My school just issued me a bill for $440.25. At first they tried to say it was b/c I added a class on Jan 16th. This is irrelevant, b/c whether I was adding or dropping, I wound up with 4 classes ($440.50 each=$1761), which I paid for. I paid for my tuition, fees and housing ($6933.50). I even paid $748.50 out of pocket, no problem. They gave me a refund in Jan for $440.50 and it took me forever to get the real reason why I have this bill. Financial Aid Lady said they made a mistake and gave me too much, not that I hadn’t paid for my classes; and now, they want it back. I’m on campus alone (no family nearby) and I am paying for everything myself. I have been living off my refund (from not having a $1000 meal plan) since school started. All I have left is exactly that $400 I was given. If I’m forced to pay that back b/c they made a mistake by giving me too much, I won’t have anything for the next 2 and a half months of school. What am I supposed to do?
*I know someone is itching to yell “Get A JOB”
-I don’t have a car
-I have disabilities so going to school full time is as much as I can handle at once
-I have tried working and going to school and my grades plummeted
-I do not qaulify for work study either
-Parents don’t make enough to help me at all
Can you still take a partial loan? To get you to the rest of the year for food and such?
Looks like the school refunded for dropping a class and then you owed the money for adding one. It’s a wash.
There shouldn’t have been a refund. If after tuition, fees, books and housing there is no money left for food then you might need to take out a loan to help with that if you can’t work. Do try to maybe work during summer and saving that money for next year.
@mommdc I can’t take out any more loans. I had to take out the full amount a Junior can take this year b/c I barely got any thing form Fin.Aid
I paid everything with my loans and out of pocket and they gave me this refund on accident apparently. I didn’t owe money for adding classes b/c I had already paid the cost for 4 classes.
I always work during the summer but can never seem to save enough.
Were your parents denied for Plus? If so, then you can borrow more.
Did your stepdad ever pay off that CC that he took out wrongly in your name?"
I don’t know what to advise you then if you have taken out the max loan already. What kind if job did you do before while in school when your grades suffered? Can you qualify for workstudy, isn’t that just 10 hrs a week?
Can your parents help with food money?
Did you get clarification as to which fund you were over awarded? If you had to make a payment out of pocket, why were you getting a refund to begin with? Was it just a timing issue of needing to pay before your aid disbursed?
@mom2collegekids I already did that. They got denied so I got more loans but it still was not enough, hence the $748 I had to pay.
Donate plasma?
@kgos16 She just told me they gave me a refund for a class when they shouldn’t have given it to me.
Did you drop a course and then subsequently re-add another course or one in a different section?
@kgos16 yes, I always stayed at 4 classes though. So I paid my part no matter what. They just accident;y gave me an EXTRA $440 on top of the other $440 I had gotten. So I received two refunds rather than just one, and I guess they just now realized that
Matter of fact, when I got that extra 440 I asked if there was a mistake and someone emailed me saying it was all in order.
What would you have done if you hadn’t gotten this accidental refund? Obviously you weren’t expecting to get it and receiving it was a surprise to you; what was your plan to pay for living expenses prior to receiving this unexpected windfall? If there was a plan in place it might be worth revisiting.
One thing you can try is to visit your department head or adviser to see if there are any small departmental scholarships that it’s not too late to get. Those are rarely big enough to cover tuition or fees, but they may be enough to tide you over for the rest of the semester since it sounds like you just need day-to-day living expenses money. You can also try to reach out to your home community/high school to see if they have even a small amount around through civic organizations for current students. It’s a long shot though.
I can’t advise you to use a credit card now because without a job you won’t be able to make monthly payments and they won’t let you wait until you start work in the summer.
Selling plasma may not work if you are sick just because they have to have strict quality control standards before they will pay out. It might be worth checking to see if you do qualify since you could make decent money doing that and it wouldn’t take more than an hour or two a week.
Can your parents help you out at all? Normally I oppose private student loans but in this case if you borrow a small amount $500 or so that you know that you can pay back once you work in the summer time it might be worth it. Your parents might not be able to help you with with the full amount up front but if they can cosign for you or help you with a small amount it might be your most realistic plan (short of withdrawing).
@DmitriR I WAS expecting to get it. She’s telling me it was a mistake though. That’s my problem. After I paid everything to my school, I was supposed to get back money from dropping down to 4 classes. For some reason, they are saying it’s too much.
I guess I am just confused as to why you were expecting a refund in the first place if you had to make a payment to your student account? So you got $880 back altogether?
Do your parents get the Tuition Tax Credit on their taxes? If so, ask them for that money…it’s really to go towards your education.
Do you live within walking distance of a church or food pantry? Or is there a bus to go there? Maybe they can help you with some food?
But going forward you are going to have to figure how to pay for all your expenses for next year, tuition probably will go up too.
Now I’m confused. Earlier you said that you got two refunds when you were supposed to get one. Did you think that your refund should have been $880 instead of $440? If so, why did you ask them if it was a mistake? If not, then what were your plans before you received the ‘extra’ $440?
Anyway, unless you can show that you did overpay for your direct charges then there’s probably nothing that you can do to keep that money. Is there anything else described above that you have already explored?
Are you living on campus or in an apartment? Are there neighbors that you could do odd jobs for? Walking dog, shoveling driveway, cleaning, shopping?
@kgos16 I go more than that b/c I did’t get a meal plan but that went back into my tuition costs. So I had 6 classes at first, I dropped two which means I should have gotten the 880 back, now they’re saying it was a mistake and they want the 440 back.