School used financial aid refund to payoff a loan. Help?

<p>Ok, so from the beginning: </p>

<p>My school gave me a financial aid package that was supposed to cover the average freshmen costs (a special program for very low income kids), including books, transportation, housing, EVERYTHING. I also applied for a grant to get a laptop (which I got, $500 in grants, $300something in loans). However, I wasn't going to get that until 5 days before I went to school, so I applied for a $450 short-term loan that isn't due until the end of Oct. Which was fine, I will be able to pay it off by then. </p>

<p>Fast forward. I was supposed to get a financial aid refund of around $750 last Monday. Since the state of Michigan hasn't decided whether or not it was going to keep it's PROMISE scholarship, that refund was reduced to only a $250 refund. I was going to use that refund in order to travel to school, buy my backpack and books, etc. So I'm waiting, and waiting, and finally I look around my account and realize that the school automatically transferred that money to pay off part of my short term loan. </p>

<p>Ok, so I was supposed to get an extra $800+ refund to get a laptop that I requested, along with around $750 for books. Instead, I am getting nothing because the school decided to pay off another loan without telling me or without letting me know. I have absolutely no idea where the extra $800 that I was supposed to get for my laptop went. Does that all make sense? </p>

<p>So now, I am left without any money for transportation or books or even a backpack for school. I leave on Sunday and have absolutely no idea what to do. I can't take out another loan because the original loan isn't paid off. </p>

<p>None of this makes sense to me and I am freaking out because I don't know what to do. Help please!</p>

<p>It sounds like somewhere, in the fine print, you were either told (or may have agreed via signature) that any financial aid credits would be used to pay off charges due. Sometimes this is part of how the FA office works, and sometimes it’s something you have to agree to. (I think my son’s FA award letter has a part where he signs that he agrees the school can put his aid toward <em>any</em> outstanding balance first.) Depending on how these clauses are worded, they can end up meaning “If you owe official office/department on campus any money for any reason, we can take any financial aid you recieve and put it towards that debt, first.” As I said, a less clear variation of that was probably part of the award letter you signed. Schools do this to prevent you from taking an aid check and spending it on something other than the school expenses. My memory (and someone else will know more, I’m sure) is that Federal Aid like the Pell <em>requires</em> this kind of thing, but other kinds of aid may not. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, there is almost certainly not a solution for this, other than learning a tough lesson the hard way. There are several awful periods in my life that were caused by acting on the promise of financial aid money before it arrived. (And by awful, I mean things like being evicted, not having electricity – bad stuff.) As hard/stingy/painful as this is, you may have to just suck it up and count this as a lesson learned.</p>

<p>All of that said, call or go see the FA office immediately and explain the problem. There may be emergency options to help you, or they may be able to reverse the offset.</p>

<p>But even with that… the extra $1000 (I went and checked, it was $500 in grant and $500 in loans) that I was granted for the computer + the ~$500 we’re supposed to be awarded for extra costs = a total of $1500 in excess aid I should have gotten back. That would have more than paid off the loan and given me money for books and all that. Even taking out the $500 for the Michigan Promise leaves me with $1000. Minus $500 to pay off the short term loan still would leave me with $500. </p>

<p>This whole thing just makes no sense.</p>

<p>Go to the financial aid office on campus on Monday and talk to them in person.</p>

<p>Yes you need to talk to them. I know short term loans at my kids school are charged to the bursars account so would automatically reduce any financial aid refund. That is probably pretty normal. But you need to find out what has happened to the rest of it. </p>

<p>There may be some simple explanation. For instance some aid is disbursed later than other aid. My daughter has a State grant that is not usually disbursed until after the add/drop period which is 2 weeks after school starts. So in the past she has received a refund excluding that grant, then another refund a couple of weeks later. For the 1st time this semester that didn’t happen with that grant. But she has the SMART grant this year and that is disbursed later. Not sure when. So she has already been issued with one refund and will get another for the $2000 SMART sometime later (not too much later hopefully). On my daughters financial aid page there is a note explaining that the SMART is disbursed later.</p>

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<p>I would…except that I don’t even have the gas money to get to school on Sunday (when I move in) so there is no way that I have money to go there sometime before then.</p>

<p>Swimcats, all of our aid is dispersed at the same time - 10 days before school starts. All of my scholarships and everything are already in the system and the only federal aid I get is the Pell Grant which is already in there. Looking over my financial aid, somehow when I received my KFC scholarship ($5k) it completely changed my financial aid package. It took away all my loans (which is fine because it just replaced them and some school aid), but it also took away the $1000 for the computer. I don’t know why that is. I called today but the lines have been busy since 10:00 AM. I will try after I get home from work later.</p>

<p>Have you looked at your aid package since your got the KFC scholarship? Outside scholarships do affect your financial aid package. EFC + scholarships + other aid cannot exceed your COA. Though if your COA was increased to include an allowance for a computer that should still be there. Hope you can get it all sorted out. Good luck.</p>

<p>Monday is after Sunday.</p>

<p>Whoops, haha. I was thinking it said today for some reason. Sorry, shyanne. </p>

<p>Again, the problem still is I have no way of getting to school on Sunday, but I am going to call to figure out where that $1000 went. </p>

<p>swimcats, yes I have. The COA is raised by $1000 when you request a computer. Now, my financial aid package is minus that extra $1000 that it had before the KFC scholarship went in there. I am desperately trying to get it sorted out, but for right now it looks like I’m SOL. I’m even thinking of trying to cancel my Michigan Promise scholarship, as I doubt it will be available to us after this year. Yay for recessions :(.</p>

<p>I wonder if it was some sort of automatic recalculating of the financial aid package (many schools, especially big ones, use computer programs to generate parts of the FA package I believe) when the scholarship came in and the COA was inadvertently reset to the original COA. Let us know what you find out. Good luck.</p>

<p>Ok, so after spending over an hour on the phone, lol, I finally talked to someone. I had to decrease my work study in order to increase my Stafford loan. So I am running out to the school to collect a $700 check. I had to go to my neighbor to borrow the money for gas >.<. The other problem is, she told me to call back in an hour to make sure the check was there for me to collect. The school is an hour and a half away, and I have to be at work by 5. Oy, this is gonna be hectic! Because if not, I would have to wait until Monday at the earliest to get it put into my bank account. </p>

<p>I really hope that this doesn’t interfere with my work-study job. I am doing work-study as a tutor (through America Reads/Counts), which is a minimum of 8 hours a week for 15 weeks. With only $800 in work-study left for this semester, I am not sure if I’d be able to stay on the whole time. Arg, stress! Lol.</p>

<p>But all’s well that ends well I suppose.</p>

<p>Just a warning … if the Promise comes in, you will not get a refund. Instead, your loan will be returned. You are already at COA, and you cannot be awarded in excess of COA. So any additional funds that come in (like Promise) will have to reduce the loans. That’s a good thing, of course … but just remember that you won’t actually get a refund from the Promise IF it is approved. Of course, I’m not holding my breath on that one. At least your Promise was removed - some schools are disbursing it & students will have to pay the money back to the schools if the Promise doesn’t come through. I just know there will bestudents who used all their loan eligibility & don’t know how they’re going to pay the money back …</p>

<p>Wait, they told me I would still get that since I’m technically not taking any additional loans. Rather, I just converted my work-study (which was already part of my financial aid package) into a loan. So instead of having $1500 in work-study, I have $800. </p>

<p>Plus, my entire temporary loan is paid off. </p>

<p>So, the Promise is still part of my aid package. Plus, if it doesn’t come through, the school is reimbursing us those funds for this year.</p>

<p>I am not even close to the end of my loan eligibility though (if you mean the $5500 cap). By then I will have $500 to pay for the promise if the school decides not to cover it.</p>

<p>I didn’t realize that they are keeping the Promise in the packaging. That’s a smart way to do it.</p>

<p>I had the choice of getting rid of the grant and keeping my work-study or getting rid of part of my work-study. Since the school is giving me the Promise grant either way, it kind of seemed like a no-brainer lol :).</p>

<p>Thanks for everyone’s help in my day of freakout-ness :D.</p>

<p>Glad to hear it all worked out! Good luck with your move and have fun at school!</p>