I received a financial aid offer but no admission decision

[nini312]

So I applied to San Francisco State University, and they have not made any admission decisions. This morning I received an automated email announcing my financial award offer is now online through their student portal. I logged in with the login info given to me awhile back when I submitted my app. There it was, my financial offer! But does that mean they are going to accept me? What is typical of this situation?

I don't want to have any false hope, yet.

[professor2000]

This is GREAT news. Same thing happened to me, when I applied to Columbia College Chicago (back in '06). They sent the financial aid award letter to me, BEFORE I got the acceptance letter. And I DID get in. I declined though...lol. But yes, this is usually good news. :mrgreen:

[nini312]

Thank you, professor2000. Could there be any possibility that I wasn't actually accepted, or is this pretty much a "sure deal" now? No worries, I won't be relying on your advice, but it would be nice to at least think there's a chance....

[professor2000]

I've never heard of anyone getting a financial aid award, and then not getting in. I could be wrong though.

anyone else on this forum know if that has happened before?

i will tell you one thing. calling the school to ask them about it, will NOT help. I did the same thing....and the director of grad admissions told me it was no indication that I got it. Yeah right! I don't think they would waste time figuring up your financial aid award info, if they didn't want you there. somebody screwed up the system, the financial aid letters went out too early. same probably happened with you.

i hope it works out for you. 8)

[nini312]

thanks much, i'll be keeping my fingers crossed!

[cath2024]

This exact thing happened to me. SFSU, yesterday. But they keep emailing me saying they are still missing one of my transcripts. So I sent them an email basically being like "I sent you that transcript forever ago, so what's up? Clarification please."

Here's what they wrote back:

"As of 3/20/2009 your application is incomplete because we are still

waiting for the following transcript:

Official Transcript from XXX COLLEGE.

Th Financial aid award letter means that you are qualified for

Financial Aid only based on your income and other eligibilities, but

it does not mean that you were admitted to the school."

Uhhh...what? This is super annoying.

Was yours for just loans, or loans and grants?

[djrg]

Something similar happened to me with UF... they sent me an e-mail mostly on financial aid.... I had to read the letter they sent me like four times, just to realize that the admissions was there, mostly implied, rather than explicit... however... I was indeed accepted! your acceptances should be coming soon 8) congrats in advance!

[flit]

certainly seems like it should be a positive indicator.... either that, or someone is taking incompetence to new levels

[teehod1982]

I'm new to this forum. But it''s been very therapeutic for me to read some of these posts. Anyway, I also received a financial aid offer from SFSU last week. I contacted their financial aid office, and they said that the package was made independent of my admissions status. That didn't make sense to me, so I asked my current advisor what she thought. She told me to call my department of interest, which is psychology, to see what was up. They told me that my application is still under review, and that I was probably admitted to the university, but not the department yet. Another good sigh was that I received an e-mail the night before from the department coordinator saying that my application is still being reviewed and that a decision would be made in a couple of weeks. Agh! So agonizing!. Hopefully I should hear something soon!

[HelloFeminists]

So I applied to San Francisco State University, and they have not made any admission decisions. This morning I received an automated email announcing my financial award offer is now online through their student portal. I logged in with the login info given to me awhile back when I submitted my app. There it was, my financial offer! But does that mean they are going to accept me? What is typical of this situation?

I don't want to have any false hope, yet.

HA! This is so funny, because I finally decided to withdraw my application from SFSU [i'd already accepted an offer from a Ph.D program in the UC system, and my application at SFSU was for a MA] when I got the *same notification* later that night! I'd sent out a graceful e-mail to the department chair and graduate advisor about how I was withdrawing, and then voila, it said I'd been awarded a specific grant as well as a combo of work-study and grad loans. I had previously assumed I was on the wait list, and then when the department person e-mailed me back to thank me for notifying her of my withdrawal, she didn't mention at all what my status had been up to that point. Now I'm really wondering what was going on. I guess I was admitted, especially because they'd given me a grant, not just loans... it's all a bit murky. A teeny part of me wishes I'd held out until I knew exactly what they were thinking, but I already knew I wouldn't be going there and I wanted to help out everyone else on the waiting list. I think it'd be tacky of me to ask now, though, haha.

Good luck with everything! It does seem like they admitted you... it makes no sense otherwise. Unless it was solely loans...

[cath2024]

certainly seems like it should be a positive indicator.... either that, or someone is taking incompetence to new levels

This is a definitely possibility. They are still saying that they don't have one of my transcripts, and I have received no communication from the department I applied to.

Don't send me a financial aid package unless you have admitted me! And if you've admitted me, then tell me! :x

[HelloFeminists]

So, I got an update yesterday when I found a letter from SFSU in my mailbox - they'd accepted me at the time that I told them to withdraw my application! The financial aid info was, then, definitely a sign that I had been accepted. I'm weirded out by the bureaucratic mess that seems to be their school - how did the department never contact me via e-mail, yet sent me a letter? And maybe they could've at least mentioned in their response to my withdrawal e-mail that they had actually admitted me... it's kind of awkward that they said nothing about it knowing that their letter of acceptance was already in the mail.

Oh, and they wanted me to take one additional undergrad class to be prepared for their MA degree, but the Ph.D program I'll be attending had no problem with my credentials / transcript... so random! Also, SFSU rejected my friend for their Social Work MA yet he was accepted by NYU. I'm not sure how any of this works.

[L3781345]

WOW!!!! I'm glad that someone else is having this issue too!!!! I've gotten 3 financial aid requests. However, I've gotten an accept, a waitlist, & then NOTHING!!!! Of course, the nothing school is where I want to go!! What should I do?? I got the emai about financial aid probably at LEAST 2 weeks ago. Today I called to be sure that letters have gone out & they said yes.....I still haven't received anything!!??? What should I do NOW?? :? :?:

[cath2024]

Still haven't heard from SFSU, others have, so it's a rejection. I wonder what happens if I accept the financial aid they offered me. :roll:

Appalling disorganization was my experience with them.

[whateverneveram3n]

You know, for 60 to 80 bucks, you'd think that would at least buy some common courtesy.

Too bad application fees don't work like tips at a restaurant. Who wants to bet we wouldn't be seeing nearly as many of these stupid mistakes?

[teaganc]

You know, for 60 to 80 bucks, you'd think that would at least buy some common courtesy.

Too bad application fees don't work like tips at a restaurant. Who wants to bet we wouldn't be seeing nearly as many of these stupid mistakes?

We would still see stupid mistakes, I'm sure, but we would have the option of withholding all or part of our application fees if we received subpar service. Now that's a system I can get behind.

[void]

I had this happen a few years ago when I applied to an M.A. program with SFSU, but I was offered loans and then rejected from the program! (Probably because of an abysmal meeting I had with the potential advisor where I think we mutually rejected eachother. Oh man. But I got into a great M.A. program elsewhere.) I do not think SFSU financial aid has a single thing to do with the admissions process.