So I got my financial aid award letter before my classes started and immediately realized that I did not have enough money for my winter/spring semester. I get the same amount of money for both semesters even though the second sememster means more classes, book, ect. So I asked my financial aid department what I could do to get more money and they told me to fill out a form and I may be approved for an additional loan.
I got my origonal grants and loans and this week I got another email from the department saying I was getting an extra 800 in my bank account but they did not mention why. I got another award letter today and I utterly shocked and angry by what it said. I am not getting an extra 800 per semester (still not enough to get through) but they have also cut 1200 from my pell grant!!!!!
When I did the math I am actually getting 400 LESS in funds next semester AND now I have extra money in loans that need to be payed back. If this is their idea of an extra loan then it is outregously stupid and I am mad as h-ll. I have enough to worry about let alone knowing that I will NOT have the money I need to get through the next semester!
So what do I do? Of course, I will call up the financial aid department monday and see what the problem is but they are extreamly inexperienced and incompetent their. I am not saying this because I am mad, they are just really really BAD at what they do. Most of the people their seem to be students that don't care about your cituation. Basically, I am asking what do I do if they say: "oh well, there is nothing we can do"... can I go to the dean about this?
p.s. I am NOT able to get a private loan because I have no one to co-sigh. I am just really shocked that I requested for more money that I really needed and they responded by giving me less. please help!
Talk to the DEAN, or whoever you can. Let me tell you, I have had more problems out of my financial aid office!! I guess I have a semi-common name, there are 3 of us on campus. They have screwed all of us up...every semester! They dropped my classes last semester bc they said I failed my classes, which I didnt. Then this semester they dropped my classes bc they said I had too many credit hours. So I filed appeal after appeal, it turns out that my school has a 99 credit hour limit, I emailed the Assistant VP of financial aid and she figured out that I only had 67 credit hours (I had been telling them this all along!) I cried and worried myself sick for weeks and the stupid lady that made the mistake wouldnt even tell me she was sorry, she had her secretary do it. Needless to say I was ticked off!!
Forget the comments about the Dean, yada yada, you do whatever you can, talk to whoever will listen. Express to them that you need help and cannot pay for school any other way. I made a list of all of our bills, my husband is the only one that works and we have 2 small children and money is tight. I sent that list along with a letter explaining my situation to about 5 people, my advisor, financial aid ppl, business office ppl, whoever would listen and the situation finally got worked out. Dont give up!!
Thank you so much, you actually get it and your support is what I really needed. Honstley some of the comments on this board were really starting to make me mad because people are not understanding the cituation. All I needed was someone to understand so thanks.
p.s. to all the people that say I should work and go to school... again, I think that is awesome that you are able to do it but everyone has their own limitations and I am not able to juggle school and work at the same time. Just because you are able to do something doesn't mean someone else is able to do it. Thats great that you are able to do it but I have already been their, working 20-30 hrs a week and school and I bairly made it through, so I realized I needed to get financial assistence to help me through... this is why this cituation is a little nerve racking
It doesn't look like your problem is related to something the the dean is able to fix....but by all means, feel free to speak with them about it. At my school, you'd just get redirected to someone else. If your problems had to do with ineligibility due to academic progress, the dean would be a good choice. But do what you want, it's your issue.
We're understanding the situation, you just don't like what some of us are saying :) It happens.
have you thought about applying for scholarships? its pretty easy and there are TONS out there! good luck to you, hopefully you get this all sorted out.
morningland
341 Posts
Thank you so much, you actually get it and your support is what I really needed. Honstley some of the comments on this board were really starting to make me mad because people are not understanding the cituation. All I needed was someone to understand so thanks.
p.s. to all the people that say I should work and go to school... again, I think that is awesome that you are able to do it but everyone has their own limitations and I am not able to juggle school and work at the same time. Just because you are able to do something doesn't mean someone else is able to do it. Thats great that you are able to do it but I have already been their, working 20-30 hrs a week and school and I bairly made it through, so I realized I needed to get financial assistence to help me through... this is why this cituation is a little nerve racking