I am in quite a strange predicament that I have not found any information on anywhere on the internet.

I graduated this past December 2015 with my Masters of Education after completing a 6 credit student teaching semester. I was enrolled part time during this time as this was the last course that I needed to complete my degree. I requested a transcript this week for a job only to be rejected because of an unpaid bill. I looked at my account to see that I was billed on February 9th for over awarded loans from the fall semester. My school is claiming that because I only attended one semester instead of two, my cost of attendance was reduced and I was over awarded in my fall financial aid package.

After doing some research, I found out that for an enrollment period of less than 9 months, schools determine cost of attendance based on the average cost for a year divided by 2. This means that the cost of attendance should be equal for both semesters and my fall loans should not be reduced.

http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1516FSAHbkVol3Ch2.pdf

Page 9 of this handbook from the federal aid website has an example that is 100% like mine.

The school is claiming that they were unaware that I was graduating in December and thus, determined my aid for both Fall and Spring semesters with Spring semester being calculated based on full time enrollment. This calculation made the Spring semester more expensive than the Fall and ultimately lead to me being awarded more than I should have for the fall semester alone. They explained to me that they added the two cost of attendances for Fall and Spring together and divided by 2 to determine my cost of attendance for each semester.

Now I find it hard to believe that they were unaware that I was graduating in the Fall considering that in September, I had several conversations with a financial aid officer in regards to adjusting my loans to account for a part time schedule as the student teaching course was all I had left for my program.

I had ignorantly accepted the financial aid package that included both semesters assuming that it didn’t matter and that the Spring semester would just not be applied. I believe that this was my fatal error in all of this. I know that they are morally wrong in how they are handling this, but I’m wondering if I even have any leg to stand on legally or if I should just bite the bullet and pay this bill. This was just not something I anticipated dealing with 5 months after my loans were originally dispersed.