Appealing a hold on financial aid?? My ramblings for the week

[RaysTaterBug]

This might get kind of long, so bear with me please! :)

I'm a little frustrated right now. For a little background, before last semester started, I received a letter from school stating that my financial aid was being witheld from me, however, I was allowed to file an appeal, stating why my grades were not up to par (my father died unexpectedly RIGHT before school started, I was severely depressed, did seek out help and am back to myself). I ended up having to repeat two classes because of this, but my aid was reinstated after the appeal was filed, and I went along my way with finishing up my pre-reqs before nursing school starts this summer (I got accepted to start this summer).

NOW, tonight, I got home from work and found ANOTHER letter from the school stating that my aid was being witheld again, and that I'm able to file an appeal. The letter states that the aid is being witheld for one or more of the following reasons:

1) My GPA is not up to par with federal standards. (I immediately went to my schools website and logged myself in to check my grades. I'm sitting at a 3.0)

2) Haven't passed a certain percentage of my classes for the semester (I had three classes this past semester and passed all three of them).

or

3) I'm taking too long to get through the program.

I'm thinking that the reason is #3...technically, I COULD have started the nursing program this PAST summer at my school, but because of me having to retake anatomy, I couldn't get in that summer (have to have anatomy passed before admittance into the nursing program)...so that set me back.

So now I'm frustrated for several reasons...the letter came today, financial aid office is closed through January 2nd, and the meeting that they have to review the appeals is on the 3rd. Last time I had to fill out a form stating reasons why, but how am I supposed to get the form if I just got the letter and the office isn't open? I suppose I'll type it up and mail it to them, and then call first thing in the morning on the third.

Secondly, I'm not even sure what to write down for the appeal! I've worked my tush off raising my grades this past semester and my GPA. I wonder since I've received this letter twice in a row now, am I going to have to appeal EVERY semester?

If you've got this far in reading, thank you! I know others have worse things to worry about. I REALLY need this though, or I don't know what I'm going to do!

[Nightcrawler, BSN, RN]

I think that you will be all right. I know that at my school that it is almost impossible to get all the way through the program with prereq's without coming up on a situation like yours.

Usually people at my school get that letter either first or second semester. Bureaucracy is the reason, and you would have gotten the letter irregardless of your earlier difficulties. The same thing happened to me.

Being a bureaucracy they set all of their computers to send out such a letter when a student reaches a certain amount of credits without a degree. They make people file an appeal at this point because generally a person with this many credits has either changed their major numerous times, or is taking classes without any clear goals. It is the financial aid offices way of telling these students to hurry up and get out of the community college system.

Nursing students almost always get the letter if they are receiving aid not because they are fooling around, but because there are an unusual amount of prerequisites required BEFORE the two year program begins. In my appeal I listed that 1, many of my credits were from previous schools and from a different major, and were not earned through financial aid, 2, I listed the unusual amount of prereq's- actually listed all of the science courses, and 3 showed that I had actually taken very few classes that were off target for my degree.

If your school is like mine they will draw up a contract with you of which classes you are allowed to take. They will include all of the classes you need in order to finish nursing, with NO electives. They will tell you that your financial aid will end if you take anything outside of the contract, but if you need to change something you will just have to petition for a change of contract, I had to do this a couple of times and it was never a problem.

All of this is a pain in the b@@@, but this is probably what is happening in this case. If this is the situation, you will most likely not have to re-appeal every semester, and this probably has absolutely nothing to do with your previous problems, you have corrected them, and you are not on their radar for grades anymore.

I am sorry about the ramble, I hope that I am right, good luck!!!!

[kwagner_51]

I graduated in 1990 with an AS in Automotive technology. My daughter was 3 and I was 4 months pregnant with my first son. Between graduation and 1995 I had 3 sons. No way to keep up with the changing technology in the auto industry. I decided in 2001 to return to the same school to get my degree in nursing.

I applied to the university and was accepted. I qualified for and received financial aid. Cool! I'm on a roll. Things are going GREAT!!I have B's in all my classes and am enjoying my education. To make a long story short, in the summer of 2003, I got the first of my suspension letters. I was sick to my stomach!! I had worked so hard and now there was no money!!

It seems that I had too many credit hours to continue my education. They counted ALL of my first degree credit hours AND the ones that I transferred in from State U. I went to war!! I didn't get an answer to the appeal until the Friday BEFORE the semester started on Monday. I had to fill out the contract about what courses I needed to take, and maintain a C average in every class I took.

I got A's, B's and 1 C. I was HAPPY. I kept my part of the bargain. The Spring semester was easier because I got the money one week after classes started instead of months later.

Summer 2004, I got another letter, had to appeal AGAIN!! Keep in mind that I am now one year away from graduation, I have mainatianed a 3.5 average in my nursing classes and have not violated the FA contract. I appealed and got FA BUT did NOT get the nursing scholarship I applied for UNTIL AFTER I took my FINAL in MED/SURG 2. I took it on 12-13-04 and got the scholarship on 12-14-04!!

I have one semester left and I CAN NOT wait to get out from under this tyrannt!! Unfortunately, my daughter starts at the same school in the Fall of 2005.

I hope this helps. You can expect to get a FA appeal letter EVERY yr until graduation! Good luck and keep us posted.

Failure is NOT an option!!

In His Grace,

Karen