Do I have a right to complain to the board of education of my state?

Question

My financial aid office is extremely un-organized.
Every semester, they have messed up my student loans.
They give me wrong dates consttantly as to when my funds will be disbursed. They do not know my student level as to my year, or the fact that I am an undergraduate or graduate. They give me false information and state it as fact. I dropped a class yesterday because the financial aid guy told me I can't take an undergraduate course even though I'm a graduate and it's approved for graduates. he told me this can't happen. so i changed my schedule and took a class that I didn't need. that's expensive. i called back to tell them about class change, and the woman I spoke with told me he was wrong and i can take that class.
they also never give me enough money for my semester.
i don't want to complain internally because of course nothing will get resilved. i want to take it to a 3rd party who will get stuff done. do i have a right to complain?

Answer 1

Not only do you have a right to complain, you have a DUTY.

Answer 2

Yes you do have the right to complain. I would go to http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ and see what they have there as far as filing a complaint with your school. The financial aid offices in schools work directly with the government since they disperse government funds. They also have a certian protocal they must follow as far as a checks and balances system. If they are not giving you the amount you were awarded, then they are in big trouble. They have to account for that money somewhere, and if it was awarded to you and you are not receiving it all then there is a problem.

Are you getting pell grants or loans or what kind of aid? If you are getting loans and they are not giving you all you were supposed to receive, then you need to make sure that you are not going to be responsible for paying the full amount back and only paying back what you actually received.


Best of luck to you and I hope that you get it all straightened out.

Answer 3

if it's a state school then complain to the state.
if it's a private school, then complain to FAFSA.

EDIT:
my recommendation.....make a buddy in the office and stick to them like glue.
stop by, bring some muffins and coffee and meet with someone who has some authority.
schmooze on them a bit and ask what you can do to make things go a bit smoother. let them know that you want to make the relationship work and you just need to know what to do on your end.
then, ask if it's alright to check back with this person each semester or if any snags occur.

either way might get you what you want, but one way is aggresive and the other is more passive/aggressive

Answer 4

i would say that you have the right to complain. going through a 3rd party would be effective and if you go through a good person (get opinions of people in your area), the job will be done in moments notice (it is simply because someone in the equation is being lazy).

But it will also be expensive to go through a third party. this happened to me when i was abroad in Kenya. but in Australia, the education system is quite organised (so far...)

Overall: Go for 3rd party if you are in a really bad situation and got extra bucks

Best of luck...

Answer 5

Go to this website - they deal with financial aid offices and federal student loan complaints:

http://www.ombudsman.ed.gov/

Any good financial aid office would provide this information to you.

Best of luck.

Answer 6

of course you do, you pay taxes you have the right to complain about anything