Title 4

Paying for College
1

I’m an adult student and when I filled out my first FAFSA for the university I attended, I had no issues with anything - I understood everything, I did the Entrance Counseling, the university created a student account for me and everything was linked there and I checked off the option to have any additional fees taken from whatever money may be disbursed (title iv - although I didn’t know that was what it was called at the time). Everything was fine. I decided to transfer about a year later to a university that was a little closer to home and had a more extensive department/program dedicated to the degree I was interested in pursuing. I had to re-attend the new student orientation with that university and redo some of the financial aid paperwork.

I was not told at the student orientation that the title iv paperwork had to be done AT the Bursar’s Office - I had filled out/completed several forms online and assumed everything was turned in, especially since the online task tracker said everything was complete.

I now owe the school $1500 - well, now it’s $2000 due to interest. I’ve tried calling the financial aid office and the Bursar’s Office several times and told them that they never informed me I had to fill out a paper document for the title iv - their response has been “We told you at orientation,” When I try to tell them that, “No, you didn’t,” they essentially say it isn’t their problem.

Do I have any recourse here? My credit has taken a huge hit with this. I don’t feel I should have to pay for this if they didn’t inform me of the issue.

2

I would like to provide some guidance, but I honestly do not know what you are referring to. What is the Title IV paperwork? What is the reason for the money you owe (is it some sort of award that was removed from your account)? If you could explain a bit more, maybe I could comment.

3

25% interest? How long has this bill been not paid? Is this a for profit school? $500 in interest on a $1500 bill? Something isn’t right.

What is title 4 anyway?

4

http://studentaccounts.nd.edu/policies-procedures/federal-title-iv-funds-policy/

This is from the Notre Dame website…but it explains title 4 funds.

@Renee7787 did you apply for and ACCEPT any federally funded loans at your new school…or sis you just assume that the loans etc would transfer from your previous school (they don’t).

5

I honestly cannot figure out where the Title IV paperwork would come into play here. I assume it’s the cash management authorization form. If the school requires this prior to disbursing any funds, the funds may never have been disbursed at all. That is the only logical explanation I can figure out.

6

OP, when did you attend this school? It may be possible to still get the aid paid, but it depends on the dates of attendance.

7

@Renee7787

Did you complete and submit a FAFSA to your new college? Did you receive a financial aid award, including Direct Loans, etc from this school…but more important…did you ACCEPT those awards at your new school?

8

It sounds like the $1500 in charges were for non- tuition, etc. (costs from a prior semester? non-direct billed items?) Was your FA otherwise covering all your charges and then there was money left over that they gave you directly? that the school couldn’t use your FA to cover those items because you didn’t have the correct Title IV forms on file?

If your FA didn’t cover all your charges from the school, wouldn’t you have needed to pay those billed items directly? If you got FA money paid to you instead of covering the other items, aren’t you in the same place, except for the late/interest charges?

9

Sorry it took so long to get back to everyone - I was expecting e-mail notifications regarding updates on this thread and I didn’t get any.

Title IV (title 4) refers to financial aid funds that are distributed from the Dept. of Education that can include Subsidized/Unsubsidized loan, Direct Graduate PLUS Loan, Direct PLUS Loan, Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG), and Federal Perkins Loan. It does NOT include scholarships.

Title IV requires that these funds only be applied to specific allowable charges, like tuition.

When there is an excess of Title IV funds, the student/parent has to sign an authorization form, allowing the school to take those excess funds and apply them towards other fees - past or present charges the student may owe and any other charges (at my university it was parking access, lab fees, and bookstore charges - at some universities it can even be used to cover health insurance).

Once all those excess fees are paid, a refund can be distributed to the student if there is any money left over.

I did not attend a for-profit school. I first attended Purdue University Northwest and then Indiana University Northwest (IUN - both are good universities in my area).

This happened in the Fall semester of 2015, however they just sent it to collections and just applied this interest to it - there was no previous interest or fees attached to the amount due.

I knew the Title IV authorization from Purdue didn’t transfer over to IUN. The issue was, they had the majority of their (IUN) paperwork online - just like Purdue. I filled it all out and all the holds were removed from my account (which, if you look up the info on Title IV, it explicitly says there’ll be a hold put on your account until you sign off on that authorization paper). So, I assumed I had signed everything, turned in everything and it was all good to go (including the Title IV). It turned out, however, the only thing they didn’t have online was the Title IV authorization form. Which is weird and I don’t understand how I never got notification about it OR how my holds got removed without me being notified that I would be charged since I didn’t sign the authorization form.

When I tried talking to people at IUN, they pretty much told me it wasn’t their problem and that I knew I had to sign that form and I chose not to - which isn’t the case at all (why would I want to owe money to them).

I feel like I’ve been duped. I’m also not the only person this happened to - I know another person who was at the same orientation as me, who was not informed that we had to sign paper (as opposed to electronic) forms of the Title IV authorization form and they also owe money now, too.

It’s been on my credit for the last two years (they’ve put it down as “missed payments”, which is funny because they never asked for “payments” - they always demand the full amount). Now it’s on there as a charge off, but I feel like it shouldn’t be on there at all.

10

But if you didn’t sign the Title IV paperwork, you should have had excess funds at the school that were sent to you, and then you could have turned around and paid those parking and lab fees. The money from Pell, loans etc didn’t just disappear.

You need to track the money and how it was paid and applied.

11

I’m very confused. You say this has been on your credit for TWO years. When did this appear on your bursars account as an amount owed?

12

So, did you ever receive any disbursement in the amount of $1500?

If you did, and you spent it, then you do owe the school the $1500 plus interest to cover those fees that weren’t directly paid out of the account.

Those fees usually show up on your account after they have been accrued. Didn’t you originally see those fees on your account? We get our dd’s bill notifications via cell text, home message, emails and work numbers, even if the amount is a late fee of .25 cents. Son’s school sends us a “bursar” update to tell us we owe $12. in laundry fees.
Didn’t you wonder how your bill would be paid?

The university can’t foretell and predict what your expenditures will be. They really couldn’t pay those future fees without your written authorization. That’s what I am assuming is the Title IV form.

It doesn’t matter that the school personnel didn’t “directly” inform you that you had to sign a written authorization. Usually, it is provided in written language somewhere on your FA forms online. The schools usually assume that you’ve read the loan paperwork and kept printed copies. If you received funds of $1500, you had to know it wasn’t free money. It has to be paid back.
You can make a payment plan to pay the fees back.