<p>I got one problem, when I applied to my college in Illinois I was told that there was going to be financial aid, the first quarter I was there they refused to give me anything, said I was not eligible then they said their funds were exhausted then they said that they will refund me but a year later no check from them. Now that I went there again they refused to accept my financial aid now that it is passed class registration period they tell me I need to submit vertification information but refuse to tell me if they will help me with finding any scholarships or whatever. Basically I went to the school but I was provided false information. NOw I am stuck, I owe a lot of money, I am not getting any help even though I applied as an independent student since I am homeless and I cannot take any of the classes I need.</p>
<p>I suggest quitting the college. What do you owe the college directly? Did you take out federal loans? It may be time to regroup and attend a different college entirely.</p>
<p>There are many people here with a great deal of experience who might be able to assist you, however your story is a little confusing. Can you provide a bit more detail?</p>
<p>Why were you not eligible first quarter? Did you turn in everything on time?
What happened the rest of the year?
Did you turn in FAFSA and any other forms on time this year?</p>
<p>well I submitted by FAFSA, they didn’t want to give me any aid, said I was not eligible, after registration date they said it needs to be verified, i submitted the documents and they said i am not eligible for any aid at all. they have a web page on their website that talks about scholarships which they deny they have and whenever i point it out to them they say “we don’t know” literally. so i get no aid or scholarships and i am being lied to by the school.</p>
<p>this is a huge school top school as well. they have lots of aid, except they are unwilling to give me any. in fact i spoke with several students that told me they were automatically enrolled into scholarships by the school with me they refuse.</p>
<p>are there any government agencies that would oversee this?</p>
<p>Schools don’t have to give you any of their institutional aid. There is nothing forcing them to give money for you. Even if they, as you say, have “lots of aid” (which I doubt - most schools do not have “lots of aid” relative to the number of students they have) - they are under no obligation to give it to you, and there are no “government agencies” that are going to swoop in and force them to, either. The only exception would be if you were eligible for Pell grants and the school somehow held your grants hostage, but somehow I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.</p>
<p>You say it right here: i submitted the documents and they said i am not eligible for any aid at all.</p>
<p>If they are telling you that you are not eligible for any aid, why do you think they are lying to you? Maybe you are not eligible for all those scholarships you see on the web.</p>
<p>Does the college give out federal aid? Did you fill out the FAFSA? Do you recall when your EFC was? Was the verification concerning your status (homeless independent), did you have to submit paperwork to verify your status?</p>
<p>I’m a little confused…are you saying this school allowed you to register for the second semester courses when you had NOT paid the bill for the first? Sorry…that I do not believe. Most schools will not do this.</p>
<p>You chose to enroll in a school that did NOT award you financial aid. To be quite honest, you should not have done so. Unless you had a written offer of financial aid, you did not HAVE financial aid…you know that now.</p>
<p>The amount of money OTHERS get is not important. The amount of money the school has is not important. In most cases, aid is awarded either based on outstanding incoming freshmen stats (your SAT/ACT scores and your grades in High School) and/or your financial need as VERIFIED by the school. </p>
<p>If this school is a FAFSA only school (which it likely is since you do not mention the Profile or any school form), it does not meet full need. That being the case, even if you had a $0 EFC, you would have only been guaranteed the full Pell Grant and Stafford loans for a total of $11,000 or so. </p>
<p>In fact, you can you can still GET that Stafford loan…and I believe you can also get the Pell for this academic year…if the verification proves you are eligible. In any event…you MUST go and complete this verification process so you can at least get the federally funded aid to which you are entitled (Pell and/orStafford loans). The school, however, is under NO obligation to provide you with additional monies.</p>
<p>I know this is hard…but you have to verify your independent status…to the school’s satisfaction. See what you can do to do so.</p>
<p>–I registered for classes and submitted all my FAFSA work (including verification that was asked later). EFC = 0 and I made only $4,000 for 2011
–School refused to respond for months, I showed up to the office was told to leave, now the office calls me to deal with the debt.
–Classes that are required for me (prerequisite) and I can only take them at the school (school’s rules) are all full.
–School automatically signs students up to all scholarships they refuse to sign me up or give me any information.</p>
<p>Is this school accredited? I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t at least give you a financial aid package that contained Stafford loans and even a Pell grant.</p>
<p>Many schools will exit you from classes if your term is not paid for by a certain date- certainly not allow you to register for & attend next term.</p>
<p>What school is this? If you will tell us, you may get better advice.</p>
<p>First…if you are talking about aid for the 2011-2012 school year, the current one…it was based on your earnings from 2010. What happened AFTER the verification? Please understand that even WITH a $0 EFC, the only guaranteed aid you would receive IF your school takes part in federally funded aid…would be the Pell Grant and Stafford loans for a total of $11K. If your school does NOT partake in federally funded aid, you could have gotten NOTHING.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Do you have any of your dealings in WRITING, dated? What do they say? Did you receive a financial aid “package” that said you were not eligible for any of their aid? If so, how and why did you enroll?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That happens at a lot of places. AND all schools will not allow you to enroll if your previous bills are not paid.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My kid applied to schools with automatic merit aid. At some places, she simply did NOT qualify. Perhaps that is the case with you. Also, there is not a bottomless pit of money at most private schools. </p>
<p>It sounds like you were expecting the school to pay the vast bulk of your costs. Is that correct? </p>
<p>I would suggest you discuss a payment plan with them. They will not release your transcript for courses you have completed until you have paid your bills. For this spring term (which should have started a month ago)…what ARE you doing? </p>
<p>AND get your financial aid situation reconciled somehow with regard to eligibility for federally funded aid IF your school participates in that. </p>
<p>If your verification indeed showed that you were independent…AND your EFC was really $0…the Pell and Stafford loans would have been given to you.</p>
<p>nothing, they just said i was not eligible for anything. they did this the last time i was there and then later said that they would give me a refund and never did.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>yes they do take part</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>i have all the emails i sent to them and i have witnesses who can say that they refused to provide me any information on scholarships and told me that they do not do anything other than FAFSA</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>i understand that, it is just that now i have to take courses that i am only allowed to take in school only and i can’t cause they are all full. if their accounts department didn’t ignore me as they did then i would never had any block on my account in the first place.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>they recently received a very large lump sum of money for aid, several millions. but no in my case they simply told me that they will not automatically enroll me into anything or give me any information whatsoever.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>i was expecting some help.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>what happened last time is that they demanded money first, i did then they said they would issue me a refund check, never did.</p>
<p>yes they are. this is a well known large school. they been ranked as a top school too. they do, except they do not want to enroll me into any scholarships or give me any information about scholarships and want me to pay the bill first and then receive a refund check.</p>
<p>Depaul does not guarantee to meet the full need of its students.</p>
<p>Re: the Pell grant and Stafford loans…if you were entitled to these, they would have been disbursed to your college first. You would have had to do a master promissory note for the loans. Did you do that?</p>
<p>You would ONLY have gotten a refund if your accounts had a surplus in them. Since the cost of attending Depaul FAR exceeds $11,000 a year, it is unlikely you would have been due a refund UNLESS your had paid in full and had money left over. Since you say you OWE the school money, this doesn’t sound like it’s the case.</p>
<p>Re: Scholarships…schools can award them to whomever they choose to…or not. We REALLY thought our daughter was worthy of a departmental scholarship at her school. She didn’t get it. Oh well…that happens.</p>
<p>If Depaul had GUARANTEED awards for students with certain GPA/SAT scores, that would be one thing. BUT they don’t (at least not as far as I can tell).</p>
<p>At this point, I think you need to make an IN PERSON appointment with the bursar’s office and with the financial aid folks. You need to find out what you owe, and IF you had a Pell grant credited to your account. If you really have a $0 EFC AND this was all verified and accurate, that could have happened. </p>
<p>Look on your bursars account info. Any credits should be listed.</p>
<p>In the meantime, it sounds like this school is unaffordable, and has been since you enrolled.</p>
<p>what happened last time is that they demanded money first, i did then they said they would issue me a refund check, never did.</p>
<p>This doesn’t make sense.
They wanted you to pay- but then they would reimburse you?
What term was this for? If your EFC is zero, where did the money come from?
Are you an international student?</p>
<p>It’s possible the school determined this OP was NOT eligible to be declared an independent and that is what started the cycle. I’m having a difficult time understanding the OPs answers…the writing is broken enough that I was also wondering if this student was an international or something that caused the aid problems.</p>
<p>I would really like to offer some insight or advice, but I can’t figure out what happened. There are too many blanks left to fill in.</p>
<p>Stampmagnet, let’s start with a basic question: How old are you? If you are younger than 24, what dependency question on the FAFSA did you answer yes that allowed you to be considered independent?</p>
<p>I also have a comment: Scholarships generally have a very tight window of opportunity. If you do not have a complete application for admission on file by a particular time, you will not be considered for scholarships at many schools. I worked at a large school. Only those who had complete, accepted admissions applications by a certain date were considered for scholarships - and even then, simply meeting the minimum criteria did not guarantee a scholarship. For returning students, there was a separate scholarship application, and it was only open from late November until late January. Students who did not submit complete applications on time were not considered; not all students who were considered received scholarships.</p>