I recently graduated college. I get an email stating I owe over $3000. Along with the government stipends, I paid my way through school and should have no debt. The school has been giving me the run around as to why this balance is on my account. First they said it was because my tuition amount was an estimate and because I didn’t qualify for a grant that I received ( I never received a grant I didn’t qualify for) there was payments missing. They then said it’s because the government overpaid them and now they are requesting the money back (It’s unclear why an overpayment was made. I never dropped any of classes. Still how is an overpayment my responsibility to payback?) and then they stated it’s because my tuition was done wrong by the financial advisor and I was supposed to pay more than I did each month. How are their mistakes my responsibility to pay on especially after I’ve already paid everything and graduated? They are withholding my transcript. Any advice?
The first thing to do is call and tell them to email or mail you a detailed explanation of what happened, including all of your account detail showing what was put on and removed from your account along with dates. Tell them that you need to have this before you can pay them anything. Once you have that, maybe we can help you figure out the next step.
Another thought: What school is this? That information may help as we try to guide you in figuring this out.
When is the last time you checked the colleges balance? There should still be a record of the exchanges of funds to and from all sources.
Is it an even $3000 dollars or is that just rounded up or down? If an even amount it will be easy to find where they think you received $3,000 they now want back. It sounds very odd.
Did they lower your Pell Grant at some point and not tell you? That could be a scenario where the “government wants something back.” But again, unusual for that to get to this point.
The colleges definitely had different approaches with the Cares Act funds during the time you would have been in college. It could be from that timeline and they are just being audited, but I have not heard of that unless someone is accused of committing fraud and not really being enrolled in college.
Are they withholding your diploma and transcript until this is paid? They need to document exactly when why this accounting went sideways.
What’s very odd to me is that the OP says they already graduated. Being current financially is often a part of the graduation check list, and schools reach out to students who owe money prior to graduation.
Exactly. Some smells funny about this thread.
might this be a for-profit college? or a scam?
Most colleges withhold diplomas when there is an outstanding debt. IOW, you would not have really graduated with an unsettled debt.
Did anything change on the financial aid forms you filed between your junior year ones and your senior year ones.
Also, by “recently” do you mean “May or June 2023” or “in the past couple years”?
Do you need an official transcript (as opoposed to unofficial, which you should be able to print out from your school’s website)?
Thanks so much! The school is The Art Institute of Atlanta. After I felt enraged to sue them, I found they were apart of case that had to pay back a lot of money and that’s why some of their schools were shut down. I’ve been trying to figure out is this worth a whole case over.
I Recently graduated in December 2022. The graduation ceremony was June 2023.
I initially thought they were withholding my transcript but turns out it was just an error in the system they fixed once I brought it up. I rounded the 3000 down just to give an idea of why it’s such a big deal for me. They sent me a ledger and said that according to the ledger I owe the money. It’s not like I just know how to read it it’s my first time seeing something like it.
Nope nothing changed at all and if it did I was not notified. I paid the same amount each month with a balance of $0 on my account once I graduated. Now, I have a balance and nobody can seem to tell me why. And I thought the same thing but I actually have my degree. It’s in my hand and wasn’t withheld.
I’m not sure how to respond to this. I was told 6 months later about this balance. If I was told during and it could’ve gotten fixed then, it wouldn’t be an issue
I was worried that it was a for profit school. Yes, the Art Institutes have been sued. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they were incorrect in this particular case, but it is a concern. If you want to, you can PM me with a picture of the ledger. I was a financial aid director, so I may be able to help figure out what happened.
Yes that would be great. I don’t see a place where I can message you though. Do you have an email I can forward it to?
Click on my user name, then click on the message button.
On my end clicking on your username only pulls up your badges. I don’t see a message button.
I also tried going to the page and it only shows stats and threads. Are you able to message me?
I just messaged you.
Interim report for those watching this thread: The issue arose from a VA benefits overpayment in the student’s initial term. The VA caught it retroactively (this can actually happen years after graduation) and the school repaid the overpayment; the school then billed the student. But in reviewing the student ledger they provided, there is also a rather sizable underpayment in another term. I provided the student with information that will hopefully help the school resolve the underpayment (I feel pretty comfortable, based on information received, that the student was eligible for a higher payment than they received - but the caveat that there might be something I am not aware of is always a possibility). In the end, the hope is that the issue will be resolved in the student’s favor and they will owe a lot less than the original bill.