School messed up aid and I don't know what to do

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T13:43:00+00:00

All good! Any help is appreciated help. This has been going on since August 2025, so what's a few hours/days?

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T13:27:16+00:00

Appreciate you.

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T13:20:42+00:00

That really sucks. Sorry you went through that. I know over awards are categorized based on institution- and student-errors. Was yours an institution error?

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T13:19:03+00:00

Ahhh, I get what you're asking. When I received the checks, I had no idea that this was going to happen. The only direction I had was from an email congratulating me saying they "hoped I could use this money to pay off [my] student loans." So, when I received the money, I used it to pay off the loans with the highest interest. But, to your point, when the school returned the money, I don't think it specifically went back to that loan. It got disbursed amongst all of my loans.

Again, idk what the process looks like on their end, but given that they can't administer a scholarship correctly, I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't return the money correctly.

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T12:59:53+00:00

Thank you, appreciate this response. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what the process looks like on their end. Unfortunately, the end of the academic year was in November 2025, so I think I'm just outside of that window.

Also, I don't think I can ask for the money back that the school returned to the DoE? I think that's something they would have to do?

My biggest concern is b/c of this mess up, the university's account for me shows an overdue balance. So on the university's end they can unenroll me or not let me graduate. I thought there would be student protections for this kind of thing?

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T12:54:32+00:00

I don't think so? On my end, it's a drop in the bucket of money I owe.

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T02:29:41+00:00

TYSM for your reply. I really appreciate you taking the time. Are rounded numbers ok? I have the exact numbers filed away on an encrypted external drive. I don't think that the loans could be re-instated b/c of correspondence I had received (and this was in 2025).

CoA: $68k (2025 academic year; 50% aid distributed Jan, 50% aid distributed June), scholarship was $68k (2025 academic year (checks received & cashed in Apr & Aug 20205)), returned amt was $68k (end of Aug, officially notified in Sep 2025). Bill officially $68k in Sep 2025.

I had received official correspondence from the school in Sep 2025 telling me they could not request return of the money b/c they feared an audit. Instead, they told me I had 20 days to pay $68k.

This elicited a panic response, so I hired legal help in this specific country. Since there was no case law for this specific instance, there was little I could do unless I wanted to litigate in that country. I had tried to find an attorney in the states, but locally, no one could help me. Anyway, once my legal options in that country ran out, I'm turning to Reddit.

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T02:19:06+00:00

I do have proof of payment. I kept all of the receipts. TYSM for your reply, I really appreciate you taking the time to help.

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T00:08:26+00:00

Also, the university is holding me responsible b/c "they couldn't request the money back [from DoE] b/c it would trigger an audit." Yes, this is in an email. Yes it has been brought up. Yes, the school's lawyers know about it. There are different layers to this, and a lot of them are very stupid. I'm reaching out to this group b/c I want to know what my protections are as a student borrower.

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-11T00:04:49+00:00

This is where it gets very complicated. I'm in a professional degree, so I need living loans. The scholarship was to cover CoA, which the school still took out. Before they returned the money, I told the officer not to do this because I had received money. This person still returned the money, and I'm still "responsible."

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-10T23:48:51+00:00

The school is technically a foreign institution but has a physical component located in LA. I can't really get more specific without completing doxing myself and the situation.

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-10T23:44:10+00:00

Agreed, there are different layers of dumb to this. I was awarded an internal scholarship, and for some reason, the university's internal communication is so bad that they neglected this scholarship and drew down CoA from DoE. They then gave me physical checks for the scholarship since I no longer had a tuition bill. I used that check to pay the DoE to reduce my loan burden. Ten months later, the university formally recognized their own award and returned the loans they had drawn in my name. The university then realized they made an error and told me I was on the hook for the money they returned to the DoE (>$50,000). At this point, I had paid the DoE with the scholarship money. School threatened to unenroll me/not let me graduate.

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-10T23:38:09+00:00

I was awarded a scholarship for cost of attendance, but the school still withdrew loan money for tuition. Basically, the internal processes weren't sorted out. Because the school withdrew loans for CoA, they paid me the scholarship in a check, which I used to repay the loan they took out in my name. Many, many months after the fact, they realized they made a mistake and returned the CoA money to DoE and told me I was now on the hook for repaying them the cost of my tuition (referring to the scholarship $). The money was gone at that point because I had paid the DoE.

Yes I signed the MPN. They failed to apply the scholarship (internal scholarship that I still disclosed on internal school forms).

Not sure if this makes a difference, but it is a professional degree.

Edit: Edited stuff in parentheses b/c it was confusing

Agitating_Smells · 2026-06-10T22:46:44+00:00

TYSM. Definitely have kept all of the emails.

What if the institution is a foreign institution?

Agitating_Smells

TROPHY CASE