Denied Financial Aid Because of 182 Credits.

[Adam54321]

I don't see any existing credit limit for students who have not completed a bachelor degree on the Student Aid site, but what is your previous school GPA? I know you have only 4 credits to transfer, but if you have a college credit (exclude the alt credits) GPA of <2.0 that could be a problem. Meaning if 'way back'  you failed two or three courses but passed one (even with an A) the total GPA may be too low for Federal Aid.

This is the response I received. 

Good Morning,

Thank you for your patience as your account was reviewed further. Based on our website, " The American Council on Education provides recommendations on college credit to be received for workforce training, courses, or exams offered by a wide variety of organizations, from businesses and unions to government and the military. UMPI follows these recommendations in awarding college credit to students who have successfully completed these trainings." 

These credits have been attempted and successfully completed for college credit to be earned so the number of transfer credits are calculated in the review of Satisfactory Academic Progress. If I'm reviewing your account correctly, I don't see that a bachelor's degree has been earned at a prior institution so requirements are not met for financial aid. I  am happy to review an appeal if you decide to submit one. Your appeal and Degree Progress Report will be reviewed to determine the courses you have remaining for the degree to be earned. I have attached the appeal form for your convenience. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions. 

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I graduated last year with FAFSA Pell Grant money from UMPI after transferring in 184 credits with transcripts from 5 different Universities/CC and ACE credits (Sophia, Coursera, Straighterline). A friend also graduated this Summer 1 with over 200 credit hours and Pell grant, so I think its very unlikely that the amount of credit is the reason your FAFSA got declined. Since you also never used FAFSA before and have only 4 RA credits, there is no possible way you exhausted all your aid.

I work at a CC testing center and the most common reason I hear about rejected FAFSAs from new students is from errors. There are so many possible sources for errors: your FAFSA application, UMPI, or even the government (citizen status, IRS tax return, etc.). I'd recommend looking at your FAFSA application and verify everything is correct (SSN, Income, personal info). If there is anything wrong with the application, you can make corrections. If you applied for Summer 2, make sure you complete the 2023-2024 FAFSA application. If you are 24 or older by 1/1 of the school year, you are an independent student. You need a high school diploma or equivalent. Once you verify (Triple Check) there are no errors on your end, access your FAFSA dashboard where you should be able to see any issues in To DO Tasks that need to get resolved. If you don't see anything in the FAFSA website, the only option is the UMPI financial office. It's possible that UMPI made a mistake. I've been declined FAFSA twice and the second time was after I transferred to another CC and the previous school still had me as an current student. Since you can only use aid at one school at a time, my aid to the new school was declined. While most of my experience doesn't really apply to your situation, my point is there may be a clerical error on UMPI's end.

I don't understand why UMPI would send an appeal unless you guys already verified everything was good on your end which I very highly doubt judging from your reasoning. In fact, it kind of sounds like UMPI just did the bare minimum. If you are unable to resolve this via UMPI financial aid office, you can try applying at another school (University of the Cumberlands, TAMUC, and the other schools on this forum).

I'm thinking of paying the entire lot on my credit card, it'll be an extra 2.95% though... They have payment plans, you can split this into 3 payments... However, you missed the deadline, so you can only split it into two now...

Exactly, easy CC points. I get finances can be tough but these degrees are so freaking cheap (and are an investment right?)  and people here hem and haw over something which is 1% the cost of many colleges.  There are a billion ways to make it work.

While you may think there are a billion ways to make it work, that's just not the case for many people. Many people don't have credit cards or hte available credit on a credit card to spend $1700 and hope that's all they need to spend. Many people are from other countries and finances are nothing like in the US.

We should also consider that OP can still qualify for Pell Grant awards and it is only $1500-1700 if Adam54321 completes everything in one semester.

This is the response I received.

Good Morning,

Thank you for your patience as your account was reviewed further. Based on our website, " The American Council on Education provides recommendations on college credit to be received for workforce training, courses, or exams offered by a wide variety of organizations, from businesses and unions to government and the military. UMPI follows these recommendations in awarding college credit to students who have successfully completed these trainings." 

These credits have been attempted and successfully completed for college credit to be earned so the number of transfer credits are calculated in the review of Satisfactory Academic Progress. If I'm reviewing your account correctly, I don't see that a bachelor's degree has been earned at a prior institution so requirements are not met for financial aid. I  am happy to review an appeal if you decide to submit one. Your appeal and Degree Progress Report will be reviewed to determine the courses you have remaining for the degree to be earned. I have attached the appeal form for your convenience. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.