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Financial aid problem
Aoi Tsuki
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm so pissed that I'd best keep this brief: I've got a bachelor's degree in English that has not proven useful except when someone happens to be impressed by a four-year degree, and am going back to community college to pick up an A.A. with more practical applications. At the last minute (halfway through my first semester back), I was denied a Direct Loan because my B.A. apparently puts me at over 99 hours and thus places me under Financial Aid Suspension by default--according to the office people and the school's website, I am thus permanently ineligible for any "federal or state aid" (i.e. loans and grants), unless I want to go through a lengthy appeal each and every single semester.
On this basis, I applied for a private scholarship from a local organization, and was granted it. Yay. Upon collecting and depositing the check, though, written to the college with my name in the memo field? Denied. Turns out I am not eligible for any aid whatsoever, no matter the source, because of my bachelor's degree.
My questions: is this a normal thing, i.e. is it some arcane part of the federal financial aid guidelines I never noticed? Or is it just the college district being a bunch of douchebags? And should I try to appeal it, or just go back to the local organization who granted the scholarship - or tried to - and ask them to cut me a check directly? The thing is, the appeal requires several bullshit forms signed by my adviser, who is spending the entire summer in California, and the deadline is at the end of this month; one office person told me faxes would be fine, but her supervisor said it wouldn't. IDEFK
On this basis, I applied for a private scholarship from a local organization, and was granted it. Yay. Upon collecting and depositing the check, though, written to the college with my name in the memo field? Denied. Turns out I am not eligible for any aid whatsoever, no matter the source, because of my bachelor's degree.
My questions: is this a normal thing, i.e. is it some arcane part of the federal financial aid guidelines I never noticed? Or is it just the college district being a bunch of douchebags? And should I try to appeal it, or just go back to the local organization who granted the scholarship - or tried to - and ask them to cut me a check directly? The thing is, the appeal requires several bullshit forms signed by my adviser, who is spending the entire summer in California, and the deadline is at the end of this month; one office person told me faxes would be fine, but her supervisor said it wouldn't. IDEFK
Aoi Tsuki on
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So they are saying... unless you pay them cash, your cash, you can't attend? That seems odd.
This is exactly the case.
Yeah, I was irked to be denied the Direct Loan, but understood the rationale (though I wish someone at the office would've mentioned it in the half dozen visits I paid in order to apply for it, including giving them my goddamn transcripts). But this isn't federal or state aid, it's a private source. No one's interest is served in keeping me from using this scholarship.
At this point, I'm more inclined to just go back to the nice scholarship people and ask for another check than to have anything else to do with the school's bureaucracy.
I would also suggest getting detailed docs on what the requirements are for the community college. The best advice I could give would be to goto a 4 year institution who has a better handle on their shit. Just get another B.A.