Excelsior Financial Aid - Very Tricky!

[pmc2009]

So.....after going through all the motions of applying for financial aid with Excelsior and weeks of trying to decide if I want to take any actual courses through Excelsior or just exams I finally decide I will go ahead and register for some classes.....only to find out that there are only two (yes 2) classes on the Excelsior course list for September that have been approved for financial aid..

Out of the hundred or so courses they offer, you can only register for 2 if you plan to use any type of federal financial aid. What a joke! I can't believe they even started offering financial aid before they had more classes approved. It just does not make any sense to me. You can not use FA to cover your enrollment fee and then there are only 2 classes you can register for.

Don't get me wrong, I am still happy overall with EX but this is unbelievable. Good thing I was not counting on those classes to complete my degree. I was only going to take a couple so that I would actually be able to say 'yes, I took courses from the school where I obtained my degree'.

[cookderosa]

So.....after going through all the motions of applying for financial aid with Excelsior and weeks of trying to decide if I want to take any actual courses through Excelsior or just exams I finally decide I will go ahead and register for some classes.....only to find out that there are only two (yes 2) classes on the Excelsior course list for September that have been approved for financial aid..

Out of the hundred or so courses they offer, you can only register for 2 if you plan to use any type of federal financial aid. What a joke! I can't believe they even started offering financial aid before they had more classes approved. It just does not make any sense to me. You can not use FA to cover your enrollment fee and then there are only 2 classes you can register for.

Don't get me wrong, I am still happy overall with EX but this is unbelievable. Good thing I was not counting on those classes to complete my degree. I was only going to take a couple so that I would actually be able to say 'yes, I took courses from the school where I obtained my degree'.

Just so you know, all the TESC classes are approved, so you can technically use financial aid at more than one school (TESC, your local community college, etc)- then transfer them back to EC.

[jkfuss]

I have used federal financial aid at two B&M schools. I have also looked into it for DL classes and programs.

Using federal financial aid (aka Title IV, Stafford loans) carries a bunch of restrictions no matter where you want to take classes. First of all you must be admitted to a degree or certificate program at the school you wish to take classes from. Then you must be enrolled at least half-time, generally 6 credits or 2 classes. You can only receive aid at one school at a time, unless that school has a cooperative agreement with another school and the classes are pre-approved for cross-registration. Depending on how the school classifies and bills various fees, they may or may not be covered with financial aid.

So if you want to use financial aid at another school, then transfer the credits to EC, you would have to apply, be accepted, enroll, and complete at least two classes simultaneously at that school. To use financial aid at a second school, you would have to withdraw from the first, then repeat the process.

It might be worth another swipe at EC. Someone else in financial aid might be more helpful. I have trouble believing that only two classes per semester, total, are approved for financial aid at the whole school. Perhaps whoever you talked to didn't understand your question, or didn't know as much about Title IV as they thought they did!

If it turns out you got the right answer the first time, why in the world are they even bothering to offer financial aid? :confused:

[pmc2009]

Actually I was misinformed - you have to have your classes preapproved by your advisor before they will show up on the registration page if you are using financial aid.