jfontestad
Junior Member
Louisiana.
Here is the situation: Last semester I attended Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC) in Baton Rouge, La. . I receive federal financial aid and have been receiving for the past few years that I have attended the school (it's a 2 year institution) and am still approved to receive federal financial aid from a 4 year institution (a I received this current semester of Spring '08).
The situation I now face is that at the beginning of the Fall semester (Fall '07) it was my 5th semester attending BRCC. I had already been approved for federal financial aid for the 2007 - 2008 year. As I have for the past 2 years I expected that a portion of my tuition would be covered by the financial aid, so at the beginning of the semester (Fall '07) I go and speak with a financial aid adviser. She tells me that since it is a 2 year institution that the Fall would be the last semester that I would be able to receive financial aid to attend BRCC. I planned on transferring in the spring to a 4 year university anyway, so this was not a problem. Here is where the problems begin... Well I filled out the initial paperwork and turned it in as usual... Then a few weeks later they would contact me requesting more paper work and forms and letters from the IRS. Whenever I would turn one thing in (which did take a while because I do not live with my parents and they live a good 3 hours away) a few weeks later I would get a letter in the mail saying we need something else (unusual as things had never been this problematic before). Well this went on throughout the entire semester and due to it I had to take out loans in order to pay for the tuition (so I would not be purged from classes) and books and other costs associated with the college that the financial aid would otherwise help cover.
Well in late January of this year I finally fulfilled all of their requests and they said please allow 3 - 6 weeks for processing. It took them almost 8 weeks to process my application (I called about once a week after the 4th week of waiting to check on the status of my application) and when they did they told me I was not eligible for aid because the institution only allows you to receive aid for up to a certain amount of hours completed at the institution.
I quickly called and spoke to my adviser and she confirmed what was said above. I then proceeded to explain to her that I was specifically told that I could receive aid before the Fall '07 semester started, but it would have to be my last semester receiving aid at BRCC. She said that she would look into it and let me know what can be done. That is the only reason why I enrolled in classes there for the Fall '07 semester and proceeded to take out loans to cover tuition costs and other related expenses.
Now I'm stuck with almost $1,700 in loans that I do not have the money to pay back as I was going to pay them back with the aid received from the federal grant that I was told I was entitled to as long as paperwork was submitted (as I was already approved for aid from the government) and that it would be the last semester that I would be ale to attend BRCC and receive the financial aid.
My question is does the school hold any liability to awarding me the aid as per my talk with the adviser at the beginning of the semester? or am I just totally out of luck?
Any comments, advice, or anything would be appreciated.
Here is the situation: Last semester I attended Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC) in Baton Rouge, La. . I receive federal financial aid and have been receiving for the past few years that I have attended the school (it's a 2 year institution) and am still approved to receive federal financial aid from a 4 year institution (a I received this current semester of Spring '08).
The situation I now face is that at the beginning of the Fall semester (Fall '07) it was my 5th semester attending BRCC. I had already been approved for federal financial aid for the 2007 - 2008 year. As I have for the past 2 years I expected that a portion of my tuition would be covered by the financial aid, so at the beginning of the semester (Fall '07) I go and speak with a financial aid adviser. She tells me that since it is a 2 year institution that the Fall would be the last semester that I would be able to receive financial aid to attend BRCC. I planned on transferring in the spring to a 4 year university anyway, so this was not a problem. Here is where the problems begin... Well I filled out the initial paperwork and turned it in as usual... Then a few weeks later they would contact me requesting more paper work and forms and letters from the IRS. Whenever I would turn one thing in (which did take a while because I do not live with my parents and they live a good 3 hours away) a few weeks later I would get a letter in the mail saying we need something else (unusual as things had never been this problematic before). Well this went on throughout the entire semester and due to it I had to take out loans in order to pay for the tuition (so I would not be purged from classes) and books and other costs associated with the college that the financial aid would otherwise help cover.
Well in late January of this year I finally fulfilled all of their requests and they said please allow 3 - 6 weeks for processing. It took them almost 8 weeks to process my application (I called about once a week after the 4th week of waiting to check on the status of my application) and when they did they told me I was not eligible for aid because the institution only allows you to receive aid for up to a certain amount of hours completed at the institution.
I quickly called and spoke to my adviser and she confirmed what was said above. I then proceeded to explain to her that I was specifically told that I could receive aid before the Fall '07 semester started, but it would have to be my last semester receiving aid at BRCC. She said that she would look into it and let me know what can be done. That is the only reason why I enrolled in classes there for the Fall '07 semester and proceeded to take out loans to cover tuition costs and other related expenses.
Now I'm stuck with almost $1,700 in loans that I do not have the money to pay back as I was going to pay them back with the aid received from the federal grant that I was told I was entitled to as long as paperwork was submitted (as I was already approved for aid from the government) and that it would be the last semester that I would be ale to attend BRCC and receive the financial aid.
My question is does the school hold any liability to awarding me the aid as per my talk with the adviser at the beginning of the semester? or am I just totally out of luck?
Any comments, advice, or anything would be appreciated.
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