<p>Has anyone figured out why some college financial aid offices are requiring all previous school official transcripts? I was told by my financial aid office that I had to provide transcripts from a school that I owe money to. There is no possible way that I can pay off the money and I have agreed to make payments. Why does my applied to school say that the Government is requiring all transcripts from all schools attended, I even had to get high school transcripts. How can I get in through financial aid so I don't have to post pone my education. Who do I talk to if no one here has an answer? Surely I am not the only student (54 year old) who has had this happen to them!</p>
<p>The requirement for transcripts for all schools attended is probably to do with SAP (satisfactory Academic Progress) requirements. A student has to meet SAP to be eligible for financial aid. SAP requirements usually consists of successfully completing a minimum % of all credits attempted (anywhere), a minimum GPA, a maximum number of credits taken )usually around 150% of the credits needed for a degree. I believe they are tightening up on SAP.</p>
<p>High school transcripts sounds odd though, especially for a non traditional student.</p>
<p>So is it the school or Government making the requirement? And how do I get around them to get into school?</p>
<p>I believe the Govt is tightening up on SAP and beginning to require schools to do it.</p>
<p>If you need aid, I guess you will have to comply with the requirements.</p>
<p>@Pcrosby- Did you originally tell your college about the school that you can’t get transcripts from? Or did they just randomly ask you for them? How long ago did you attend that school?</p>
<p>Whenever you apply for admission to a degree program at an accredited college or university in the US, you are required to provide official copies of your transcripts from all colleges and universities that you have attended previously. Period. It does not matter how old those transcripts are. I myself have had to request transcripts that were more than 30 years old, and that had to be printed out from ancient microfiche.</p>
<p>Some colleges and universities will allow you to enroll in a certain number of courses in non-degree status. However, there very rarely is any financial aid for non-degree students (certainly federal aid is not available), and the moment you become a degree-seeking candidate you do have to produce all those old transcripts.</p>
<p>We do sympathize with your desire to get on with your education, but you won’t be able to do that until you manage to have your transcripts released from the old institution. If you cannot arrange to have that done based on your current payment plan, you will need to delay your current educational goals until you get that debt taken care of.</p>
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<p>You don’t get around it. If the school did not withhold transcripts /degrees to people who owe them money, they would never collect their money. People would randomly go from school to school leaving a trail of debt. The only thing that you can do now is to pay your old debt so that you can get your transcripts released .</p>
<p>If it is the aid office that is requiring the transcript and not the admissions office, you may have been flagged for unusual enrollment history. In that case, your transcripts are required - it means you have received aid at several colleges, and that has raised a red flag. If this is the reason, you cannot receive aid without providing the required transcripts.</p>
<p>I am having this SAME problem. </p>
<p>But it’s a little more complicated, I think. 14 years ago, I attended one semester, FA free, at a non-accredited pentecostal bible college. </p>
<p>I’m 36 now, and I have 60 credits towards my History bachelors from community college, and I’m applying to transfer to a local university in Texas. I found out by contacting the bible college that I owed $600. I don’t have $600, and they won’t release my transcript. </p>
<p>I didn’t get any financial aid to attend, it was totally unaccredited (they’ve moved across state since I attended), and it was 1 semester. </p>
<p>If I didn’t put it on my application, would it still raise a flag?</p>
<p>Pick up the phone. Call your old college. Find out just exactly what it is in their records that shows that you owe them the money. Keep moving up the food chain until you get an answer. Because you do want to get this straightened out, and you do want to be able to have that transcript cleared even if it is not useful for your current degree program. You do not want a debt collector coming after you for this $600.</p>
<p>I don’t think they CAN come after me at this point. Not in Texas. It’s been 14 years since the account has been active. When they lady told me I owed money I asked for a breakdown. She emailed me a scan of an old ledger with dollar amounts scribbled on it. The las one being $600. </p>
<p>And they’ve NEVER contacted me about this.</p>
<p>Even still, you will need to pay the debt in order to go forward with your life. try to make a payment plan with the school, get your transcripts released so that you can go forward with your plan to finish college.</p>
<p>I understand that it’s ideal to do this. </p>
<p>However, what if I submitted my application, listed the school… is there a way to find out whether or not I’d need to submit transcripts from them? Is there a chance that the university could say “oh, we don’t need transcripts from that crappy little venture of a school”?</p>
<p>My understanding was if the school was unaccredited their transcript wouldn’t be accepted at an accredited university anyway.</p>