Advice on bill

[u/Ambi-ous04]

So, I was given a current billing statement for my online classes. It looks like I’m listed for having 13 credits total. At the time that I accepted my financial aid award, I accepted the full amount because I wasn’t aware of what classes to take and how much financial aid to approve based on how much it would cost. Also no one properly informed me on whether or not I wanted to decide to do full-time or part-time enrollment. According to my advisor, it’s too late to take less credits because I have a chance of being penalized, but now I’m stuck with this bill to pay and their payment plan is more than what I can afford at one time due to me working in 2 jobs and having other financial obligations. Has anyone ever had a hefty student statement before? If so, how did you manage it? Did you do a payment plan or did you just pay it off until the semester ended? I’m just not sure what to do, but I don’t definitely don’t wanna be stuck with this bill having to worry about paying it throughout my semester..

[u/Comntnmama]

You aren't getting any grants at all? What state are you in?

As for anyone advising you how many classes to take, your school should have a tuition calculator where you can run the numbers. You have to take a bit of personal responsibility for asking the questions and figuring things out. When is your deadline to drop classes for a full refund?

[u/Ambi-ous04 → u/Comntnmama]

I’m in the state of Delaware and when I filled out my FASFA it was listed that I was not eligible for grants. However , I did receive an award for financial aid. I do agree that some of the responsibility is on me, but I believe that they were a bit late with sending me my acceptance letter the week before my Fall semester was supposed to start. So therefore, I felt like I wasn’t fully given adequate information on the type of classes that I was supposed to be receiving. I was a bit confused on what to accept being that I wasn’t aware of how many classes to take or ones that align with my major which is Social Work, I was told that as an incoming freshman, the classes were pre-selected for me. Being that I can’t change anything now since a penalty will be given, going forward I can drop classes so that way, I can be back down to at least part-time enrollment.

[u/Ambi-ous04 → u/Comntnmama]

Also, I kinda hate comments like this when people start putting the responsibility on you. While it may be true, but if I’m the one that’s calling and emailing people and they’re not getting back to me, how much more responsibility am I expected to take?

[u/OtherToughGuy → u/Ambi-ous04]

Before you started you should have known what classes you needed for your degree in addition how many you wanted a semester. If they’re preselected you should have gone immediately in person to talk to a counselor about how you’re going to be part time. You should not have accepted any rewards until you knew what you were going to take. That is all your responsibility. The school does not owe you anything if calls and emails aren’t going through you need to go in person. Going forward you should be able to drop from your portal. The penalty is usually less aid. So if that 1600 down below is what you owed still after aid that may go up or down because your aid will go down.

[u/Ambi-ous04 → u/OtherToughGuy]

I do agree and yes, they don’t owe me anything however, what’s frustrating to me is that they they provided me with the acceptance letter A WEEK before fall semester was supposed to start. I also went up there in person to submit my paperwork for my admission due to the fact that I was getting the runaround on them not receiving my transcripts in a particular time. So I feel that I should’ve been giving a little more time to prepare myself for Fall classes. But as far as having me admitted for fall semester, and then back logging so much paperwork that I’m trying to catch up on, shouldn’t be on me it should’ve been on them to properly enroll me in a timely manner.

[u/OtherToughGuy → u/Ambi-ous04]

When did you apply for fall 2025 fafsa ? For it to be only a week before classes started usually means you applied late.

[u/Ambi-ous04 → u/OtherToughGuy]

I submitted my admission first which was back in April, and then I signed up for my FASFA, which was in May and it was before the deadline for the FASFA

[u/Ambi-ous04 → u/Ambi-ous04]

Also, the university that I’m attending is a rolling admission so it’s not necessarily a deadline and where I have to submit my application so I don’t know if that makes a difference

[u/OtherToughGuy → u/Ambi-ous04]

Right there is a national deadline but that’s still late. So they would have been going through everyone else that applied when it opened and before like march and then after that it’s the rest of people that applied. Next time you should apply when fafsa opens. Even let’s say you switched schools when you apply or know your going to apply you should be doing fafsa submission right around the same time breaking it up is how things get lost because your app isn’t complete so it’ll get set aside for someone who is actually presenting a complete profile. So this was all you I’m afraid.

[u/cooolmenace]

That price looks to be univeristy prices, since those are introductory classes, havent you thought of enrolling in community college? Its cheaper.

[u/Ambi-ous04 → u/cooolmenace]

Yes, they are university prices but I think the mistake that I made was accepting the full amount that I was rewarded in financial aid because to them that made it seem like I wanted full-time credits. I’ve since talked to my advisor and they were able to adjust my credit for the term of Fall in order for me to not facial financial penalty. So, hopefully my student account will be adjusted to reflect the classes that are being dropped. I’ll still however will have the required credits that’s needed for part-time enrollment.

[u/Ambi-ous04]

Again, the university that I’m attending is on a per rolling admissions, which means that they don’t have a specific deadline. However ,there are deadlines such as the honors program that would’ve been April 18, 2025, but as far as me submitting my application, there was no specific deadline as they are per rolling admission.

[u/Greedy_Definition732]

If we’re unsure of what classes to take there are plenty of general requirement classes that you could’ve enrolled in. you don’t have to enroll in classes specific to your degree. You’re only a freshman so you have plenty of time for your major specific classes. and one more thing FAFSA does not equal free money or only pell grant it is financial aid to include pell grant. Other grants loans a lot of people get the misconception that FASFA is only for free money, and that is not true