@thumper I did after I received the cease and desist notice. They instructed me not to contact the Financial Aid office anymore. I’ll be meeting with them as soon as we can find an opening, thinking more I will probably wait until I meet with them unless I hear otherwise.
I feel like a university office wouldn’t normally do this… am I completely off base with thinking that?
I have read the 60 posts and it does not make sense to me. I was a financial aid counselor at a community college and even though that was many years ago, I don’t think the Pell Grant has changed substantially in that time. If you meet the requirements for a Pell Grant, I don’t understand how they can withhold it. Did they use the grant to pay money that you owe to the school? I think there must be some information that is missing from your story. A cease and desist notice sure doesn’t sound like a “normal” way to deal with a student that is following proper procedure. I hope that you get this resolved and report the outcome to us.
@lotsofquests I don’t owe a balance to the school. I paid for my summer tuition up front - my older sister loaned me the money. Aside from not providing the university info I think my two threads and responses to people cover lots of what happened over the summer. Anyway, I was going to use the aid to pay my sister back so that’s mainly why it’s a big deal to me. I’ll keep everyone posted because this has been really frustrating and a bit exhausting.
Maybe the financial aid office employees are feeling afraid for their safety and do feel harrssed from the 100 plus phone calls and emails that have been occurring for months.
@Madison85 Can it really be held against me when half of my emails are responses to their requests for information, and the other half of emails and all of my calls are me asking for information about my aid package?
I wouldn’t have had to call or email so much if I actually just got answers from them. Additionally all my emails and calls VERY respectful and professional… I don’t think I sound threatening either, they even thought I was a girl a few times on the phone because my voice is kinda high (even though my name is a common male name).
In all seriousness though, is it legitimately harassing that I called and emailed them asking for information? I’ve only sent one email after I was given a decision about my financial aid, so really every attempt at reaching the office was just me trying to get information.
@Madison85 also, I never contacted them until after a timeline I was given by the office had passed… If they said 10 business days I would wait at least that long, if they said call back on Thursday I would do that. That doesn’t seen unreasonable to me, but please tell me if It can be construed that way. This office has been giving me all kinds of unexpected surprises since May, so maybe I’m not viewing the situation in the completely correct way.
Only the people in the financial aid office know how they feel. School incidents can put people who work on college campuses on edge.
@Madison85 that makes sense. But doesn’t that affect students negatively if they are refused information? Especially in my case where I was told that I would hear back by certain timelines, which is why I followed up so much. I feel like if I didn’t follow up as much it would be held against me, but following up based on their own timelines is also being held against me.
The counselor did not tell me to not contact them after he gave his decision, but now that I contacted the Director he’s telling me not to which is very strange. He emailed me with the cease and desist notice and specifically referenced the hard copy letter in the mail, so it’s very possible he received the letter to the director and now doesn’t want me to keep asking questions. That’s just my speculation though. I also have an email just to the Director so I may get a response that way.
At this point since you get free legal assistance through your job, leave it to your lawyer and update this thread, if you care to, when it comes to a conclusion.
This is bizarre. If he would owe them money they would be ones calling him. But he paid the tuition so they got their money. So really no incentive for them to rectify things if mistakes were made.
Is it normal to require verification a year after the FAFSA was filed?
He was awarded aid for the year 2014/15, got aid for fall semester, but not for summer, which was supposed to be part of that aid year.
I agree that you should have the lawyer handle it, but I wonder will it make things worse?
OP said he is 12 credits away from graduating, can’t transfer anywhere else and can’t transfer in credits, so shouldn’t he try to graduate at some point? Will they cause trouble for him if he pursues this?
If he wants to go back how is he going to apply for aid if he can’t contact the FA office.
If the student ran into trouble with them awarding aid when he seemingly did everything he was supposed to, what will they do?
But on the other hand it might be the thing that resolves this.
Does anyone have any experience with something like this?
Isn’t the student at a different school now, which is why he can’t go to the office in person?
No, he is working full time, lives 7 hours from the school, does not own a car and, presumably, does not know anyone who owns a car who could lend it to him, cannot rent a car or take a bus or a train or ask a friend for a ride, etc.
@cap I don’t attend school right now. And @Madison85 is correct, I don’t have friends who live near me anymore because they also went away to school. I can’t find anyone willing to give a 20 year old their car to drive a few hundred miles. The closest amtrak station is about 2 hours away, and the greyhound is 1.5 hours away. I offered money to fellow students on my school’s facebook groups and reddit to see if anyone could pick me up from those locations but no one responded. The negative side of going to a school in the rural part of the state and not really having friends there
An update: Financial Aid Director emailed me today saying that the office staff will be meeting to discuss the situation that has occurred over the past several months. I should hear back from the Director by next Friday.
Shortly after I received this email I got a very aggressive voicemail from the Financial Aid officer who was working on my case/aid package and also sent the cease and desist notice. He was outraged… said how I dare I disregard the cease and desist notice and continue to contact the office and that he would be reporting my for violating the notice, student conduct policies, and other things. He stated that there will be very serious consequences for my actions. He stated my misconduct justifies not receiving financial aid.
I’m just really confused at this point… the two responses don’t match up. The man who’s been handling my case seems to be taking things way too far and his voicemail doesn’t even make sense since I sent the email at the same time as the hard copy letter, which was before I got his cease and desist notice. I feel like this cannot be normal… but please someone correct me if I’m wrong or if there’s something I’m not considering.
Save that voicemail and play it for your lawyer. And let your lawyer handle contact with this college.
^This!
@austinmshauri Thank you for your reply. Yes, I’ll definitely not be contacting them on my own anymore and already saved the recording and the phone record of his call in several places to have back ups.
Just had a thought - what if there is some embezzling going on, and that’s why the Pell grant disappeared from @gettingblownoff 's account and why that financial aid office employee is over-reacting!
@Madison85 I googled “Financial Aid Embezzlement” after your post and found a lot more news than I expected - even from traditional 4 year colleges like mine. I really hope this isn’t the case for my university, but so much has happened that seemed unusual for a financial aid office so I don’t really know what to expect at this point…
http://m.ocregister.com/articles/catalan-518090-checks-prosecutors.html
Here’s a story from 2013 about a financial aid employee who stole $88k in student checks, and told students that there was no aid for them.