My sister chose a college based on the amount of financial aid they gave to us. Today they sent us a letter that did not include the offered federal work-study and federal subsidized loan. We have documentation for all of this. When we called to complain we were told that they didn’t have money in the budget to give us.
Is this illegal, and what can we do?
Both were given to us in response to a financial aid appeal, if that changes anything.
Was your sister selected for verification? was your first letter of financial aid given after you completed your taxes and linked to the IRS data retrieval tool?
Did your EFC go up?
No, they know perfectly well that we don’t have any money. They told us themselves that it’s because they don’t have the money either. Yes, it was. We submitted everything early and have all the documentation.
The person we talked to said very clearly that it was about the school’s budget.
They also didn’t notify us of the changes. They just mailed us a new financial aid letter (no email).
Once more with vigor…
- Did you get the initial financial aid offer from the school AFTER your parents completed their taxes and linked to the IRS data retrieval tool? Anything before that would have been an estimate.
- Was your sister selected for verification?
- And a new question...does this college guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students?
Oh, sorry, I answered your questions in a form possibly more understandable to my anger with the school than actual humans.
- Yes. It was a real offer, and we chose the college on the basis of it.
- No.
- No.
Ok…but after you accepted the offer, you appealed it?
No, we appealed the offer before accepting and accepted it only after they’d responded favorably to the appeal.
We have received a total of three award letters from them. The first gave a full honors scholarship, a partial need scholarship, and subsidized and unsubsidized loans (and a Parent Plus loan). Because she wants to be a private school teacher, and our parents are also teachers, we didn’t believe she could afford to take out loans.
We appealed, and they raised the need scholarship to be the same as the honors scholarship and added a work-study (second award letter).
Today, we received a third award letter, this time only by mail and not by email. This removed the work-study and the subsidized loan.
I know much less about this than other folks here but I wonder why a college budget wouldn’t allow them to make a loan. And did they somehow run out of work-study programs?
They increased the unsubsidized loan to match the amount we lost on the subisidized (although the difference between interest rates, etc. is big enough that it no longer makes sense to use it). The money we no longer receive is from the work-study.
Did your sister accept all of her financial aid awards? Perhaps she didn’t accept the WS portion when she accepted her awards, and now the only is gone. Work study is limited funding per campus.
So if I’m reading this correct,y, the ONLY missing item is the work study award? Is that correct?
Can she get an off campus job, or a job on campus that is not funded with work study monies? How much was the WS award?
Is there any way of checking that? There’s no reason why we wouldn’t have accepted all of it, nor is my sister aware of any way not to accept the entire financial aid package.
The university also didn’t deny our claims; they just said they didn’t have the money.
If your sister did not accept the WS award when it was initially offered, it just might not be available any longer. What you need to do is show when you accepted that WS award.
Like I said…WS is limited funding and the early bird catches the worm. She applied early, but if she didn’t accept that portion of the award, it might not be available…and the university is right…they could have run out of WS funds.
You need to find your sister’s acceptance of the work study award.
I would suggest she call financial aid again. Do NOT talk to the person who is answering the phone. Ask to speak to HER financial aid officer. The person answering the phone will most definitely say that WS is no longer available now.
Your sister needs to speak to her financial aid advisor…if she has proof, she should say that she accepted her full award including WS…and be able to provide the date this acceptance was done. Then she needs to say that she received a recent letter saying she was no longer receiving WS.
The only other thing I can think of…perhaps in changing the loan to a scholarship, the school did eliminate the WS component. You need to ask.
We have an awards letter listing the work-study as part of our financial aid. What other proof is there? My sister says she isn’t aware of having had the option to accept or not accept the work-study in particular, but that she believes she accepted it along with everything else.
I’ll ask my parents to call financial aid again and see what they say.
It really does not matter. If your sister did not accept her offer when she was first given the offer and they ran out of funds, you can’t make the college get monies that they do not have.
In addition, you stated that the school increased her merit scholarship and her need based financial aid. They could have very well removed her work study and subsidized loan because she no longer has a financial need.
What was her original package
what was package number 2
what is package number 3
what is your EFC (they are not going to give her work study and subsidized loans to cover your parent’s EFC)
Just because she has work study in her financial aid package is not even a guarantee that she would get a job once she got on campus. She would have to apply for a job, interview, get the job and work the job before she would see a penny of work study. there are not enough jobs for people with work study. Even if she does no longer has work study in her financial aid package, it does not mean that she still cannot get a job on campus; it will just have to be a non-work study position.
Often, acceptance of finaid awards is done on the school portal. Has your sister been checking her school portal for this?
Hmm, I have no idea what the legalities are of them changing your award. What state are you in? I know that a few states have first come, first serve policies and maybe kids who committed to the school earliest and filled out all their paperwork got the lions share?
The good news is that they kept in the increased grant money from your appeal. It’s a bummer about the work study but that can probably be worked around. She should see if the school lists available any non-work study positions and takes applications in the summer. If none are available she can work off-campus.
The movement of the loan from subsidized to unsubsidized is a bummer but the free money is better than WS and subsidized loan.
Next year, make sure she files as soon as possible and then accepts her awards immediately.
It sounds like she had an initial offer that included subsidized loans and WS, but when you appealed, they awarded her MORE in grants/scholarships. This makes her need go down, so the first items to be reduced are WS and subsidized loans. She’s still entitled to the $5500 Stafford loan, but the subsidized amount can only be subsidized if there is need. Losing WS is not that big a deal as she can just get a regular job. WS is often more convenient and it is a little better on the taxes, but we’re not talking a lot of money, just $2000 or so. Just get another job.
Say her EFC is $5,000 and the COA at the school is $25000. Originally they gave her a grant of $10,000, WS of $2000 and Loans of $3500/sub, $2000/unsub, leaving $2500 for the parent plus. When you appealed, they gave her $16000 as a grant. That additional $6000 had to be balanced out of the original package, so they took away the Plus loan $2500, took away WS $2000, and moved $1500 of the subs. loan to unsubbed. This is a BETTER package.
The difference in the subbed and unsubbed is minor. As I said, she can just get a regular job and not WS. The school can run out of WS money but can’t run out of loan money. Whether it is subbed or unsubbed is in the math of the ‘need met’ calculation.
They increased the unsubsidized loan to match the amount we lost on the subisidized (although the difference between interest rates, etc. is big enough that it no longer makes sense to use it). The money we no longer receive is from the work-study.***********
Subsidized loans have nothing to do with a school’s budget. FWS does, in that there is only so much a school is allocated, and they often have a deadline to accept the FWS or it is canceled. Your sister may have missed the deadline. I am more inclined to think that perhaps the increased aid offer was enough that there is no longer enough “need” for the subsidized loan and FWS.
Cost of Attendance - EFC (the one computed on the FAFSA) - scholarships - grants = Need. If there is no need, there is no Sub loan (and there is no FWS).