Am I liable for this or should I fight it?

[Getty611]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

I have a few questions about a college debt situation I am currently dealing with. I graduated undergrad in May 2010 in Michigan and was enrolled in a Masters program in Virginia.

A few days before classes began, I decided I could not afford the tuition and decided to drop the program and work to pay off my undergrad loans instead of attending more school. I verbally dropped from the program with the head of the Masters program and then proceeded to drop the classes I had registered for. I did this online.

A few weeks later I received a phone call from a staff member of the Masters program inquiring as to why I was not showing up to classes. I informed him that I had dropped the classes and the program and he told me that my classes were NOT dropped and at this point (the withdraw period was over) I was responsible for the charges ($3000).

I spoke with several people and filled out a Financial Aid Impact form and was told that the matter was settled and I was not responsible for the bill (this was all verbal over the phone). One year later (October 2011) I started receiving bills from the collections agency at the college for the entire amount plus a 25% late fee for the original charges. I have been trying to resolve this but I am now expecting a newborn and am on complete bed rest and cannot drive 2 hours to the campus. I have no knowledge on how to start this process. The college says that I never dropped the courses even though I know that I did. It is basically their word against mine at this point. The college tells me that I did not drop the classes until well after the withdraw period but I made sure to drop them before then. We're now getting letters informing us that they are going to garnish my husbands wages.

I spoke with a collections agent who informed me that I needed to contact my professors directly and verify that I did not attend classes. I have no idea who my professors are because I no longer remember the class number and have never met the people and have no way to contact them.

Any idea what I should do?

 

[ecmst12]

If you never got anything in writing you are screwed.

 

[FlyingRon]

Telling your advisor is rather spurious. You need to go to the registrar or whoever and specifically disenroll to recover whatever tuition they will allow you to recover at that point.

 

[Getty611]

Once I learned that I somehow was STILL enrolled in the fall of 2010, I immediately disenrolled from my classes. I have not paid them any money at all so I have nothing to recover, they are trying to get the money from me.

 

[ecmst12]

At what point did you obtain written proof of your withdrawal from classes?

 

[Humusluvr]

Once I learned that I somehow was STILL enrolled in the fall of 2010, I immediately disenrolled from my classes. I have not paid them any money at all so I have nothing to recover, they are trying to get the money from me.

Did you disenroll online, and drop those classes BEFORE the withdraw date?

Or was this all done verbally, or over the phone, and you never technically withdrew?

If you did it correctly online - you aren't responsible. That involves doing it all by the withdraw dates.

If you did this over the phone, you have no proof. You would be SOL.

 

[Getty611]

I do not any anything in writing about disenrollment from the classes. It is all done online. This was to be a satellite program so everything was online.

I did withdraw from the classes online, which is the official way to do it (during my entire undergrad career we never once had anything in writing about dropping or adding classes, its all online) BEFORE the refund period was over. My only hunch is that the drop never went through or it was some sort of computer glitch. This had NEVER happened before at my undergrad, the drops or add ALWAYS went through. This time at the new school, I drop apaprently never went through which is why they started calling me asking why I never dropped the courses. At that time-- the refund period was over and I was still enrolled. I went back and disenrolled again (making sure 100% the courses were dropped).

The people I speak with on the phone from the university seem to think it is possible for me to be relieved of the charges if I can prove I never took courses, I just do not know where to start. Or if it is really my responsibility to waste hours and hours of my life on this when I feel that I should not be charged at all.

 

[ecmst12]

Online should have a paper trail. Did you get an email confirmation of dropping the classes?