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Monday, August 20, 2012

What If? Scenario 4

What if I am owed excess funds from my Financial Aid? Why can't I pick it up on a day I don't attend?

This is a very simple answer. You must be in school and currently attending classes to receive your excess funds. If you normally pick up your check on Thursday, but you are absent Thursday, then you have to wait for your next day of attendance to pick it up. You are not in school and attending if you miss that day.

The reason for this rule is because if your last day of attendance is Wednesday, and you pick up a check Thursday, and you drop out on Friday, then you weren't entitled to that money. Your account summary will show you received funds after your last day of attendance, and you will most likely owe most (if not all) of that money back (depending on how far through the payment period you are). The school is then in serious trouble with the Dept of Ed for giving you money you weren't entitled to. Like I said above, you have to be in school and attending, and just because you received the money before you dropped, you weren't actually attending.

Schools aren't in business to give students money (after all, the money is more often than not a loan which the student has to repay), they are in business to give knowledge to students. The rules involving the money is taking into account the academic side. I've had students call and ask if they could pick up their check, and the student would be asked why they weren't at school that day. The most common answer is that they were sick. Because of the rules of the Dept of Ed, schools have to take the stance of "if you're too sick for class, then you're too sick for your check." You have to be able to be marked present for some time in the day when your check is available or else no one can prove that you were actually attending that day.

Once again, rules are rules, and this isn't one that can really bend.

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