<p>I filed my FAFSA on March 2rd or 3rd. At the beginning of May, I got an e-mail from the college that I would be getting a fee waiver, but to determine my eligibility for anything else, they needed some additional tax documents. I got the documents, turned them in May 17th, and waited. There's usually a four-to-six-week turnaround on this kind of thing, and with all the budget shenanigans happening in California I was sure they'd be bogged down, so I was fine with waiting.</p>
<p>May passed. Then June. When July started and I hadn't yet heard anything I started to get a little worried, but I figured I could give them time. I kept checking my e-mail, and checking WebAdvisor online to see if anything changed. Nope.</p>
<p>So earlier this week, I went into the financial aid office to find out what was going on, and I was informed that I was given an academic dismissal! No specific reason, just a dismissal. Now, I do have some old, bad grades from years ago that I've been working on fixing. But I didn't think anything would be so low that it would be a problem. I was told the only thing I could do would be to file a petition, which would take 4-6 weeks to process. If it's approved I will have missed the first disbursement date, and I do not believe they will cut a check before the second one. Meaning that I get my financial aid for the semester that starts on August 15th sometime in November. Meaning I have no way to buy textbooks or supplies other than begging my parents for money they really can't spare right now.</p>
<p>I submitted the petition on the same day (July 20th). Today (July 23rd) I got an e-mail telling me about the academic dismissal. Almost ten weeks after I submitted the tax documents they wanted. At least this letter told me why. But it still showed up far too late for me to be able to do anything about it before the semester starts.</p>
<p>tl;dr: My college took its sweet-ass time notifying me about my financial aid and now I'm screwed for money for the fall. Should I bring this up with anyone? Are they going to care?</p>
<p>The letter you recently received has to do with Satisfactory Academic Progress, I assume. Each college has a timeframe for which they run the SAP reports -if they run SAP at the end of every spring term, this would be about the time you would normally hear SAP decisions. SAP has components of academic progress that are determined by each school within the guidelines of strict federal regulations, and the SAP policy at each school is published for all to see and take to heart.</p>
<p>Do not blame the college for being late in notifying you about failing to meet the SAP guidelines. These are published online and in the college catalog. You have to be proactive about understanding what is required to keep your eligibility for financial aid. If your appeal is approved, you will get aid … but if it is not approved, you will not get aid for fall. It is important that you understand this. Getting a late disbursement is one thing, but getting NO disbursement is another. You really need to talk to a financial aid advisor at your school in order to determine how to proceed from here.</p>
<p>If you are asking if the decision to revoke your aid can be changed due to what you feel is late timing of notification, the answer to that question is no.</p>
<p>As an aside, the verfication process is completely separate from the SAP process. Your aid office will verify you without regard to SAP or even to actual admission … the assumption in verification is that you applied for aid, were chosen for verification, and must be verified. Nothing beyond that is a factor.</p>
<p>How am I supposed to know to file an appeal prior to being disqualified?</p>
<p>One of the SAP policies is that I must have completed 67% of the total units attempted. When I did the calculations, I did not count courses I successfully retook. The only thing I can figure is that the college does count these courses, meaning that instead of completing ~80% of the units attempted, I’ve only completed 65% as of the end of spring semester. Which is fine. I messed up, I’m willing to deal with the consequences. </p>
<p>Getting a late disbursement is everything. I’m living with my parents at the ripe old age of 26, living on an income that’s around $50/week. I need textbooks. I need a new backpack. I need paper and scantrons and lab books and all that exciting stuff. I need to be able to afford to get back and forth to school. While I’m hoping work picks up and I have the money, it might not happen. I have an EFC of 0. I need this money to be able to afford to attend. </p>
<p>What exactly should I have done in this case? Should I have assumed I’d be disqualified and filed a petition as soon as I submitted my FAFSA? Am I going to have to go into the financial aid office every week to check up on documents I’ve submitted? </p>
<p>If I’d been notified about this at the end of the spring semester I could have filed a petition right away, and it would have (or should have) been done by now. I’d still get money at the first disbursement date and be okay. </p>
<p>You might file the appeal and not be ok. The academic dismissal may stand. You need to worry about the academic side first. No use worrying about the financial aid piece if there is no school to need to pay because the dismissal stands. Good luck.</p>
<p>How many credits can you pay for on your own without aid, and how many do you need to take in order to meet the SAP requirement? That is what you need to determine. If you appeal fails, you will be on the hook for the entire cost of the semester. You may be better off to register part-time for only the classes you can afford out of pocket.</p>
SAP counts **all ** classes you have ever attempted antwhere. That includes Ws, Fs, retakes, *and *the original attempts.</p>
<p>I thought Academic dismissal meant you are unable to attend the school. Are you under academic dismissal, or are you just ineligible for FA? If you are under academic dismissal, the FA is the least of your problem.</p>
<p>If you are just ineligible for aid, then find out what the appeals process is and complete it. my son had to do this. In his case it consisted of writing a letter explaining why had had a problem (in his case he withdrew from a whole semester of classes for various reasons - one that was paid for out of pocket, not on FA), and saying what he planned to do differently in the future. He talked to the FA people in the office for advice on how to write his appeal (it went before a board or comittee) and he was put on FA probation.</p>
<p>Your school will have their own policies, but the important thing is to take responsibility for your actions and explain how you will change. So it is ok to vent here, but get rid of the negative attitude you are expressing here when it comes to your appeal and when talking to the FA people. Your school has the final say about FA matters and a nasty attitude will not help you out at all. Explaining things calmly and politely, and the fact that you have successfully retaken some classes will help. Good luck.</p>
<p>Maybe I should have explained myself a little better.</p>
<p>I failed several classes when I started college right out of high school. My last failed class is from 2005. I took several years off, grew up a little, and went back extremely part time in Fall '09. Since I returned I’ve gotten at least a 3.0 every semester and I have made the Dean’s List every semester I’ve been attending full time. Every semester until this past one I had to petition to register full time if I wanted to, and also had to petition for financial aid. Every time I’ve been successful because I have met their requirements for improvement. Given all of this I am fairly confident that this petition will be approved, but hey, I could be wrong.</p>
<p>As of right now I am on good standing with the college. The academic dismissal relates only to financial aid and their SAP. Because I’ve had to deal with them before I am pretty aware of their policies, but I A. was fairly sure I had met them all and would not need to file a petition this year and B. have always received notice before the semester ended about any decisions regarding my financial aid.</p>
<p>I do have a BOG fee waiver, meaning I do not have to pay for my units this year which is a lifesaver, and I’m very grateful for it. But I have four classes I need books and supplies for and I need to be able to afford to get to and from campus five days a week. This is where the problem comes in. Taking fewer units really only saves me the cost of books at the expense of adding another semester to my time here and another full year before I can transfer, since the colleges I’m looking at take few if any spring transfers. Over the long term, I don’t feel that’s a smart decision for my education or my finances.</p>
<p>So the petition is already filed, but I am stressing about money because of what I feel is a failure on their part. I’m aware the bad grades are my fault and I’m fine with having to petition. What I am upset about is that it took them so long to reach that decision or fail to notify me of that decision that I have no time to finish a protest prior to the beginning of the semester.</p>
<p>Ask to see if you can get an emergency loan with them. The type of loan that FA will deduct the payment directly from your FA checks later on. Check with other programs on campus to see if any of them offering book vouchers for needy students, or even a book loan etc …
good luck</p>
<p>Thanks, I may talk to them about that. I might run into trouble with book vouchers because I’m sure that depending on whatever financial aid said, of course. More of the professors at my school are putting books on reserve on the library, but I’m taking a few courses I know are going to be very dependent on those books. I’m not sure I want to fight with a class of fifty for the ONE book in the library, but if I have to, there you go.</p>
<p>fullofpop, with the fee waiver and possible aid in november, would it be possible to find some sort of a part time job and just go ahead and start your classes? at some point, your more recent good grades will kick into the SAP, right? I think you should do whatever it takes to complete some courses this Fall. Good luck!!</p>
<p>Well, I am working right now, but I’m an independent contractor and work’s been slow. Prior to that I’d been job hunting for a year with no success. The unemployment rate here is still around 16.8 (it was above 18% before harvest season started), and jobs are hard to come by.</p>
<p>So I did eventually get approved and get money. Last Thursday. I never got any notice from financial aid. I finally went in to file a complaint with the Dean of Student Services and one of the folks in his office spent about 20 minutes making phone calls on my behalf and was finally able to tell me yes, I’d been approved. No e-mail, nothing updated on WebAdvisor, but something had happened at some point. It apparently wasn’t worthwhile for anyone to tell me about it.</p>
<p>I also found out that it was determined I was disqualified from financial aid on June 1st. It took nearly two months for them to e-mail me about it. Once I filed the petition I was told it would take 4-6 weeks for it to be looked at. After six weeks, I was told it would take a few more. After NINE weeks I was told it would be read by the committee that week (the week of Sept. 12th) and I’d have a decision that Friday. I didn’t. I was told the same thing the following week. No decision. Next week. At this point I decided to try contacting the financial aid supervisor in charge of these things. I called several times over the period of a week, left several voicemails, never heard back. So finally I went in to see the Dean, and all that stuff above happened.</p>
<p>So now I have money, EIGHTEEN WEEKS after I turned in all of the paperwork they needed. That’s an entire semester’s worth of time. I dropped one class because I was failing it without the textbook I couldn’t afford. I’m failing one other, but I’m more confident about my ability to bring that grade up. I wasted so much time and effort this semester on trying to get this sorted out. I was borrowing money and putting things on credit cards so I could afford to get to and from school, eat, and have the supplies I needed. I bought books and gas over medicine I need because I did not want to fail this semester.</p>
<p>I’m still waiting for my meeting with the Dean, and I’m switching colleges next semester. This was so beyond unacceptable. I can’t trust this place with my education any longer.</p>
<p>That is probably a good call. You really can’t afford to keep taking a hit like this – as you keep progressing your classes are going to get more difficult and it’s not realistic for you to expect to be able to manage them without money for books and school supplies. While I really think you should have called them repeatedly instead of just “giving them more time” (if they need more time, they’ll tell you after you call them!), they really didn’t treat you fairly. It sounds like you got caught in some kind of computer error or a mistake. You made the right call going to the Dean and I hope everything works out for you in the future.</p>
<p>My biggest mistake was trying to be patient with them over the summer. After July I was in contact with the financial aid department at least once a week, usually by going in to speak with someone. </p>
<p>I’m at the point where most of my classes are major reqs instead of general ed: classes with lab books and associated materials. It sucks not having a textbook for trig, but not having a lab manual for chemistry would be much, much worse.</p>
<p>Doesn’t someone in your household either have a few hundred dollars to lend until the FA refunds come in or have a major credit card so that you can order books online? If not, you should probably apply for one with a low limit. Otherwise, you really need to plan ahead and keep some cash in reserve for books for the following semester(s).</p>
<p>Actually, I read the whole thing! You’re 26, live with your folks, work part-time, get a full fee waiver, and dropped a class that you didn’t have the book for. I just wanted to point out that having to drop a major class due to lack of a book can ultimately be far more expensive than paying interest charges for a month or two.</p>
<p>I already borrowed money from parents, and I have a low-limit card that I haven’t been able to pay for months. I’ve been getting angry phonecalls for a while now.</p>
<p>I’m so sorry to hear that…did the school take your student loans and apply them to their fees before crediting your account for the missing FA? It’s so frustrating when politicians and educators wring their hands about low graduation rates, etc. for lower-income students and don’t bother to actually talk to the students. If they did, they would realize that cash flow is king. </p>
<p>Financial aid screw ups are unfortunately way too common and schools don’t seem to “get it” that students are having to make choices between buying books or eating, attending classes or working, etc. I’m not a huge fan of debt, but I’ve often told low income students that building a cushion for educational expenses, even by asking for an increase in Perkins or other loans, is almost a necessity in order to smooth out the mix-ups and delays which inevitably come at the worst possible time. </p>
<p>I wish you the best for the spring semester and hope you will not have to experience this again.</p>
<p>I don’t have any loans, either. No money, but less debt, so…yay? I’m not sure they accounted for or will account for the class I dropped though.</p>