When I decided to re-enroll at the university I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford it on my own. No one in my family has any money and even though I’d worked a steady job since dropping out I was no exception. When I came back my mom was still in jail. I hadn’t heard from my father since 2005. I was really hoping to get financial aid to help pay for school.
The first time I applied for aid I was denied. Even though I had a qualifying GPA (2.6 - not great, but good enough) I would not be allowed to receive aid. The cause was mysterious and often not routinely mentioned in the relevant literature. I had not successfully completed > 75% of the courses I had attempted.
The university has a policy that is not obvious during enrollment. If you sign up for a class and drop it on or after the first day of the semester it counts as a course attempted. It is a mark against your financial aid eligibility. There is no little note when clicking drop on Enroll and Pay. No one sends you an email when you get close to falling below satisfactory academic progress (SAP) (at least not prior to 2005, I’m not sure what happens now). So my method of trying out a class to see what the professor and materials would be like, then dropping the course from my schedule if I didn’t think it was for me, had been eating my eligibility the entire time I was in school… When I dropped out in ‘05 I had no idea I had just completely screwed myself with the financial aid office. I dropped out five days into the semester.
Cue the summer of ‘09. I had been working as a cook in the university catering department for five years. I was making decent money when you take overtime into account but it wasn’t working for me. I was stressed and unfulfilled. I would go with my girlfriend, an engineering student, to the coffee shop after work and read books about physics and the history of Burma while she studied. I decided to go back to school pretty quickly.
When they told me I was ineligible for aid it totally kicked my ass. But there’s a petition process where you can state your case and get the aid on a probationary status. I appealed. You have to explain yourself to these people that you’ll never meet. You don’t get to appeal their decision. I told them about my past and my reasons for leaving school. My little sob story. You also have to come up with a plan for successful completion of your degree. This is done with an advisor who signs off on your schedule (you have to plan out every semester in advance). I was granted aid and things were pretty good for two years.
Then I failed Differential Equations. I was one credit hour away from being taken off financial aid probation. In fact, if I had not taken that course I would have been off already. I had to go through the whole process again… petition, plan, signatures, sob story… A lot of people fail differential equations. That is not a satisfactory excuse. You have to convince these people that your mistake has a reason beyond the obvious. This whole time I had been making great grades too. I had brought my GPA up to a 3.15 in a difficult major but I was still being punished for a rule that I had no idea about. A rule I violated seven years ago.
The summer after failing that class I had to retake it, as well as another course. In order to petition a financial aid revocation you have to take a whole semester on your own dime. You have no right to petition prior to that as far as I can tell. I took out a loan, got a job, and busted my ass that summer to pass those classes. Because of the need to take six credits I had to enroll in a class that was unnecessary for my major. This plays an important role later…
This is the present: I just finished my junior year. I’m 27 years old. I am about to do summer research in the physics department with a professor I like. I also have to find a summer job because the financial aid office and the endowment loan people want to give me $1,800 to pay for my classes and rent this summer. My tuition is over $1,000 and my rent is $350 a month. I’ve been making good grades. Last semester I got a 3.30. Yesterday I got an email from the financial aid department:
“As a financial aid recipient, the Financial Aid and Scholarships office is required to monitor your academic status to ensure compliance with the minimum standards of Satisfactory Academic Progress. Based on a review of your academic progress, you are approaching the maximum time-frame limit for your current degree program.”
A time-frame limit? I’ve never heard of a time-frame limit for receiving aid. I was pretty confused when I got the email so I read the document they directed me to. It’s the guidelines for SAP. I’ve read it so many times already and there is nothing in it about time-frames. This really sucks. I’m hoping they mean the credit hour limit. At least then I am not being blindsided by another rule I’ve never heard of. For their first degree a student can only receive aid for a certain number of attempted hours. When I graduate I’ll have 181.5 attempted hours. It would be less than that, but often I have to take filler courses to make sure I’m enrolled full time (you get your aid cut significantly if you drop below twelve credits in a semester). I’ll also have a BS in physics and be licensed to teach high school. If a person is seeking a second degree they get 230 hours or something like that… Teaching licensure does not count as a second degree. For your first degree you get 180 credit hours before you lose your aid eligibility. When I read that I got pretty upset.
It’s not that I was unaware that there was a limit. I’ve always known I was cutting it close with this. I was an English major prior to returning to school so I’ve got a lot of wasted space in my course history. I’m upset because every time I’ve petitioned for aid, for every stupid infraction, I’ve come up with a plan for graduation. That plan has been approved by the office of financial aid. And every time I did it first time degree seekers were given 186 credit hours to complete their degree. They changed it in my second to last year of school.
So there may or may not be a time-frame limit (measured in years). I’m waiting to hear on that. Maybe the email was poorly worded. But I’m still fucked. And remember when I told you that pointless summer class I took would come into play later? Well, take that away and I’d be graduating with 178.5 attempted hours. I had to take that class to get financial aid. I was forced into it and I paid for it with my own money, not federal aid. And I’m getting totally fucked.
I’m a Physics major and a future educator (I hope…) with a 3.01 GPA. I’m a scientist and a good student and I’m motivated. The system does not care.
