Could a College be scamming students?

Question

I have a love one who was offered an athletic scholarship. When my love one arrived to the college which is a private school, my love one has been there going on 4 weeks, and financial aide at the college has not received the scholarship. My love one has a pell grant, but it will not be enough to cover everything. My love one has also learned that it does not cover the books. Also no scholarship money has been given, the family is becoming a little worried. My love one also had to sign a master promissorry note and papers that my love one will owe the school. How could this be when there is a grant and a scholarship suppose to be added? I asked the College this and was told it was only formality and a part of the financial package, and nothing more, and when the scholarship is applied the master promissorry note will be non and void. My love one and some of the other athletes are becoming worried and frustrated because they are told they have to buy their own books. This school is expensive and without the scholarship my love one will have to get a loan that we do not want. My love one can not withdraw because you have to drop the classes in 1week to get 90% refund back and two weeks 80% back, after two weeks you get no refund. Should we the family be concern in any way or are we worrying over nothing and should be patient?

2011-09-06T03:02:09Z

My love one's Coach who wanted my love one on the team says that there is a scholarship, and the students will have to buy their own books. This was not told to my love one beforehand, and it's been 4 weeks no scholarship.

2011-09-06T03:02:13Z

My love one's Coach who wanted my love one on the team says that there is a scholarship, and the students will have to buy their own books. This was not told to my love one beforehand, and it's been 4 weeks no scholarship.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

I had the exact same problem( except im not an athlete) I got the pell grant and another scholarship and this covered everything except for about 200 dollars. I too started college 4 weeks ago in a private school. You probably though the scholarship was supposed to cover everything which it should. But if you got accepted for federal work study the money is not given to you directly. You have to get a job in school first and earn your money. 
When you first looked at tuition you probably though it included books. It certainly looked that way to me. But for most private schools you don't get your books covered. This is probably something they don't often tell you because it would discourage low income people from applying. It sucks but to make you feel better many people experience this when they get to school(me and my roommate) 
You probably thinks its not fair. You thought you were getting your books covered. Well for most private schools you have to read the fine print. I mean this fact is really obscure. In my school website this was only mentioned once and it took me a long time to actually find out the reason my books were not being paid.

Well here's the answer. (note: Although this applied to me, it could very much apply to you.)
Its called a student contribution or summer income. Its a certain amount of money that is not covered by any scholarship or grant. This usually means you have to pay for your books. For those in the middle or upper class they won't even notice the student contribution since they will probably be paying for most of the tuition anyways. But for people who have their school payed or are poor these 1000 dollars(roughly) are huge. Especially when most schools don't come up in front about this money you have to pay.All the private schools do it so don't think its just this college.

I almost got a loan but books for me werent much.

It sucks but what can you do?

tl;dr

sprachen · Answer

It does not sound like a scam, it sounds like you did not do due diligence here. I don't personally know of any loan or scholarship that covers EVERYTHING. 
if you were told that everything would be covered and you have it in writing you obviously have legal recourse. Consult a lawyer about getting out of the contract.That having been said, there are many on-line universities that are scammers.
BTW I would avoid Michael Lancer like the plague - DO NOT get scammed by a lending institution who hires barely literate people!

Could a College be scamming students?

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