I don’t know much about this but on my daughter’s financial aid award it had amounts listed for grants and loans for both fall and spring semester and these were “anticipated aid” until about 10 days before semester started. Our bill was based on that. And we got that information about 2 months after filing FAFSA.
So if summer session in OP’s case was indeed part of 2014/15 I don’t know why she couldn’t have used the leftover aid she didn’t use for spring 15 for summer 15. And they should have been able to tell her if she was able to receive the aid before summer session started. All this back and forth about requesting extra forms and then saying they didn’t receive them and not getting back to OP before the summer session ended makes me wonder.
@mommdc I did that before they told me they weren’t awarding aid. I gave the actual receipt of payment and loan statement in addition to the bursar’s verification. They are telling me their reason for not awarding me aid is because they were not informed that I wasn’t in default. I can PM you the exact message if that’s helpful.
I had already filed FAFSA since I was planning on returning to school full time starting with the summer and graduating in the spring. They asked for verification documents for this and I have an email from them after I sent in a document for 2015-16 stating that my account was marked as complete and they would process my 15-16 package. This was happening at the same time that I was trying to get my Summer 15 aid.
I have researched a lot online trying to find both laws or regulations that they might not be complying with and contact information for concerns with financial aid, but I have not found anything. I haven’t determined if what my school’s office is doing is actually legal - it could be, which would be unfortunate.
I don’t know what my plans are for finishing school. I only have 24 credits required to graduate, so I am not eligible to transfer because most universities only accept 60 transfer credits and I wouldn’t receive aid after I pass a certain number of credits. My required classes to graduate are ones that have to be taken at the university, so I also can’t transfer in the last classes to get my degree.
On the plus side, I did an internship while I took time off in the Spring, which allowed me to get a 30 hour a week job last month. The salary is close to what they offer graduates. So if all else fails, I could just wait a few years and save up, then finish the last year and pay in full since I won’t qualify for aid if I earn a full year’s salary while still a dependent.
When I was at school in the Fall, I had both Fall and Spring aid on my package. But I knew I wasn’t returning in the Spring so I didn’t register for classes when it opened in November, and in December my Spring aid disappeared and my status changed to “Not Registered”. I don’t know if this had anything to do with it. They do require applications for anyone who wants summer aid, even if they have received aid in the past.
@hoosiermom We don’t have an ombudsman, but we have an Office for the Dean of Student Affairs. I tried to ask for help but they will not work with a student who isn’t currently registered or registered for a future semester to return to campus. So I could’ve received help in the summer… but the Financial Aid office waited until after I wasn’t a student to inform me that I wouldn’t receive aid.
Sounds like you can’t really cut ties with this school if you want to graduate with a degree, only having 24 credits left I think you should try and do that as soon as possible.
Sorry to bump this thread - I am planning on writing a formal letter to the Director of Financial Aid, sent over email and regular mail with delivery confirmation (since the office always says they don’t receive things). If I receive no response from them, I will continue upward and contact the appropriate administrator within their supervising office, and possibly the President (who has twitter and actively responds to student complaints there).
I plan on sending over every documentation I have that demonstrates communication with the office. I will also include that on August 7, a Financial Aid counselor stated that my documents were received and sent for processing and that the office would contact me if anything else was needed. Since they never contacted me after this even though they needed more information about my Perkins Loan that was paid off, I am arguing that I should receive financial aid. Basically, I am trying to invalidate the office’s argument that they were never aware about my Perkins Loan being paid off because they specifically stated that they would contact me if anything else was needed and I have this in writing.
Does this sound like a good argument? Additionally, if you have read the posts above, I would greatly appreciate any advice on what I could possibly do to improve communication with this office and strengthen my case so that I can hopefully appeal for my aid.
Honestly, I feel like I did everything I was supposed to – responded to email requests within a few hours to a day, followed up within the timeframe they gave to me both by phone and email, kept record of every incident of communication with the office, paid off my account/tuition/loans when I was supposed to and kept receipts of this, etc. If there is something that I may be at fault for here that I am not aware of or something I may have said in this thread that weakens my argument, please let me know. I really feel like I should receive the aid they said I could get. This has been a huge headache and will keep me from graduating when I planned to so I want to do everything possible to try and rectify this situation.
I really, really appreciate all the advice that’s been posted so far and would be really thankful if anyone has any advice for this next move.
OP- I’m having trouble following this story so I’d suggest opening your letter with what you want- i.e. your financial aid reinstated. Then one paragraph with a VERY terse summary of what happened, and then one paragraph with an equally terse summary of how you’ve been impacted and why you need the funding in order to finish.
Put the timeline on page two in an exhibit; don’t be accusatory that someone has misled you or lied to you or lost your documents- just state the facts in the exhibit.
And a deadline- “Let’s meet on October 26th to review my status so I can complete my enrollment”, not “please get back to me”.
I thought the OP was hoping to get financial aid awarded for the summer session 2015. My understanding is he isn’t in school at all now…or do I have the story wrong?
He thinks he should have been awarded aid during the summer, and didn’t receive it. He is hoping to get that award.
Correct?
Agree with Blossom…just state the facts…clearly…so no one will be confused.
Sorry for not stating things clearly in my latest post.
@Madison85 I’m not sure what I would have received since I never got a package, but I had a 0 EFC. I assumed that meant I could receive the second half of pell ($2865), an subsidized stafford loan ($2750), and unsubsidized loan ($1000). Please correct me if this assumption is incorrect.
@thumper As of today, my Perkins Loan is paid in full (September was the last payment though my account says I’m in deferral until February even though what I will owe is $0.00). In August, my Perkins Loan was only up to date. And yes, I am trying to get my summer aid.
@blossom I cannot meet at this university - I am no longer attending due to this financial aid issue. The university is about 7 hours away from me, there’s no public transportation there and I don’t have a car to drive there. I have previously requested phone appointments but they’ve refused to schedule this in the past. Would this be a good alternative to state in the letter?
So my plan for the letter is as follows:
Formal greeting and possibly some type of polite opening?
State the dates when I submitted my financial aid application to receive aid for the summer and when I paid summer tuition.
Explain that I received a letter in May 2015 saying I would receive Financial Aid for the summer.
Provide all the dates when a Financial Aid counselor stated (in writing) that I needed to turn in forms for verification, as well as the confirmation that my forms were received and my aid would be processing. Attach documentation of what the counselors said.
Include the date my Perkins Loan was paid and attach documentation from the Bursar and Loan Servicer
Provide dates in September and October when following up on my summer financial aid package and include responses from the office at this time (“someone is still reviewing your package”.
Provide the date I was denied my summer financial aid package and their reason for doing so (“we were not informed your Perkins Loan was paid on August 3”)
Conclude letter with request for my summer financial aid and a date for follow up.
When I conclude the letter, should I state a reason why I should still get the aid? Such as written confirmation of eligibility or written confirmation that the office would contact me if anything else was needed? Or should I just state what I want, and that’s it?
Also, if I set a date for follow up, what do I do if they ignore the date? Dates/deadlines have already been set then missed. I would call everyday only to get told the person I need to speak with is not available and that someone would call me back, but no one would call me back and the same thing would happen the next day (and several days after).
Please let me know if I need to be more clear or anything to get my point across to the office.
You have made 100 or more calls and emails to this school already. I don’t see how a formal mailed letter will advance your case but go ahead and try.
When you call a help phone number for FAFSA, what kind of response do you get when you explain you never received your Pell and loans for summer 2015 from your school and you want to know if FAFSA records indicate you should have received aid?
@Madison85 I’m hoping a formal letter with mailed confirmation will get a response from the Director. I’ve tried to call and set an appointment with her through the office and have asked if the office can confirm if she’s received my emails but they refuse to set the appointment and they say she responds to all of her emails. I want to get her to reconsider my case or give me a valid reason for why I shouldn’t receive aid.
If I don’t get a valid reason or no response, I’m going to move forward with speaking to a lawyer. This is a last resort but I have the appointment scheduled in a few weeks.
The FAFSA representative told me that according to their records, I am eligible for a Pell and federal loans. Should i include this in the letter?
The money for Pell and federal loans comes from the federal government to the school. If the school never received it for you, I doubt the school can retroactively get the funds from the government and pass them through to you.
Won’t a lawyer cost more than the couple thousand in Pell you believe you are owed?
Would you eventually get the maximum 600% Pell lifetime limit down the road? If so, then it’s just a timing difference and not worth further effort to squeeze blood out of a turnip. It appears as though the school can’t give you what they don’t have.
Student attended Fall 2014. Student took a semester off (quit?) in Spring 2015. Student was reinstated for Summer 2015 and took 15 credits.
What I want to know is how and why this is an issue now. Either the OP got a letter that stated “student is eligible for up to X dollars of loans and Y dollars of grants for Summer 2015” or they didn’t. Either the Bursar or their representative said “yes, you are paid in full and eligible for new loans and grants” or they didn’t.
I am trying to understand why this isn’t more than a cautionary tale to document, document, document. Ask for an email, ask for an eBill with “PAID IN FULL” on it, and save a pdf.
My son had trouble with his Perkins loan for this semester and was in danger of being booted out of Fall 2015 if he didn’t pay up by October 1st. How could the OP’s college let this go until now for summer courses already taken, or the OP not follow up on it?
The key is “eligible” vs. “met all requirements” for the FA. Is this something about the summer session that the Bursar doesn’t give a hoot and lets students who haven’t paid attend?
And wouldn’t the college have had to ask for the money a long time ago, not October after summer courses were taken?
For reference for everyone: I took Spring 2015 off because my grandfather who took care of me throughout childhood had cancer. I did not quit. He’s in remission now and that’s why I looked to return to school, because taking summer classes will have let me graduate on time. I finished the fall semester when I found out about the cancer with a 3.4 GPA and my overall GPA is a 3.58, so SAP requirements and such are not an issue. I also have an EFC of 0.
@thumper I don’t think they can from what I’ve researched. But my issue now is finding out if I’m responsible for not receiving aid or if the office is… and if the office is, finding out what can be done. If it’s my fault, I’ll have to evaluate what to do to prevent it from happening again.
@Madison85 I have access to a lawyer through my employer. In the initial phone consultation with the legal team, I was told that I may have a case for negligence resulting in financial loss, which is why I made the appointment in a few weeks. I’m only 24 credits from graduating (I was supposed to graduate in Spring and taking the summer semester would’ve kept me on track) so I don’t think I’m going to hit the limit.
@rhandco I did not quit. My grandfather had cancer and I took the semester off to be with him.
This has been an issue all summer. At the start of the summer, I received an email saying my application for summer aid was approved. I was selected for verification and was asked to provide different documents every week throughout the summer. No package was ever created for me. The office would ask for a form, I would send it in, they would say “Your documentation have been received, please allow 14 days for processing”. I would contact them in 14 days and they would either say they were missing something else or that it was still processing. This went on the entire summer.
I did have proof of everything. I sent this in the first time that my account was brought up as an issue. I kept documentation of every instance of communication with this office. I called or emailed them after their estimated time frame passed. I have call records and wrote down summaries of what I was told in each call. The last communication I had with them before the summer semester ended was on August 7. This email stated the following: “Your documents have been received and sent for processing. Should any additional information be needed an email will be sent to the student. Please allow up to 14 days for processing. Thank you.” I expected to hear from them if there were any other issues because they said they would, and no one ever contacted me to tell me otherwise.
I followed up every week with the Financial Aid office from May to August and almost daily in September and October. They kept saying “someone will call you back” or that someone was still reviewing my package, even after the summer semester ended. It wasn’t until October 7 that I was told that they didn’t know my Perkins Loan was paid and they stated I was missing certain documents. After they told me this I sent them proof that they confirmed receipt of the documents that they said I was missing and sent them proof of my Perkins Loan being paid on August 3. This wasn’t sufficient and I received a response from them that stated they “weren’t informed” about my Perkins Loan being paid and because they were not informed, I would not be receiving aid.
I paid my tuition bill before summer classes began. I was loaned the money from my older sister and expecting to pay her back with the aid I was expecting. They should have processed the package prior to the summer semester ending - and I have written documentation saying that my account was marked as complete and that my package was processing. The email told me that it would take up to 14 days. I followed up with that date and that’s when the cycle of “someone is still looking at your package” or “someone will call you back” began.
Can you please tell me what more I could have done? I called and emailed the office over 100 times over the course of the last 5 months. I kept asking to talk to a different counselor or to make an appointment and was refused. I am very limited in what I can do because I cannot physically be on campus, but that shouldn’t affect how a student is treated by university staff. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on what else I could have done or if you need more information.