Good Evening
I am currently in the marines and well going to school TA covers everything. I applied for the pell grant and received my payments. During this time someone fron the school staff made a mistake and put 4.5 credits instead of 3 credits for me to receive my pell grant. Well filling out my TA i did everything right and put 3 credits. Since i with drew the pell grant money the government pay to the school before they could correct their own mistake.
Do i have to repay the difference to the school.
I did also continue school for 2 more months and receive pell grant during that time before stopping school for my childs birth. I also withdrew that money. I had no knowledge of any of this until today.
Lastly what are the repercussion if I just go to a differnet school and dont pay it back. Thank you again for the help
If you withdrew before a certain point in the term, you are not entitled to the money you received.
If you withdrew before a certain time in the term, you are required to pay back any money to which you were not entitled.
The money you received while you WERE taking courses has no relationship to the money you received for courses you did NOT take.
It sounds like the school is asking you for repayment. So…you have to pay.
Please be HONEST and pay your debts.
Seriously? You are thinking you can just walk away with federally funded money to which you were NOT entitled.
Go to a different school? Your current college won’t release your transcript until this debt is resolved. And you will be required to submit the current school transcript everywhere else you apply. In addition, there is a national clearing house for federally funded financial aid, and this will be there. I can’t imagine you would get additional federally funded money with an outstanding unpaid obligation like a Pell that needs to be paid back.
It sounds like you spent the money…and don’t want to pay it back. Is that right? If the school is asking for this money to be paid back, you need to deal with the school. How much money are we talking here for ONE dropped course? Or did I misunderstand what you are posting. What amount do you owe this current college.
Until this is resolved, you won’t see any disbursement of federally funded need based aid…anywhere, I believe.
@kelsmom ?
I didnt drop the class. I finished the class it was a mess up on the schools end. They put 4.5 credits instead of 3 credits and didnt realize their mistake until after I withdrew the amount the government gave them for a 4.5 credit class. The class were December and February and i withdrew in April. They corrected their mistake and pay back the government that same month.
The classes are 1 month long. They messed up on both those classes for those months. They are 3 credit classes and instead someone on the schools end messed up and put 4.5 credits
So…you are saying YOU knew they messed up the number of credits…right? And you got Pell money for the 1.5 credits you were not taking…right?
That being the case…you should have put that extra money aside…because it was not money to which you were entitled.
The school has now found the error. Schools make mistakes.
You need to pay back this overage. How much is it? It can’t be very much money for that amount of credits. How much do you ow the school?
Ok…I’ll try again.
If you received money that you were not entitled to receive…yes, you have to pay it back.
Doesn’t matter. The school reviewed their records and your aid given. You owe the money.
Your current college will not release your transcript until your bills are paid. You are required to submit ALL college transcript when you transfer. In addition, you owe federally funded aid…and probably won’t be able to get any additional aid until this is straightened out.
Where is the money? Clearly you didn’t need it for as many credits as you received.
No i didnt know as my original post stated. I didnt know until yesterday. The money went towards things like everyone else uses a pell grant for. Books, bills whatever the case may be as normal students use pell grants. To me its more of how someone runs a business and if I must always make sure they are doing there job. I will remind everyone I know who goes to this school to watch out for this because you can get hit will a bill months after school and now you must come up with that money you didnt budget for.
I am only one person but it seems like there needs to be more oversight on these things if you say a school makes mistakes but a school is staffed with how many people. If it was my mistake or 1 student mistake yes. But multiple people should like at a students record to make sure this doesnt happen.
You should have inquired as well. 3 credits is likely not even 1/2 time enrollment, is it? Pell grants are prorated based on your actual enrollment.
This isn’t just the school’s mistake.
I understand that you just assumed they were correct in the amount they gave you…but they weren’t…and you didn’t check either.
I’m sure you will be more vigilant on your own behalf in the future.
You should be able to work out a payment plan with the school.
If the amount is not too huge (it can’t be that much for part time for one term…and you don’t owe back all you received…do you?) then maybe you can pick up a small part time job (assuming you have a spouse or family member to watch your child).
People make mistakes. It’s disappointing when that happens, but if the school entered 2 credits instead of 4.5 and you received less money than you should have you’d want them to correct it. The federal government requires that they fix their errors whether it benefits the school or not, so they have no choice. They don’t like making errors like these.
Most schools don’t have multiple people reviewing student accounts. The student has to review their bill and aid package to be sure they’re right. The Pell Grant can be tough to calculate if your credits vary from one semester to another so you may want to ask the school how that’s calculated so you know. The FAFSA application will generate an estimated grant, so if you applied as a part-time student it should give you an idea of how much aid you might get.
You won’t be eligible for federal aid anywhere until you repay the money. You may want to ask the school if you can set up a payment plan.
It will give you the amount for the YEAR if you are going full time. It will not break it down by term, or prorate for part time status.
Unfortunately, mistakes happen. When they do, the school is required to take the Pell from the student’s account and pay it back to the government … no matter when it happens. The student then needs to repay either the school or the government (depending on whether the school paid the government then collects from student or the school reports the grant overpayment directly to the government).
I appreciate the help. I understand mistakes happen but its different on a individual level vs a multi person staff level. I recommended to the school for more oversight, while this will mot solve the problem. I am 1 person who is more financial stable than someone who has to take loans for college. I am not only thinking about my self but for the many students that unknowing have this happen to them. Yes I should have down oversight myself, but had blind faith in the school. I definitely going forward have told many people about my experience and will hope atleast at this school it doesn’t happen. Thank you again
Pardon me for my ignorance - I keep running into these interesting threads while paging through the Latest Posts section - but, how is this situation different from a FA refund? In a different thread, but similar circumstances, there didn’t seem to any downside to the OP keeping (and presumably spending) excess Pell grant money. It didn’t count toward their FAFSA or EFC at a second college. And, not a single reply suggested they needed to send it back to the college (or, the government, for that matter.)
@circuitrider, if a student gets a $4200 Pell Grant and tuition is $3100, the student will get the difference ($1100) as a refund. They can use it for books or whatever else they need. This student’s grant wasn’t calculated correctly. They were given an award for 4.5 credits instead of 3 credits, so they were overpaid by 1.5 credits. In my example, maybe they were only supposed to get $3400 instead of $4200. That means their refund should only have been $300, not $1100. In that case the student would be required to pay back the $800.
XGreyDragon, it’s always a good idea to understand your bill and check it for accuracy. If other students aren’t aware that they should do that it’s good that you’re sharing that information with them.
@circuitrider
The difference is that this poster received a larger amount of Pell money and refund than the amount to which they were entitled.
This student was only taking 3 credits, but the school put 4.5. So the student was given too much Pell money. So now the student needs to pay back the money to which she was not entitled.
Again I ask…what is the Pell amount difference between the amount received and the amount the student was entitled to receive. It can’t be a huge amount for one term.
It doesn’t sound like the difference was a lot or more than the OP can handle. It sounds like OP is concerned about students who don’t have the resources to repay what for them might be largish chunks of money. For some people, even $500 or $600 is a lot.
Students do need to know that if there’s an error they’ll be required to give the money back. It doesn’t matter whose error it was.
And it goes both ways. I’m sure students would expect to receive MORE if the school put 3 credits when they were actually taking 4.5.
I believe this correction would need to be made before the academic year for the award ended.
I guess I don’t understand how the grants are issued. If the government makes a check out in the student’s name, I can understand why any overage might be called a “refund”. The college would just be an endorsee. But, if it goes straight to the college, why shouldn’t the excess money go right back to the government?
The student is entitled to a certain amount of Pell based on EFC & number of credits. The Pell is paid directly to the school, and the school applies the payment to the student’s account. If the Pell payment is more than the amount the student owes the school, the difference is paid to the student in the form of a refund.
If a student is enrolled in a certain number of credits and the student is paid Pell based on that number … then the student drops some credits before the end of the drop/add period, the Pell payment has to be reduced & the student has to repay the amount they were overpaid.