The Queen of Appeals
They keep changing the game on me.
I went down to financial aid the other day to sit down with them and find out what exactly is going on with my grants and loans for this next semester. As many of you have heard, I have been in the long habit of filing appeals with financial aid in order to get my funds since I've been attending this school due to a medical withdrawal during my first semester. I have a close long term relationship with financial aid based on vagueness and mistrust.
I am now filing for two reasons, the withdrawal and my abundance of hours.
The medical withdrawal affects what is called my Completion Ratio. This is the percentage of classes that I have taken at this school that I have passed and not repeated. Repeats, withdrawals, or failures count against this percentage. The financial aid department here at UH likes a ratio of 75%. If you fall under that number you are required to file an appeal explaining why. In order for that appeal to be accepted you complete 75% of the courses you registered for in the previous semester and remain in good academic standing, which translates to a semester GPA of at least 2.0. I have met those requirements and my ratio is 78/117 or 66.66%. This puts my financial aid status into Probation.
There is also a cap on the hours that you can have on your record and still receive financial aid without an appeal. This cap is 190 hours. Prior to my attendance here at UH I received credit for 84 hours. 42 of those were attained at San Jacinto CC (for cosmetology) and the others at Brazosport CC and Wharton County JC. Since I have been attending UH I have registered for 117 credits. Counting the credit I received prior to enrollment and the credits I have attempted since my enrollment, I have a grand total of 201 credit hours on my record. This puts my financial aid status into Not Meets. I have no idea how they decided on that choice of words to describe this situation, let alone "probation".
In any case, if you have more than 190 hours on your record you must complete 100% of all courses that you enroll in for the semester, you must earn a minimum semester GPA of 2.50, and you must confirm the courses you are enrolled in are included in your degree plan or are prerequisites to be admitted into another degree program (financial aid will not be available for any courses not applicable to your degree plan, or in other words, hurry up and finish and get the fuck out).
This is a new policy they have implemented recently. Last school year, 2010-2011, if you were approved for the fall, you were automatically approved for the spring. This year, they have split the situations into two categories based on your reasons for appealing, the requirements for each reason are different, and you are reevaluated each semester. I think I liked last year better, kthx.
Last semester I registered for one class that was not necessarily in my degree plan, but it was for my math minor that I was planning on getting in addition to my degree. If I had NOT registered for that class there would have been no other courses beyond the 3 hours I was taking in BioChemistry that I could have taken as I was on suspension from the engineering department. I was kind of in a catch 22. All that remains for me are engineering courses. I have since been allowed back in. I received a 2.0 for the semester which keeps me in good academic standing with the university.
Here is my situation. Because I qualify for both statuses of Probation and Not Meets, the more strict requirements are applied to me. Therefore, because of the enrollment in MATH 4377 or because I did not make a 2.5 for the semester (bear in mind, I have a 2.5 overall GPA and they only require a 2.0 overall GPA), I am told that I will not receive my funds for the spring.
But, I was told I could still file an appeal. Really? No, but MAYBE? All these strict rules and requirements and the human being in financial aid that I sat down with said to me, no, but MAYBE?? *facepalm*
The rules and regulations are put into place to protect the financial aid system from abuse.
One could easily file numerous medical withdrawals so long as they have a doctor that will sign off on anything, bad paper cut and the like. This person takes money from the government that other people could use, granted they are required to pay back any grants that they receive before they can continue school and they still owe the funds they received through student loans. I say give people a little slack. Some of us who are medical liabilities are actually suffering from real medical problems.
There are other people who just drop courses and come back and drop again and keep not being able to finish a semester for other reasons that are not medically related. Those people have a hard time convincing financial aid that they are a good investment for the government to make, and I can kind of see that argument. But I think if a student has legitimate health problems, but is still trying to finish college, maybe that shouldn't be held against them. Maybe they shouldn't be labeled a financial aid medical liability. Oddly, the medical withdrawals do not count against any student as far as total number of career withdrawals, which has a cap of 6. Financial aid is the only department that holds medical withdrawals against you.
The feds that give funds to students depend on each institution to make the call on whether or not the money should be sent. Each school does this differently.
With regard to my gajillion hours, I could be one of those people who are just career students. In a way, I am, but not in the way the rules are trying to prevent the system from being abused. I haven't been in college this whole time doing nothing. I haven't just bounced from one major to another to another to another while living (poorly) off the government. I have already had one career that I went back to college to leave for another one. In particular, without the 42 hours of cosmetology from San Jacinto College I would not be over my hour cap. Those credit hours in question do not have any bearing on my engineering degree whatsoever. I have requested that they be struck from my record (as it was my choice in 2007 to send them at all, and if I hadn't, they'd be none the wiser) but was unsuccessful.
They are now a permanent part of my permanent record. The only way they are affecting me at all is this very situation. They don't affect my GPA, nor do they lessen the amount of classes I must take to graduate. As such, they are simply keeping me from getting my financial aid for next semester. Without them I would be in Probationary status, and I meet all requirements for approval under that status. I am being penalized for trying to change careers. Until I graduate I am in Not Meets status and my requirements are stricter (although, I bet no one is checking to see if all the courses I'm taking are in my degree plan). I do not meet the requirements based on last semester's performance.
But, if I still appeal, I might still get my money. MAYBE.
Every appeal is evaluated on a case by case basis for this reason, I understand. And really, in my current situation, they are not expecting an appeal from me as my status does not qualify me for filing under their current system of classifying my situation. That won't stop me, however, from submitting paperwork. I do hope that doesn't stop anyone from reading what I send or considering my situation.
I feel like I've been in this same situation a thousand times with everything riding on the decision of a faceless panel of judges. Only now I have the added joy of someone's initial reaction to my situation being that NO, I won't get any money. I don't even know who the mysterious Board is that reads and evaluates the appeals. I really have no idea who my audience is. I always try and write my personal statements for an academic and professional audience. Each appeal statement has ranged from 3 to 5 pages, and that is usually after I trim down quite a bit. This will be my 9th appeal. Counting the one to the engineering department, 10th. The statement of readiness that I wrote for engineering was over 7 pages. I'm so good at writing these now; I have developed a new skill in persuasive arguments on my behalf.
Rest assured that all of the things I have mentioned in this post will likely be included in this next statement that accompanies my appeal. Granted, I don't want to criticize the system or the fail safes put into place to avoid abuse. I simply want to explain and appeal to someone's greater judgment about how what I'm doing is not abusing the system, and how the rules are working against me and my ability to pursue my degree.
I am the Queen of Appeals.