Risky not to list every college attended?

<p>I'm planning on applying to a large state school but only reporting two of the colleges I have attended. Neither of these colleges have transfer credit listed. The reason being is one of the colleges (that I'm not reporting) says I owe X amount which I do not and will not release my transcript until I pay it (which will be a cold day in hell before I pay those con artists) so I'm just going to ignore I ever attended it (only had 11 completed credits anyhow) and just list the two when it asks on the ap what colleges attended.</p>

<p>Now I've heard of the national clearinghouse but really at a big school with thousands of students what's really the likelihood that they're going to check everything? I mean as long as transcripts are received from the two colleges I am reporting and it doesn't list credits transferred in from the other school (which it wont since when I applied to the other colleges I never said I attended the one that says I owe them money) they'll be none the wiser right? I mean I can see it being risky at say a Harvard or some little liberal arts college out east, but a bigger state school?</p>

<p>I should also mention I will be applying for financial aid. Now I can hear people saying they'll know all colleges attended if I'm applying for loans, but what if I'm just applying for grants?</p>

<p>I still consider it pretty risky, but as long as you are aware of the potential consequences (rescinding admission, expulsion, invalidating your degree, depending on when they find out), it’s your call.</p>

<p>Regarding fin aid, I’m not sure how applying for grants changes things since I only have loans, but know that Pell grants are going to be increasingly more difficult to come by with the upcoming budget cuts.</p>

<p>*I should also mention I will be applying for financial aid. Now I can hear people saying they’ll know all colleges attended if I’m applying for loans, but what if I’m just applying for grants? *</p>

<p>You should ask this on the Financial Aid forum.</p>

<p>The problem is that the application to apply for grants is usually the same as applying for financial aid. Meaning, almost every college out there will want a student to fill out the FAFSA forms regardless if the student just wants institutional aid (ie: grants that come out of the college’s own endowment funds) or to qualify for Federal Sub and UnSub loans and as far as I am aware, for Pell Grants, Perkins Loans, etc.</p>

<p>Students generally don’t get to fill out some form that says “Please just fit me with grants.” The process is more that the student fills out the FAFSA, and the institution tries to fit the student up with as much aid as is available in any and all forms.</p>

<p>So–the first question to ask is if the types of grants you are hoping for are connected to FAFSA. The second question is if the other schools you don’t want to list will show up via the FAFSA forms…I don’t know if they “show” up but I do know that FAFSA requires the student list ALL former schools and failure to doso is some sort of legal crime because the student “signs” the form and verifies it is all correct and this is a FEDERAL set of forms.</p>

<p>So - I am not an expert, so try the Financial Aid forums. There are several people there who actually are quite knowledgeable there.</p>

<p>I’m pretty sure this topic has been discussed before. They might not check up on you. But they also might. Do you really want to risk getting your acceptance or diploma rescinded because of this?</p>

<p>All I’m gonna say is the following ----</p>

<p>/jamaican accent:</p>

<p>“use yerrrr head maaahun”</p>

<p>Think of the ramifications.

Also all schools use a clearing house.

</p>

<p>If you go to the clearinghouse link, it says that schools can query a national data base to see where you have attended. </p>

<p>So you are probably talking just a few minutes for someone to check your file. </p>

<p>High risk to not report. Not to mention that the school you are applying to might notice a gap in your educational timeline.</p>

<p>I would also argue that it is unfair to the other applicants to not disclose your entire background.</p>