University withholding transcript

[zzzz24]

If it were me, I think I would be focusing on paying off my debts to the previous school before trying to get assistance to shell out more funds on another school.

Basically, your plan is to get funds from one, pay off the debt from the previous, and then be in debt again to the new school?

I am not familiar with the U.S. school loan system, but don't they check someones previous outstanding debt before shelling out additional funds?

[davewill]

If it were me, I think I would be focusing on paying off my debts to the previous school before trying to get assistance to shell out more funds on another school.

Basically, your plan is to get funds from one, pay off the debt from the previous, and then be in debt again to the new school?

I am not familiar with the U.S. school loan system, but don't they check someones previous outstanding debt before shelling out additional funds?

The point of an education loan is to not be in debt to the school, but to a bank/lender. So they would be getting a loan to pay ALL of their schools, including the one they currently owe money to.

That said, you have a valid point. That's the point of working with the New Mexico schools. They could get a Pell Grant, pay for courses there, and still have money left to use towards the outstanding debt, all without having to borrow.

[sanantone]

If it were me, I think I would be focusing on paying off my debts to the previous school before trying to get assistance to shell out more funds on another school.

Basically, your plan is to get funds from one, pay off the debt from the previous, and then be in debt again to the new school?

I am not familiar with the U.S. school loan system, but don't they check someones previous outstanding debt before shelling out additional funds?

The point of an education loan is to not be in debt to the school, but to a bank/lender. So they would be getting a loan to pay ALL of their schools, including the one they currently owe money to.

That said, you have a valid point. That's the point of working with the New Mexico schools. They could get a Pell Grant, pay for courses there, and still have money left to use towards the outstanding debt, all without having to borrow.

With the direct loan system, you're in debt to the federal government, which is better than being in debt to a bank. Neither of the student loan debts can be discharged in bankruptcy, but the federal loans come with more protections.

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If it were me, I think I would be focusing on paying off my debts to the previous school before trying to get assistance to shell out more funds on another school.

Basically, your plan is to get funds from one, pay off the debt from the previous, and then be in debt again to the new school?

I am not familiar with the U.S. school loan system, but don't they check someones previous outstanding debt before shelling out additional funds?

I was in debt to WIU when I received financial aid at three different schools. I used my refund check from the Alamo Colleges (or maybe it was Central Texas College) to pay off the debt so that I could graduate from TESC. The federal financial aid system does not check, and probably doesn't have the ability to check, if you're in debt to a school. There's no credit check for Direct Loans.

My debt was smaller, though. I only owed $2,700. To be honest, they wouldn't negotiate like they did with credit card debt.

[cookderosa]

... IMO, you can probably REPLACE the credit you already have on your old transcript in half the time for hardly any money- by the time you're ready to enroll at TESU, you won't even need them, but if you have them at your disposal, you might as well request the transcript and see what can be used.   ...

Replacing the credit does no good. They still need the transcript in order to graduate.

If you misunderstood what I meant, then the OP probably did too.
I don't mean replace them INSTEAD of obtaining a transcript- I mean replace them WHILE waiting to pay off the debt. If it takes a year to get this cleaned up, there is no reason to sit there and twiddle your thumbs- earn the credit now and get some traction.

[sanantone]

... IMO, you can probably REPLACE the credit you already have on your old transcript in half the time for hardly any money- by the time you're ready to enroll at TESU, you won't even need them, but if you have them at your disposal, you might as well request the transcript and see what can be used.   ...

Replacing the credit does no good. They still need the transcript in order to graduate.

If you misunderstood what I meant, then the OP probably did too.
I don't mean replace them INSTEAD of obtaining a transcript- I mean replace them WHILE waiting to pay off the debt.  If it takes a year to get this cleaned up, there is no reason to sit there and twiddle your thumbs- earn the credit now and get some traction.

Wouldn't that be double paying and putting in double effort for credits you're going to eventually receive?

[davewill]

If you misunderstood what I meant, then the OP probably did too.
I don't mean replace them INSTEAD of obtaining a transcript- I mean replace them WHILE waiting to pay off the debt.  If it takes a year to get this cleaned up, there is no reason to sit there and twiddle your thumbs- earn the credit now and get some traction.

Wouldn't that be double paying and putting in double effort for credits you're going to eventually receive?

Exactly. Any alternative credits they earn that duplicate credits on the missing transcript will just be ignored when their transcript shows up.

[mysonx3]

... IMO, you can probably REPLACE the credit you already have on your old transcript in half the time for hardly any money- by the time you're ready to enroll at TESU, you won't even need them, but if you have them at your disposal, you might as well request the transcript and see what can be used.   ...

Replacing the credit does no good. They still need the transcript in order to graduate.

If you misunderstood what I meant, then the OP probably did too.
I don't mean replace them INSTEAD of obtaining a transcript- I mean replace them WHILE waiting to pay off the debt. If it takes a year to get this cleaned up, there is no reason to sit there and twiddle your thumbs- earn the credit now and get some traction.

Why replace credit that you already have? If you have to get a transcript for it anyway, what's the point replacing it?

[Mil0]

Kind of off topic but related since I'm still learning how all this college stuff works.

Can someone give me some insight into why schools want all your old transcripts to begin with?

If I took a course at some random school and it has nothing to do with my current degree, why do they need the transcripts?

[Merlin]

Kind of off topic but related since I'm still learning how all this college stuff works.

Can someone give me some insight into why schools want all your old transcripts to begin with?

If I took a course at some random school and it has nothing to do with my current degree, why do they need the transcripts?

There are many reasons. Here are a handful that I can think of off the top of my head...

• They want to understand what courses you have taken to evaluate the equivalency of courses at the new school
  
• They want to make sure you don't already have a degree in the subject you're pursuing
  
• They want to understand how successful (or not) you were in completing courses/degrees to gauge the likelihood that you will graduate from their school
  
• They want to calculate your GPA to determine if you qualify for their programs and/or if you are on academic probation at another institution and why
  
• They want to know if you owe money to another school. Colleges tend to work together on this to ensure that such bills are paid before new degrees are awarded
  

I'm sure there are other reasons as well, but that's just the ones that came up in 5 minutes while I responded to this.

[davewill]

Kind of off topic but related since I'm still learning how all this college stuff works.

Can someone give me some insight into why schools want all your old transcripts to begin with?

If I took a course at some random school and it has nothing to do with my current degree, why do they need the transcripts?

There are a couple of reasons. The first is to enforce policies. For instance those against multiple degrees in the same discipline or too many degrees of the same type (for example TESU won't award a third bachelor's degree). Also, some schools won't give you credit for a lesser course if you've already taken a higher one, like trying to take Algebra after taking Calculus or Beginning Spanish after Spanish 3.

The second reason is to help other schools collect overdue tuition and fees like we're discussing here.