<p>Are both schools complaining about your receiving financial aid from two schools? If not, why not just stick with the one that doesn’t know?</p>
<p>If there is also a THIRD school that you are attending, then you should go with the one that DOESN’T know ABOUT what the other two know ABOUT. Or if there are two that don’t know what the other one knows, then you can choose ONE of them (EITHER one) based on other factors. That’s where FIT comes in.</p>
<p>MisterK - the OP’s problem is that the school thinks she was receiving aid from 2 schools concurrently in the past and are telling her she must repay $8000 in aid from prior years and for schooling that is already completed. She is not trying to go to that school anymore, but she can’t move on to her next step until this is sorted out as her transcripts for 2 years are at the school that says she owes money.Fit and choosing a school are not the issue here.</p>
<p>If she truly doesn’t own the school any money and it is wrongly holding onto her transcript, then I wonder if she can file a “small claims lawsuit” naming the school. Once it was contacted that it was being sued, the school would either look into it or show up in court to prove whether the student was or wasn’t receiving aid at two schools. If the school can’t demonstrate that, the court might order transcripts to be released.</p>
<p>Frankly, if it were possible to name the school in a small claims lawsuit, it wouldn’t likely ever get that far.</p>
<p>swimcatsmorm - You missed my point.</p>
<p>Actually, we don’t KNOW if she really owes the school money…or not. </p>
<p>Two other questions to the OP.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are you an independent student for financial aid purposes? OR did you file a FAFSA that said you were independent when perhaps you were not? If that were the case, you would have gotten more in Stafford loans than what you were entitled to as a dependent for financial aid purposes.</p></li>
<li><p>Is this your FIRST round of college or did you go to college at any time in the past?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>thumper gets the point. There’s a general problem of incoherence here.</p>
<p>There are many regulations that govern financial aid, and I would guess the “problem” school followed them correctly. I would just like a chance to be able to explain the “why” of what was done, OP. </p>
<p>Schools don’t always know right away when a student is attending two schools during the same term. They may pay the aid and not find out for many months that aid was paid at two schools during the same term. Each term has a time period that is reported to the government processor when aid is disbursed. Two disbursements during the same aid period raise the red flag, and aid can be backed off as a result. Another thing that happened in 09-10 and 10-11 with Pell was the second Pell regulations … schools had to remove aid when they discovered that the rules to receive it weren’t actually met. The problem is that schools don’t always find out about the aid received elsewhere in a timely manner. Yet they have to remove the payment just the same.</p>
<p>For example, I was extremely diligent about monitoring all available reports from the federal processor. As a result, I was able to remove payments in a relatively timely manner. However, there were times I didn’t find out about an issue until well after the fact … no matter how hard I tried, it happened. I had no choice but to remove the payment.</p>
<p>do situations like this EVER get resolved? If the school notices that they made a mistake, what are the chances that it will be corrected?</p>
<p>I attended School A in the Fall of 2008 and then left to school B in the Spring of 2009. I was not going to both schools at the same time in one semester. While I was attending School B, I took out a stafford loan for $2000 each semester.</p>
<p>Were these schools a community college, local university or were they a for profit technical school?</p>
<p>community college</p>
<p>At anytime did you ever register for any classes at school A for spring 2009 even though you did’nt attend?</p>
<p>No, never.</p>
<p>forget it. I’ll have to find a way to repay this. I have a little bit of money saved up. do schools offer repayment plans and let students get their transcripts? or does it have to be paid in full?? by the time i pay this off my transcripts will be too old to get into any program</p>
<p>Sometimes when a student updates here FAFSA by adding the school code for a new school, it will be selected for verification. Once selected, all federal aid will be backed off until the student completes verification (and if the EFC changes, the awards may change). If you are in school for even a day after you are selected for verification, you HAVE to complete verification in order to have the award reinstated.</p>
<p>If things are as you say, I would not be so quick to give up. Schools DO make mistakes. I suggest you go to the top … insist on talking to the director. If the director won’t talk to you, go to the dean of student services. You deserve an explanation of what happened. </p>
<p>Once you get the explanation, post here or PM me. I will advise you. If the school made a mistake, they need to fix it. If it was something that can’t be fixed, I will let you know.</p>
<p>I’m assuming it’s School B that says you owe them $8000. Is that correct? What OTHER financial aid did you get from this school? Did you get a Pell grant from them also? Was your aid ever in excess of the cost of attendance at School B? </p>
<p>Kelsmom is correct. If the school has made an error, they are required to correct it. She has excellent information…she worked in financial aid. </p>
<p>The most important thing about this (and any other things that might take a resolution)…you need to have your facts in order and well documented. Once you have it all in order, and straight…you should be in a better position to discuss this with school B (if that is indeed the school that says you owe them money).</p>
<p>If an error was made, they will correct it. That’s a certainty. There’s no reason to pay a bill that you don’t owe.</p>
<p>But the question remains: What do you owe, and why? What’s the full story?</p>
<p>Only you can provide the facts. Once you do, people such as kelsmom will be able to help you.</p>
<p>I would really like to help, but the information I requested earlier has to be provided. </p>
<p>If I understand correctly, you received aid in fall 2009 at the school you had attended all along. You state that you attended another school “for a semester.” It appears you returned to the original school after you attended another school for a semester. In which semester did you attend another school? How much money did you receive, and what kind of aid was it (Pell, loans)?</p>
<p>$8000 is more than a year of Pell, so it either also includes loans … or you received 2nd Pell during that year. </p>
<p>It is very important that you figure out what aid you received when & from whom. It will be much easier to speak with the school if you know what you are talking about. “Feeling” like you got the shaft is one thing … knowing you did & being able to prove it is another.</p>
<p>You may or may not have been properly awarded. The only way to know that is to find out what went on. If you can do that, we can help you. Either we can give you the regulations to cite if the school was wrong, or we can explain what happened so that you can understand why things are as they are.</p>
<p>I will have a very HAPPY HAPPY christmas. thank you swimcatsmom for recommending me to call the Ombudsman. He contacted the school and discovered it was an error on their part. They will be undoing what they did was wrong. I do not owe them $8,000, that money was owed to me. There have been a lot of complaints from that school from other students about the financial aid department so I was not the only one with the issue</p>
<p>Most of all I will get my transcripts. All of that hard work I put in to getting good grades will finally allow me to pursue my dream as a RN. I was so sad thinking that I’d never be a nurse now I can. </p>
<p>Thank you and for everyone’s help.</p>