For a college student, the words “financial aid” is beautiful music to the ears. At least for me it is. Without financial aid, it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t even be attending school right now. Without help from parents, working for my own money completely and paying my own bills, I wouldn’t be able to pay for tuition as well. So, obviously I’m a big fan of financial aid. Despite all of this, my frustration with financial aid is never ending. Financial aid is a big help in the end, but getting to the “end” is a long and treacherous road.
Being a working college student is not an easy job by far. When you throw in financial aid troubles and the possibility of not being able to attend school because you aren’t able to pay tuition, it’s overwhelming and stressful. I’ve attended BC for three quarters now and the financial aid preparation for this quarter was by far the worst. Two of my documents that were faxed over got lost in the madness of preparation for fall quarter and I had to call at least twice a week to check up on the status of my financial aid. It was nerve wracking to say the least.
Just when I thought I was all good and ready to go for fall quarter, I received an email that requested an IRS transcript from me and a V1 form to be filled out by my mother. The deadline for these forms was two days later. Not only did I have to figure out how I was going to get my tax transcript and V1 form to my mom and back from her, I only had two days to do it while working around my full-time work schedule while also trying to make it to Bellevue by the time the financial aid office shut down. The deadline, in my opinion, was a bit unrealistic and it was way late notice.
On top of all of this, a few forms for this quarter and past quarters have had to be redone simply because of confusing directions. My mother and I would fill out the paperwork how we read and understood it but it always ended up being rejected and needed to be redone. When it comes to something as important as financial aid, having to redo a whole document and wait for it to be reviewed is scary because it could be that one document that prevents you from getting the help that you need to go to school.
I’m not trying to bash the BC Financial Aid department in any way, shape or form because if it wasn’t for them and all the work that they do, I for sure wouldn’t be on my way to getting my associates and transferring to a university. I’m getting my tuition paid for and I’m on my way to a successful future because of financial aid. On the contrary, I strongly believe that I’m not the only student who has had major trouble and confusion with getting all of my financial aid completed in a timely and easy manner. In the next three quarters that I have here at BC, I hope to see more organization from the financial aid department to eliminate these stresses.