By Lindsey Schibelhut, Staff Reporter.
For most struggling college students being awarded a Pell Grant (money which doesn’t have to be repaid) is the greatest gift they can receive when trying to further their education. However, imagine being the recipient of this money and then being told by your college you were erroneously given these funds. Due to a clerical error in the Financial Aid department, you are now responsible for repaying the money you’ve used for the semester. For me this is exactly what happened here at Delta.
I graduated with my Associates Degree for Journalism and Emerging Media (J.E.M.) in May 2014. I was looking forward to finishing my Advanced Certificate in J.E.M. in Fall 2014/Winter 2015. On Nov. 3, I received the devastating email saying my Financial Aid had been revoked unless additional paperwork was brought back to the Financial Aid office. I was told to bring a print off of my career goals from the Counseling office and led to believe this would fix the situation. By the following day I received a call from the Financial Aid office telling me there was still a problem in regards to my Pell Grant.
The Financial Aid advisor explained I was erroneously awarded the Pell Grant and my certificate was never eligible for the Financial Aid. An error had taken place where the Pell Grant was awarded to me before my graduation had been posted in the computer system. My only options were to repay the funds in full which were already used up for the Fall semester, start a repayment plan or pursue another eligible degree from Delta while I finish up my certificate. Had I been made fully aware certain certificate programs were not eligible for Financial Aid I would have delayed my graduation until May 2015. Later in the day, I wanted to investigate to see if there was another story of this happening to a student. I took to the internet and discovered this same situation happened to Florida State College students in 2010, so I knew I wasn’t alone.
Stop gap measures have to be implemented and soon in order to prevent this from happening to other students. I should have been alerted right away there was a problem. For example, an automatic email could have been sent out the minute the Financial Aid and my ineligible program crossed paths.
I have no way of knowing whether I am the only one facing this problem at Delta or whether there are other students who were caught off guard by this news. I do know I was told in the Financial Aid office, “We are responsible for over 10,000 students and you can’t expect us to keep track of them all.” Actually I can. The student population is the responsibility of the school. Their jobs are to help make sure students are enrolled in the right programs so they are eligible for the correct funds.
I remember a time when I had accidentally fallen below the six credit hours I needed for Financial Aid. I was readily turned into the Department of Education by Delta for student loan repayment. So why is there such a lag time between my Pell Grant award and November when the semester is practically over? Students should not be responsible for the clerical errors of their school. I feel like since so much time had passed they should have accepted the blame of this error occurring and done something else to alleviate the issue.
So in order to resolve this issue and not cause my family to be pressed financially to pay back what was owed, I made the best decision I could. I added the Electronic Media Broadcasting (EMB) Associates degree to my career goal plan to reinstate my Financial Aid. For someone who has been at Delta College since 2008 (due to my mother helping care for her elderly parents and us sharing a car), and was excited to just be finished with my schooling after Winter 2015, this choice was a devastating one to make. I can only hope the added degree will help my career prospects in the future by making me more marketable to employers.
The advice I have for future and current students is: be diligent and always make sure you find out if your certificate or degree program is eligible for Financial aid. Never assume anything like I did, or else you may run into this same issue. In the future I hope Delta College and the Department of Education include all certificates to be eligible for Pell Grants, or other Aid when so many students need the extra help to further their career goals.
