Hello! A friend of mine applied to a school where she though she would get to attend tuition free because her dad works there. Despite not receiving it in her financial aid award, a representative from the school came down to tell her that she had earned full tuition and a stipend to attend. At the moment though, she has received nothing from the school and payment deadlines are arising.
Is this normal?
What is an appropriate course of action?
She didn’t file fafsa (she got annoyed trying to do verification) and was really depending on that scholarship to attend that school. Should she go to a CC and just apply to another school next year?
I find it hard to believe this would be normal. For us, when D applied at the school where her Dad teaches, he notified admissions when she applied. She received a formal letter same as anyone would outlining what she was receiving in aid.
The Dad should be able to obtain information from HR about what the dependent benefits are. Not every school offers a dependent benefit, and they all set their own rules as to who is eligible and what the $$ amounts are.
Before making any other decisions, she and her Dad should investigate with the school (I include her Dad since he is the employee). No sense choosing to go elsewhere before she determines if there’s money available.
One note, some schools will require the filing of FAFSA to determine if the student is eligible for a Federal PELL grant, which would reimburse the school for part of the tuition fees.
There are probably institutional forms that need to be filled out requesting the benefit.
My institution requires employees requesting tuition remission to file a FAFSA (and so the schools in our group for students seeking exchange). School applies federal and state grants to tuition first and then covers the balance with the benefit. Of course, not everyone is eligible for state/fed aid, and then the institution covers the whole tuition charge, but the employee is still required to fill out the FAFSA.
All the rules for tuition benefits should be in the personnel documents. Perhaps the dad needs to check with HR about what needs to be done.
No, this does not sound normal to me.
And she should finish her FAFSA. The DRT tool that is used to verify tax information has been pulled because of fraud concerns, so she can ask the school if they will accept a copy of 2015 tax return and/or W2 from parents instead.
She and her dad should call asap to work out the employee tuition benefit and FAFSA verification issues.
She won’t be able to get federal student loans without the FAFSA.
Thinks vary by school. if student has been accepted it probably needs to be coordinated with HR since the tuition part i is an employee benefit. She should still file the FAFSA in the event she could get any need based aid/loans to cover room/ board and other misc. expenses
Her dad needs to get involved. It’s HIS employee benefit-- the college needs to verify that your friend is in fact his daughter and eligible for the award, and there will be paperwork involved. And for sure file the FAFSA.
Is this for fall?
Which school employee told her that? Maybe she and her parent need to pursue this with that person
The parent would presumably know what their dependent benefits are and what paperwork needs to be done to obtain them. For instance, my BIL is a professor at a private in the NE, and my nephew is entitled to attend there with a 75% tuition discount. But he has to fill out paperwork - it doesn’t just happen automatically. Your friend should suggest to her parent that they figure out her financial situation while she still has time to make other arrangements.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: The OP needs to tell the friend to create an account and post for herself.