<p>Hmmm…it doesn’t sound like you have less debt, just more costly debt! Honestly, I don’t understand how it makes sense to ruin your credit and drop classes just to avoid taking a small student loan to cover the gap period(s).</p>
<p>According to my community college’s website, in order to apply for a Stafford loan I would have needed: “Have a completed financial aid file in OK, Warning or Probation Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) status (click here to view the SAP Policy).”</p>
<p>Which I didn’t. While I was waiting on the appeal I could do nothing. I did not get grant money, I could not apply for a loan, I could not apply for work study. </p>
<p>Plus it’s a community college and I really, really didn’t want to have to get a loan to pay for community college.</p>
<p>You have done this to yourself. You could have taken the Stafford loan and repaid it. While you were waiting for the appeal you had a completed FA file and, unless you were not having SAP, you were eligible.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I don’t understand. I caused an 18 week delay in getting my financial aid sorted out? I was supposed to apply for a loan even though I didn’t have the thing I needed to apply for it?</p>
<p>Yes, clearly this was all my fault.</p>
<p>And even IF I had the loan, I’d still have debt. Based on the loan amount I believe the school offers I’d have roughly the same amount of debt either way.</p>
<p>No telling at this point…my kids’ FA files have been completely screwed up at times and, despite regularly calling, they experience looonng delays (also at public schools) but their loans still are processed. Anyway, now that you’re back on track and know that this could be a problem, it might be worth considering a taking a small subsidized loan so that you have a cushion for the delays you’ll experience at the beginning of spring semester. Many CC’s do not credit grant aid until the 5th week so unless you have a decent cushion from refunds, you may experience this every semester. The advantage of a subsidized loan is that you aren’t being charged interest and you won’t have to make payments or endure creditor calls.</p>
<p>I will have to check with the campus I’m transferring to (I will NOT be returning to this campus as a direct result of these goings-on) but the first disbursement date has never been later than the first day of school. I’ve never had an issue like this, and this is the third year I’ve had to go through this process. And hopefully it’s the last.</p>
<p>Do you know what other subsidized loan options I have aside from the Stafford loan? As I pointed out to Erin’s Dad the Stafford loan requires the SAP business, which is what started this excitement in the first place. My GPA should be high enough next year, but…</p>
<p>There are no other SUBSIDIZED loans besides the Staffords. The interest rate on those, however, is far less than ANY credit card I know of.</p>
<p>You will need to check the SAP guidelines at the school to which you plan to transfer. Every school has its own guidelines for this. Make sure you meet them at the new school.</p>
<p>EDIT: The Perkins Loans are also subsidized…but are subject to the same SAP requirements as the Staffords.</p>
<p>The college I’m transferring to is in the same community college district, and my understanding is they all operate under the same set of rules. I’ll be double-checking this before I transfer just to be sure.</p>
<p>That’s good to know about the Stafford/Perkins loans, but my understanding is I couldn’t have applied for one until after my financial aid appeal had been approved anyway.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I understand what you are saying about the Stafford loans. They are available to ANY student who completes a FAFSA form.</p>
<p>Here is the direct wording again from my school’s website:</p>
<p>"The eligibility requirements to request a federal student loan at Fresno City College have changed. To qualify, applicants must meet the following minimum requirements:</p>
<pre><code>Have a completed financial aid file in OK, Warning or Probation Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) status (click here to view the SAP Policy)
Be enrolled in a minimum of 6 units of non-remedial/non-ESL coursework
Have less than $12,500 total outstanding student loan debt"
</code></pre>
<p>I did not have a financial aid file in OK, Warning, Or Probation SAP status. I do now, but that also means I’ve been paid and no longer need the loan. While my financial aid was in disqualified status I could not apply for a loan. At least this is my understanding.</p>
<p>So you did not meet SAP?</p>
<p>Here’s a question? Would taking the loan have given you more financial aid than the cost of attendance at the college?</p>
<p>I’m mighty confused about this situation and yes, I read the whole thread…more than once.</p>
<p>
Stafford loans are not available to a student who has been denied FA due to to not meeting SAP, or while the student is waiting for the result of the appeal. The loans are verified and disbursed through the school and if a student has been denied aid the loans are included in that denial. (My son was once denied aid for not meeting SAP, and could not get any aid until the appeal was granted. Fortunately his school only took a couple of weeks for the appeal.)</p>
<p>Schools do sometimes mess up with aid. My son’s last semester of school they completely messed up his loans. He already had a associate degree in a tech field, but had not found a job so returned to pursue a second qualification in a health related field. He was awarded aid. He got his Pell grant money but the loans were never disbursed for some reason. They still had had not been disbursed toward the end of the semester when he was offered a very good job in his original field. He had to move and start before the end of the semester, so he ended up dropping the classes 2 weeks before the end of the semester - his loans had not been disbursed at that point (and of course never were once he withdrew - but they should have been disbursed months earlier). If he had not moved home with us while he was job hunting he would have been in a real mess financially. </p>
<p>His CC was a whole lot less efficient than my daughter’s school when it came to FA. I did an associate degree there as well and had student loans and some of the things they did were just weird. And trying to get information from them was like pulling teeth.</p>
<p>So did this student not meet SAP…or was her financial aid “appeal” purely for the securing of the Stafford Loan? That is what I am not clear about.</p>
<p>I think the appeal was for aid - (perhaps loans were the only aid in the FA package).</p>
<p>An appeal should not take as long as this one seems to have. When my son decided to return to school to do a tech AS, it was all fairly last minute and when he was initially denied aid, he was in a quandary as he needed to give 2 weeks notice at his job and could not risk doing so until he knew if he was going to get the aid. Luckily his school did process everything very quickly once he submitted his appeal.</p>
<p>The only reason we’re talking about loans is because someone else mentioned I should have applied for one. Loans were not part of my financial aid package, I didn’t want them to be. The money I (eventually) received was in the form of a Pell grant. </p>
<p>Let me see if I can lay this out better, since I wrote up a timeline.</p>
<p>-I filed my FAFSA on March 3rd.
-In the first or second week of May, the financial aid department requested additional tax documents that I had to order from the IRS.
-I submitted those tax documents on May 17th.
-On June 1st my SAP disqualification was decided. I didn’t know this exact date until last month. I was not notified until…
-July 20th, when I went in to ask why I hadn’t heard about my financial aid yet. I was told I was disqualified and filed an appeal the same day. I was told the appeal would take 4-6 weeks.
-On July 23rd, I finally got an e-mail informing me of my SAP disqualification.
-On August 31st I went in to ask about my appeal. I was told it would now take two additional weeks to be seen.
-On September 12th I went in to ask about my appeal. I was told it would be seen by the committee on Thursday, the only day they met, and if I called in on Friday afternoon I would have the results.
-When I called on Friday they said it had not been seen. I was told it “should” be seen that Thursday, would have results on Friday.
-When I called on that Friday (now Sept. 23rd) I was told again it had not been seen, but certainly next week!
-At this point I tried calling the department supervisor several times, tried to catch her when she was in, left several voicemails. Got nothing.
-So I finally went in to complain to the Dean of Student Services office. One of his office people was able to make some phone calls and find out my appeal had been approved, for how much, and when the disbursement date would be.</p>
<p>I still filed the complaint because…seriously. I’m waiting to get an appointment to speak with the dean. I was told it would take 2-3 weeks just to get an appointment scheduled. It’s been a little more than three weeks now…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This sounds like you now know what that your appeal was approved, the amount and the disbursement date. So…what is the current problems?</p>
<p>The current problem is that it took 18 weeks to get to that point and the problems that resulted from waiting 18 weeks to get it resolved. That even to-date no one from financial aid has contacted me in any way. The only reason I knew about the approval and disbursement was because someone in the Dean’s office went out of her way to make some calls on my behalf and eventually a check showed up. </p>
<p>But let’s say a friend borrowed your car for a day and took off across the country with it. Or your employer lost your check and took weeks to replace it. Or your child refused to clean their room for a week. I wouldn’t drop those issues just because the car eventually made it back, the check eventually got found, or the kid eventually cleaned their room.</p>
<p>By Gawd, some lackey in the FA office wronged Fullofpop, and by Gawd, the whole school is going to be deprived of Fullofpop’s presence next semester. </p>
<p>Justice is done!</p>
<p>So let me be clear on this all…your ISSUE is resolved. At this point, you are trying to find out how to lodge a complaint re: how this was resolved. Is that correct? </p>
<p>You need to put everything in writing, and send it snail mail with a return receipt request. That is the only way you can truly be sure that your letters are received…and you will have a signature to verify this.</p>
<p>If your school as an ombusdman (someone who is in charge of resolving “differences”), you might want to contact them.</p>
<p>But in the end…I’ll say it again…YOUR issue is resolved. You can either fester about it, or you can move on.</p>