a notification that it wasn’t. Which led to a long phone conversation. Yes, it was checked off as having arrived, but it wasn’t in the file itself. Who knows what happened. Misfiled into some other student’s paper file? Not scanned into an electronic file? Whatever. I had it re-sent. Then verified that it was indeed physically where it was supposed to be. If I’d been any closer to campus, I’d have visited in person and brought a stapler.

If the only thing wrong right now is that the transcript that was recorded as having arrived is not in your file, then you can ask for it again (or have Liberty ask for it again if that is their system). This could be just plain human error at work.

5

There is nothing special about Liberty just because they claim some dubious religious affiliation, no matter how wackadoodle no- hugging- more- than- 4- seconds and all that rules they have. Their online school is a massive money maker. However if your file is incomplete you always have to make that right everywhere. Schools don’t enroll students who owe money and can’t get transcripts from other schools. They don’t know the whole story about what is on the transcripts unless they see them. Disciplinary actions, expulsions etc. Even if you drop classes somewhere it isn’t usual to owe nothing, often there is some percentage due You still have to pay what you owe out of your own pocket if you don’t get reimbursement. Or if it is truly nothing then just go back to the old school with your evidence of compliance with the drop rules. I’m sorry if you got involved with less than savory school, but if they thought you owed them money it seems strange for them not to have billed you, how did they bill you previously. Now you know going forward to check online that your accounts are clear and retain all your paperwork from these many schools you are attending.