FREAKING out about incorrect refund amount

[wisdomspeaks]

The student accounts office is going to give me a heart attack, man, I swear. So here is my situation:

I receive a full tuition waiver, a medical insurance waiver, and an annual stipend via my fellowship. On top of these funds, I requested a loan to help cover living expenses. I am responsible for paying student fees and I know the exact cost of each fee. I was able to calculate my refund amount ahead of time so I could budget for the semester. I usually receive both my loan and stipend in one huge lump sum, right? Tonight I checked my student account and my refund had been posted. I was missing almost $5k from my refund. I am a doctoral student. I typically charge a bunch of shit to my credit card during the summer because I know I can pay it off in the fall when I receive my stipend. My wife and I just don't make enough money to cover our bills when all we have is my research assistantship sans the financial aid. I need the full amount of the refund or I will be screwed.

I am thinking maybe it was a mistake because it seems that my entire stipend is missing. The refund amount matches the loan amount exactly. However, I have a lot of mental health problems and this is driving me up the wall because I am afraid of not receiving the money I was expecting and I cannot do anything to resolve it at 2 am. I know this is irrational and absurd. I am entitled to this refund and they can't take it away from me lol. I think I might need some emotional support to calm my ass down. I apologize for the cursing. That's just how I talk, so if it bothers anyone let me know.

Has anyone experienced this issue? What did you do? Should I be worried? Honestly, I just want to feel less alone in my financial struggles.

Thanks for reading.

--Allison

[TakeruK]

I'm sorry to hear this, this must be stressful. I have had similar financial issues too, especially for the few years where I was paid in 6 month lump-sum installments from Canada while I was a student in the US....those last few weeks when bills were piling up and waiting for the cheque to arrive were stressful.

It sounds like your school is back in session and I would encourage you to talk to your school's financial office / bursar today. Visit in person or give them a call to see what's going on. Maybe the stipend payments are happening in a few days instead.

[wisdomspeaks]

2 minutes ago, TakeruK said:

I'm sorry to hear this, this must be stressful. I have had similar financial issues too, especially for the few years where I was paid in 6 month lump-sum installments from Canada while I was a student in the US....those last few weeks when bills were piling up and waiting for the cheque to arrive were stressful.

It sounds like your school is back in session and I would encourage you to talk to your school's financial office / bursar today. Visit in person or give them a call to see what's going on. Maybe the stipend payments are happening in a few days instead.

Hey thanks for your response! I sent them an email in the middle of the night and am going to call them when I have some time this afternoon. I think I'm just being paranoid and assuming the worst. I was real stressed that I wasn't able to do something about it immediately, I think. I'm glad I'm not the only one!

 

the good news is that this happened to someone else in my program, too, so I think it might be a mistake they made.

[TakeruK]

1 minute ago, wisdomspeaks said:

Hey thanks for your response! I sent them an email in the middle of the night and am going to call them when I have some time this afternoon. I think I'm just being paranoid and assuming the worst. I was real stressed that I wasn't able to do something about it immediately, I think. I'm glad I'm not the only one!

 

the good news is that this happened to someone else in my program, too, so I think it might be a mistake they made.

Good luck on getting a resolution!

[fuzzylogician]

2 hours ago, wisdomspeaks said:

the good news is that this happened to someone else in my program, too, so I think it might be a mistake they made.

Good luck getting this resolved. It does happen on occasion, though it could just be that funding source A gets disbursed on date A and funding source B gets disbursed later and that's all that this is. It's stressful, but it's good that you caught it early. Make sure you stay on top of it -- partly that means knowing who to talk to and who can get sh*t done (not always the person whose job it is on paper), and partly just checking in at regular intervals so they don't forget about you (you might even ask them explicitly when you should expect something to happen and when you should check in by if you don't hear from them). Make sure they understand that this has consequences for you, but be nice; the person who made the mistake (if any) might not be the person solving it, and anyway people who control money are not people you want to piss off. 

[cowgirlsdontcry]

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 0:59 AM, wisdomspeaks said:

The student accounts office is going to give me a heart attack, man, I swear. So here is my situation:

I receive a full tuition waiver, a medical insurance waiver, and an annual stipend via my fellowship. On top of these funds, I requested a loan to help cover living expenses. I am responsible for paying student fees and I know the exact cost of each fee. I was able to calculate my refund amount ahead of time so I could budget for the semester. I usually receive both my loan and stipend in one huge lump sum, right? Tonight I checked my student account and my refund had been posted. I was missing almost $5k from my refund. I am a doctoral student. I typically charge a bunch of shit to my credit card during the summer because I know I can pay it off in the fall when I receive my stipend. My wife and I just don't make enough money to cover our bills when all we have is my research assistantship sans the financial aid. I need the full amount of the refund or I will be screwed.

I am thinking maybe it was a mistake because it seems that my entire stipend is missing. The refund amount matches the loan amount exactly. However, I have a lot of mental health problems and this is driving me up the wall because I am afraid of not receiving the money I was expecting and I cannot do anything to resolve it at 2 am. I know this is irrational and absurd. I am entitled to this refund and they can't take it away from me lol. I think I might need some emotional support to calm my ass down. I apologize for the cursing. That's just how I talk, so if it bothers anyone let me know.

Has anyone experienced this issue? What did you do? Should I be worried? Honestly, I just want to feel less alone in my financial struggles.

Thanks for reading.

--Allison

I do understand how helpless you feel in the middle of the night and I'm sorry. This is my first semester as a PhD student. I kept receiving emails about my account. When I would check, I would see that for each installment of grants/waivers/scholarships, my loan amount went down. The accounting department was very good here at telling me what was happening, but you may need to contact them to get it all straightened out. Hopefully, by now you have some answers.

[MarineBluePsy]

Yes I've experienced this, so you're not alone and yes it is very frustrating.  Like you I requested student loan money to take care of things I couldn't with just my stipend and I did all of the paperwork early.  Then something happened beyond my control....there was restructuring as people were laid off and those remaining had to double or triple their workload and learn new things.  The financial aid office knew I and every other student really needed our refunds, but they were working as fast as they could to get up to speed with fewer resources and honestly we just had to be patient.  During this time I revised my plans as best I could with the limited resources at my disposal and meditated a lot to deal with my own frustration about it.  A few months later, they finally got to me and my refund was processed and posted to my account.  I'm glad I got through that, but am hoping to not have to deal with that again.  

[TakeruK]

I hope you now have a timeline for getting the missing money!

But if not, I would suggest that you talk to the office in charge of helping graduate students. At my school, this was the Graduate Dean's office but it might be something else at yours. These offices may have resources to help grad students in situations like yours or what @MarineBluePsy. For example, my school offered emergency loans that can be repaid with no fees and no interest. The most useful one was generally for new students (but could be granted to those who need it) which paid about 1 month stipend's worth. You got a 6 month deferral period where you did not have to make payments, and then you paid off the principal of the loan (no interest or fees) in 18 equal installments (i.e. the loan completely paid off 2 years after disbursement, including the 6 month deferral period). So, if you have credit card bills or other bills (e.g. rent, food) that depended on getting the correct payment/refund, you could ask about emergency loans from your school (find the people whose job it is to help students!). You can probably pay it all back once you get that refund.