<p>My daughter applied for this year and she wasn’t given any grant though she had a perfect GPA and 2250 SAT while her friends who had lower academic credentials and who family income wasn’t much lower than mine got upto 40K in grants. I enquired and found that it was because of a delay in sending her citizenship document. She was asked to send it on March 2. She sent it the same day as an attachment to an email after confirming if she can send it so. She got an acknowledgement email to it as well. Later on March 25 when she had called the office asking why her financial information was not getting posted, she was told that they were waiting for her citizenship document. She told them that she had sent it to them on March 2nd itself, and that she had the confirmation email too. The office didn’t seem to have it. They wanted her to send it again. But two days after they informed that they had exhausted all the grants and cannot give her any money. She was asked to pay the full 59K fee!!!
BU was her dream school and she worked for it since her tenth grade. All her close friends are into that school with good amount of assistance. She stand above a few of them in scores and not much different in family income too. Just because someone in the office misplaced her citizenship form, she is penalized without any grant (who can pay 59K fee, unless he is a millionaire?).
The finance office coolly says that she should have been more diligent !!! I don’t understand how she could have foreseen that someone in the office either deliberately or unknowingly misplaced her citizenship document. She has a proof of the email acknowledgment to the email carrying the attachment. I am terribly upset to see my daughter’s dreams crashed because of someone’s mistake in the office. The office told me to ‘appeal’ but from what I see of the situation now, I don’t think it is going to be of any use.
But I am really angry. Can I sue them legally? What is the point in wasting so much time, energy, FAFSAs, my daughter’s struggle for three years at school, if the possibility of a grant, only through which one can go to a College like Boston University is determined by one document and that too when the entire blame is on the side of the Finance office of BU for losing it?</p>
<p>No, you don’t have grounds for a lawsuit.</p>
<p>If you can afford to sue, wouldn’t it be cheaper to just pay BU?</p>
<p>There are no guaranteed scholarships based on stats, so you don’t have a leg to stand on.</p>
<p>What are her other choices?</p>
<p>On what grounds could you possibly sue? The school is under no obligation to give you any of their money.</p>
<p>the school doesn’t even promise to meet need.</p>
<p>What is the point in wasting so much time, energy, FAFSAs, my daughter’s struggle for three years at school, if the possibility of a grant, only through which one can go to a College like Boston University is determined by one document and that too when the entire blame is on the side of the Finance office of BU for losing it?</p>
<p>The point was so that your D would hopefully get accepted to some schools. Where else was she accepted? </p>
<p>boston U is a nice school but it’s not the end all/be all. As a parent, you really should calm down. when kids see their parents “spun up” they stay “spun up”. You need to be the one to help her move on to a workable other choice.</p>
<p>I don’t think you could sue for this but you have the right to be ****ed off that’s for sure. You can’t ask for a document, confirm you got it, lose it and then just say “oh well…” it’s just morally wrong. If they lost her citizenship document after their confirmed that they got it, it’s their fault and they should own up to it. However, they are the bureaucracy while you are just an individual, therefore you lose. I am truly sorry this happened to you :(</p>
<p>Hi! I don’t know about legal aspects, but as people start declining their offers at BU, their scholarships will no longer be in use, so maybe you’ll be able to pick up some of those for your daughter (there should be plenty of people who got scholarship and grant money that decide not to go, I don’t know about BU specifically but colleges let in way more people than they expect to enroll). I would suggest calling the fa office again, making sure you’re talking to a supervisor, and tell them your daughter got the conformation email, she is extremely interested in the school, and ask for the leftover money from those who didn’t end up going. I’m so sorry, this is a terrible situation for you and your family and completely the school’s fault. I hope this helped and I truly hope your daughter gets to go to her dream school, good luck with everything and let us know how it goes!</p>
<p>You certainly have grounds to appeal – but not to sue. Why would you prefer to sue when they already suggested you appeal? Write a letter of appeal including the evidence, date, time and identification of staff with whom you’ve had exchanges, and politely request a package that reflects the facts of your case and disregards the timeliness “error” engendered by the office “MIS-filing”.</p>
<p>aspects, but as people start declining their offers at BU, their scholarships will no longer be in use, so maybe you’ll be able to pick up some of those for your daughter (there should be plenty of people who got scholarship and grant money that decide not to go</p>
<p>When schools offer grants and scholarships to their accepted students, they already have sophisticated calculated models with estimates as to how many will accept. So, their model may indicate that they can offer $10M in free money because only 65% will ultimately enroll. While it’s possible the school may determine that their acceptance rate was lower and they end up with extra funds which they are willing to redistribute, often that’s not the case.</p>
<p>If the OP has mostly only been speaking with the person who made the mistake, then the issue should be taken higher. Contact the Director of FA.</p>
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<p>I totally agree with this statement because at the end of the day it is up to the student/parent to ensure that all pieces of the application including financial aid are submitted in a timely manner. </p>
<p>I think it was the family’s responsibility to carefully follow the instructions concerning the applying for financial aid, seek clarification for any thing not addressed in the website (which their situation fell in this category), and to follow-up to ensure that everything was received. </p>
<p>My question is this:</p>
<p>Op knew at the time of when D submitted her paperwork, what her status was regarding citizenship. If at the time D was an international student waiting or paperwork to finalize her citizenship status, or if she had recently become a citizen, the ownership was on the family to make sure all of their documentation was submitted. </p>
<p>Why wasn’t she proactive in contacting the FA office at the beginning and asking this is my D’s situation, how do I go about handling this? What do I need to do to ensure that she is in line to get need based fa/scholarships?</p>
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<p>If you look at their website, even on March 2 she was late submitting her paperwork because the RD deadline was 2/15.</p>
<p>[Deadlines</a> Financial Assistance | Boston University](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/finaid/apply/incoming/deadlines/]Deadlines”>http://www.bu.edu/finaid/apply/incoming/deadlines/)</p>
<p>I think where you went wrong in this process, you should have gotten a name and made reference to that person in the e-mail.</p>
<p>This is in follow-up to my conversation today with Mary Smith regarding my … attached please find… I will follow up this e-mail with a hard copy of the documents which I will be sending express/overnight mail to Mary’s attention. </p>
<p>Then you should have called Mary directly and asked if the information has been added to your child’s file and if it is complete for processing.</p>
<p>OP, write an appeal letter, including the email with the headers shown. Explain that BU is your child’s top school and you send all the forms required immediately and that your child should not be penalized because the staff at the FA office misplaced the documents. Be polite but explain in detail what happened. After you send the appeal letter and calm down, call the FA office and request to speak to a senior staff. Explain the situation again, in a polite manner. Sometimes when we are upset we might say something that will irk the bureaucracy and just out of spike they will deny it. Do not forget, unfortunately they have the power right now, regardless how much you want to struggle them.</p>
<p>@sybbie719: fafsa requires citizenship verification from US citizens occasionally. I do not know if they are random checks, or something triggers it. There have been posts at CC before about other students having asked about it, even though the family and student were native born. Because the information at fafsa is matched with some database, if there is a mistake between them, then the system flags the record.</p>
<p>I’ll give you a similar personal example, when my child was 7 yrs old, I tried to e-file my tax return with turbotax, as I did every single year. Suddenly, it came back that the child is ineligible. I called the IRS and found out that it was the first year they had linked their database with another SS database and it had combined first and middle name as one so it did not match with the irs database. I had to send the birth certificate to verify US citizenship and relation to me.</p>
<p>CAN you sue them? As in, "are you able to " sue them? Only you can answer that. I am sure that you can find some attorney some where who will be happy to give it a go if you pay him/her. I doubt, though that is just an opinion, that you’ll find anyone who’ll do it on contingency, though you can try. Call up some attorneys and get the scoop of what it will cost you to sue BU for CONSIDERATION of award money for your daughter. Because BU does not guarantee to meet need, even if they “consider” your daughter’ application , it doesn’t mean that she will get anything. Though BU does use a matrix of sorts, that of need and stats, there is a holistic part of the process that allows them to give students they want for certain reasons, more money or any money, than another kid with more need and better stats. They do not guarantee to meet need.</p>
<p>The way it often works is that money runs out or space runs out before a candidate who is better qualified than those already accepted and getting packaged is considered. Happens all of the time. It’s just in your case, you know about it. Kids files, often are put down for later consideration because a piece of the app is missing through no fault of the kid, and yes, due to the fault of the university at times, and when those files are finally complete and examined, it does happen all of the time that those later ones might and do have a smaller acceptance chance and less money left in the pot. </p>
<p>The way it often works with colleges is that the financial aid department works independently from the admissions office. Fin aid will often issue money in accordance to the “grade” admissions gives to an accepted applicant and as funds hold out. Those applicants sent over as accepted after the funds are gone, are just out of luck, even if they are “A” grade and would likely have gotten the cream of the aid. </p>
<p>Talk to the director of Admissions, and others at the univerisity and see if any reconsideration will be done regarding any excess in returned funds due to kids deciding not to go to BU. If it makes you feel better, talk to an attorney, but really, what are you going to get out of the suit, when BU guarantees nothing in terms of packages? Even if you can win a reconsideration, they could say, “nope” with no explanation which happens to hundreds of kids, yes, with your kids stats. There are probably a number of them that got zip from BU as well with stats up there. I’ve known a number of them in the past. But even if you got something from them, who is going to pay the attorney for his work? Lawyers don’t come cheap, and you are not likely to get those bills paid or get pain and suffering for his. Do check out the option.</p>
<p>This sort of stuff happens all of the time. We still don’t know if my son got accepted to a certain school or another kid with the same name and SSN that is just one digit off, and whose correspondence, my son kept getting, whlle my son’s file seemed to be lost. This happened a few years ago.</p>
<p>there was recently a thread from a young woman in a similar situation, her paperwork was late and she received no money from the school.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1314564-fa-boston-university-3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1314564-fa-boston-university-3.html</a></p>
<p>Waverly posted a thread about financial aid process at BU</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/education/edlife/finaid-pappano-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/education/edlife/finaid-pappano-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all</a></p>
<p>While BU has never been considered a school that has been “generous” when it comes to financial aid, they have always been upfront when it comes to discussing their financial aid policies. They are very forthcoming with the following statements:</p>
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<p>Could your daughter delay enrollment until next year … and fill out her financial aid paperwork plenty early so she would be in the front of the line for aid next year. It might be worth asking BU if this is possible.</p>
<p>What good would a lawsuit do anyway? Your daughter is a high school senior now. She probably wants to go to college at the end of this summer. Even IF you sued, the case would very likely NOT be settled by that time (Personally I don’t think you have a case at all since the school does not guarantee to meet need anyway). So…where would you be? You have a daughter with a pending lawsuit (she would be the one to sue…since SHE was the one with the financial aid issue, not you) and college long started.</p>
<p>Lawsuits are for issues whereby someone has violated a LAW. I’m don’t see that here…not at all. And like I said…it’s the DAUGHTER who would have to file the suit. The parents have no claim over financial aid their DAUGHTER applied for.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you hope to gain. Revenge? For what…? For BU not giving your daughter financial aid when her documentation was not received within their timeline?</p>
<p>Your daughter is a bright young lady with great stats and scores. In my eyes, she has a couple of choices…and a lawsuit is not one of them.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Choose another college on her “accepted” list. BU is a great school (one of my kids graduated from there). BUT there are MANY other GREAT SCHOOLS.</p></li>
<li><p>Take a gap year if the finances did not work out at other places for your family. With your daughter’s fine academic record and standardized test scores, she would be able to then craft a list where she would be eligible for some significant MERIT aid. And the citizenship verification issue would be a year old…so you could send the documentation in January when you complete the financial aid forms.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’ve heard that someone sued McDonald’s and won because they spilled coffee in their lap and it was hot, so yes I would say you could find a lawyer out there who would sue them. And I would not be surprised to hear that you end up winning a good bit of money.</p>
<p>The MacDonalds suit included medical injury and expenses. I’m not sure what this BU lawsuit has beside disappointment that the money didn’t work out. That is NOT personal injury…as the McDonald’s suit was based on.</p>
<p>And I believe McDonalds knew or was told that their coffee was too hot. And yes, there were damages (burns). There are no damages in the OP’s case, as there was no guarantee of any funding. And totally agree with Sybbie (as always, so it seems) It is the responsibility of the student to stay on top of all aspects of their application, especially if something is time sensitive (or in fact late, as in this case). The follow-up to the person to whom the info was sent would have been the thing to do. Maybe the form was misfiled. Maybe the recipient forgot to download the attachment. Maybe the attachment was corrupted in transfer. Who knows. Sure you can be angry, frustraded, p’d off, etc. But entitled to recover any damages from BU. Not in my book. When did your dau become a citizen?</p>
<p>I will pose another question. According to the BU website, the acceptances for regular decision were not sent until MID MARCH. This student is inquiring about financial aid issues that came up in FEBRURY…was this an ED acceptance…because if SO…the priority deadline for financial aid was MUCH EARLIER than February.</p>
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McDonalds already had over 200 documented complaints about their coffee because they served it at over 180 degrees compared to the norm of 140 degrees. They chose to keep serving it that way because it tasted better that way so they thought the risk was worth it. It was hot enough that the woman involved was hospitalized for 8 days and had to have skin grafts and was in treatment for 2 years. It must have been incredibly hot to cause that sort of injury - my husband once got into the car and was putting a venti cup of black Starbucks coffee into the cupholder and accidentally dropped it on my lap - hurt a lot at the time and smarted for a while, but did not do any lasting damage (other than shattering my kids illusions about their Mom “Mom said the f word, I didn’t even know Mom knew the f word”).</p>
<p>Their is no case at all here to sue the school. They can choose how to distribute their money.</p>