Excelsior's Financial Aid Department Sucks

[dondeal]

This is a rant about Excelsior and I hope the faculty reads this board.

- Excelsior doesn't give out book vouchers to help it's students.

(If you keep calling enough people; they'll, eventually, tell you to email this one guy and you will have to explain why you need a book voucher. Uhhhmmm, the federal government says I qualify for the maximum financial aid, isn't that a good enough explanation? Nope, you have to get personal and explain your situation deeper to this one guy!)

- Last financial aid year, you had to wait a month after school starts to get a refund check. Now this aid year it is 2 months!:mad: I emailed them and they said it's to stop students from withdrawing early, but this problem has to be a small fraction of the honest students that receive aid. So their philosophy is to punish the majority of honest students because of the actions of a few.

Why am I pissed? I qualify for the maximum aid and I am a pre-med student (Sciences done at brick and mortar college). Grades are important to medical schools and working full-time will make them drop. I'm around a 3.85 gpa now. However, I will be forced to transfer from part-time to full-time because of no book vouchers and the 2 month delay on refund checks so I can pay the bills.

State schools in Alabama and Georgia, that I've attended try their best to disburse aid within 2 weeks after classes start. Excelsior's Financial Aid Department doesn't care about you.

[dondeal]

67% of all students receive some sort of financial aid so I know a lot of you are effected.

Fin Aid Fast Facts percentage

[creationstory]

This is a rant about Excelsior and I hope the faculty reads this board.

- Excelsior doesn't give out book vouchers to help it's students.

(If you keep calling enough people; they'll, eventually, tell you to email this one guy and you will have to explain why you need a book voucher. Uhhhmmm, the federal government says I qualify for the maximum financial aid, isn't that a good enough explanation? Nope, you have to get personal and explain your situation deeper to this one guy!)

- Last financial aid year, you had to wait a month after school starts to get a refund check. Now this aid year it is 2 months!:mad: I emailed them and they said it's to stop students from withdrawing early, but this problem has to be a small fraction of the honest students that receive aid. So their philosophy is to punish the majority of honest students because of the actions of a few.

Why am I pissed? I qualify for the maximum aid and I am a pre-med student (Sciences done at brick and mortar college). Grades are important to medical schools and working full-time will make them drop. I'm around a 3.85 gpa now. However, I will be forced to transfer from part-time to full-time because of no book vouchers and the 2 month delay on refund checks so I can pay the bills.

State schools in Alabama and Georgia, that I've attended try their best to disburse aid within 2 weeks after classes start. Excelsior's Financial Aid Department doesn't care about you.

call me harsh, but school ain't free...and they all have policies. if u don't like it.. you can leave it. other schools may have better fin-aid policies but less understandable acceptance of credits.

[P00057870]

I understand your frustration...I bet many of us have or currently are feeling your pain at this time.

But I also want to point out that you need to keep in mind that this time of year is the most hectic for ALL colleges -- new enrollments, returning enrollments, and with the lousy economy more people than ever going back to get their degrees.

Try to work with them, as much as you can. Keep you name in front of the people you are contacting.

The old addage of "the squeeky wheel gets oiled first" still applies -- but in a friendly and understanding way.

[joel66]

If you're looking for maximizing your financial aid then I would suggest taking a lot of your classes at your local community college, or state college with low tuition.

Example, for full time I qualified for up to 1200 to 1400 per semester. At Excelsior if I took 6 units then approx 600 dollars was credited toward 1800 of tuition for 1200 remaining balance. I decided to take some online classes at my local college for 6 units and had enough money to pay for my classes, books, and other misc fees. The school would send me two separate checks like 300 around the 3rd week into the semester, and another check half way though.

I noticed when going to local community college or checking out TUI or Excelsior, the amount is the same. For me, I thought it was better to use financial aid at my local school.

In regards to coupons for books? I never buy books at the school. Even in my local school and many other schools the books are way over priced. Toward the last year of school with Excelsior, I started getting most of my books from chegg or used books from amazon.

[dondeal]

I'm putting in plans to transfer but the point is I can't because it is too late to transfer for the Fall semester so I am stuck dealing with their policies for one more semester.

They made this a new policy at Excelsior, after the registration dates of my potential transfer colleges.

In the end, Excelsior is a private college and can do what they want. I'm headed back to the state college scene. I've been at Excelsior for a year.

call me harsh, but school ain't free...and they all have policies. if u don't like it.. you can leave it. other schools may have better fin-aid policies but less understandable acceptance of credits.

[Devilry]

If I may ask, since you received 'full financial aid' .. can you tell me what they gave you total? i have been trying to figure out how much they give you for living expenses and such, or just the amount left over after all tuition/cost