<p>When the OP said that he/she is going to the FA office with paperwork, I don’t think the student’s goal is to “uncover the truth” and discover that he may owe $5500. I’m guessing that the goal is to find a mistake that will greatly lower this year’s EFC so that Pell will be awarded this year.</p>
<p>Yes…it’s very easy to say that the student should go to the FA office, bring it to their attention that a mistake was made last year and Pell shouldn’t have been awarded, but in truth, if this student doesn’t have the means to pay it back it would be opening Pandora’s Box. </p>
<p>Yes, the student may have gotten Pell wrongly, and that’s not right. But, it doesn’t sound like he did anything intentionally wrong. I hate to see a kid given money, he spends it (however it was spent…school, car expensese, books, etc), and then be told, “oops, you now owe that money back and you’re not getting aid for next year, either”)</p>
<p>If that were to happen, this kid would suddenly be handed a $5500 bill while also being left to figure out how to pay next year’s costs. That would be fine if he or his parents had intentionally done something wrong or had been grossly negligent.</p>
<p>There was a student who posted last year who was a senior in college. She AND her sis had been awarded Pell for the wrong reasons for the previous years. The mistake was uncovered HERE on CC, when aid wasn’t awarded for the student’s last year…and they were going to go to the FA office to try to get aid for senior year. Virtually EVERYONE here on CC advised them not to say anything because it would be very likely that they would each be handed at least a $15k bill ($30k total) While that may not seem “honest”, to expect these kids to go forward and get a $15k bill is asking too much.</p>
<p>The FA process is what it is. It either uncovers mistakes in a timely manner (before awarding money or start of classes) or it should leave it things as it is and suck it up for improperly awarding money (as long as fraud wasn’t involved).</p>
<p>It’s not right for people who aren’t trying to cheat the system, who submit the forms, get awarded large amounts of money (and for many people $5500 is a lot of money), the money gets spent and then they’re handed a bill? </p>
<p>There should be a statue of limitations after an award is made…and once school starts, it’s done…unless fraud is involved.</p>
<p>How far back should a correction go? College is expensive. In this case, it’s not a huge amount of money, but what if it were?</p>