I'm gonna start this off by leaving a link to the blog I wrote a little over two weeks ago. In this blog, I go into details of why I didn't go back to school, the letter I received, and how I was really at a loss for words for the whole situation.
Here's the update on my losing my financial aid now. After receiving the most dreadful letter I've ever seen in the mail, I waited a few days before calling my (future former) college's weird version of a 24 hour hotline. That hotline is another reason why I'm very annoyed with the school, but to sum it up, if you want to speak to anyone in the financial aid office (which were the people who sent me the letter), you have to go to the campus.
This hotline, they get all your information and they already know your financial aid status based on the information you gave the government and the school. They can clearly see your records, and I've called them about four times now with questions that I had.
So, after getting the letter, I call the hotline to get answers and after dealing with a robot for over fifteen minutes, I was finally put through to a woman who works for the hotline. I explained the letter, my situation, and the fact that I wanted answers. I told her the reason why I hadn't gone back to the school (my mental illness wasn't in check), and she laughed. I was already upset and she upset me more.
The answer she gave me though for why I received my letter was due to the fact I filled out the FAFSA for the 2017/2018 school year, I was considered a student, which is why I got a letter saying my GPA was too low for me to keep my financial aid. She told me to fill out a SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress) appeal, and I would be hearing back from someone 3 to 5 business days after I put in the application.
Well, I filled out the application on a Thursday (two weeks ago today), and the New Year was the following Monday. I patiently waited for an email or a call and never heard anything and I slowly got really, really antsy.
In my appeal though, I stated why I hadn't returned to school due to my mental illness, cited that it was one of the reasons why I was put on academic probation, explained that I was diagnosed with this illness when I was 16, and that I could prove that I had this mental illness by getting records from my psychiatrist. I stated at the end of the appeal that I could provide the documentation upon request, because honestly, I don't want to give out my records to the school for no reason... that's one of the reasons why I believed that I hadn't heard from anyone. To note, I also put I wouldn't be returning to school until August 2018 because that's the plan currently.
Two days ago, I called the hotline again because I was fairly agitated that no one had contacted me. Again, another 15 minutes of robot before I was put through and the man I spoke to this time seemed to be struggling at bit to figure out what the status of my appeal was. He told me that he'd move my appeal up to a "specialist" who would call me in one to two days. He asked me when the best time for that person to call me was, and I told him the morning since I usually work evening shifts.
Yesterday, no phone calls.
Today, now that it's a little after 11 am, no phone calls.
I checked my school email though, and from where I made the phone call to the hotline, they more or less send you a summary in one email, and possible solutions in another email. Usually they're sent one after another immediately, but I noticed that from my call two days ago, it took another two hours for the "solutions" email to show up.
Out of sheer curiosity, I checked the solutions email because they're usually garbage, and saw one little line of text that made my heart swell, but at the same time, I'm still not sure about since I haven't received a damned phone call.
"Your aid was reinstated January 4, 2018."
So... Apparently I got my aid back? I'm hoping I did at least because if I didn't, I'm going to be crying ugly tears and shaming the school for getting my hopes up (not that I'm not already shaming the school for a lot of things).
I just wanted to share this news though because while I'm happy, I'm utterly confused by their lack of being able to contact a student.
Kayla V
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