I am a college student in my final semester of classes. I only needed to take 6 credit hours this semester to finish but I signed up for 15 becuase classes are free to me through scholorships. I have a combination of merit and need-based scholarships. After receiving a part-time job offer, I decided to drop the extra classes and only take my required 6 credit hours. I cleared this decision with a financial aid advisor and she confirmed that I would not loose my scholarship. This was a phone conversation. To confirm this information and have it in writing, I followed up with four separate emails, but I never got a response. I wanted until after 5:00pm on the last day to drop classes, hoping for a reponse.
Now, surpise, surprise they took over half of my scholorship and are threatining to drop me from my last two classes. Does anyone have any advice? I planning to seek help outside the forum, but I am not sure who to talk to…=(
You need to go to your college financial aid office ASAP…either via phone or in person.
You need to talk to someone other than the person who answers the phone.
If you are taking less than a half time college load, your school is not likely obligated to give you funding as though you are a full time student. Maybe that is what happened…and the person you spoke with didn’t realize this would take you below 1/2 time status.
I’m only guessing and really the only one who can answer your question is someone in financial aid at your school. That person should be able to direct you to the scholarship folks…Financial aid usually handles need based aid.
Look also at your scholarship award info. It might state something about full time enrollment…please check.
Is it too late to re-enroll in those other classes if need be?
I am planning to call FA early tomorrow. I will review everything again, but that is why I cleared my decision with them in the first place. Then I tried to comfirm in writing because of the potential repercussions.
I am so sorry this happened to you. 6 credits is typically half time, but some scholarships require you to be enrolled full time. The best advice I can give you is to talk to your financial aid office as soon as possible. If you can talk to a manager (an assistant or associate director), that would be best. At some schools, there is a manager in charge of customer service or student success in the financial aid office. If your school has one, that’s the ideal person to talk to. The goal is to find out whether there is anything the school might be able to do to assist you in completing your degree, given that you made decisions based on what an employee in the aid office told you about your scholarship. Some schools have grants for this purpose.