Hello,

This site seems great. I am hoping to get some guidance on my situation.

I attended Rutgers University from 9/2011 - 5/2012. I took out a 15k parent plus loan with my mother. It was disbursed into payments of 7500 each for each semester. However, in Spring 2012, I had an emergency and had to drop below half time. Rutgers gave me the refund of around 5k, which was used to help with my situation at the time. The second half of the direct plus loan of 7500 was never disbursed to Rutgers. I am now getting a bill from Rutgers saying I owe 7,313 - which is the entire semester amount. I am currently still in school (at another university - that accepted me seeing my unofficial transcripts) and Rutgers will not release my official one until the balance is paid in full.

I cannot get approved for a private loan and I am in no position to pay that amount. I cannot register for the upcoming semester because now my current school is demanding the official transcripts. I feel like I am at a lose lose! I am trying to do the right thing here. I understand I owe a debt but it was suppose to be a student loan. I would have never accepted the refund if it wasn't from the student loan!

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Rutgers is threatening to send me to collections as well. I just applied for a direct plus loan to cover that semester which was approved but I doubt it will disburse because I do not go there anymore.

Here's what happened. Your aid paid to the University when you were still enrolled full time and you received your refund. Then, you dropped below 1/2 time, were no longer eligible for your loan and they school refunded it back to the lender. Due to this, you owe back the refund amount and the tuition for the class you kept as you no longer qualified for aid. Had you returned the refund check, you would not have as much to pay.

Unfortunately, the school cannot take a Parent PLUS loan at this point since you are no longer enrolled.

Your only option to clear this issue will be to seek a private loan based on credit. Now, about 2 years ago Sallie Mae would allow you to get a loan to pay a back balance at a school you are no longer attending. Whether they still do this or not, you'll need to ask Sallie Mae. If no one will give you an EDUCATIONAL, credit based loan to pay a back balance at a school you are no longer attending, you will need to seek a private, personal loan through a local bank or credit union to pay off the balance owed at your last school. If you can't get a credit based loan, you should at least start making payments on the balance owed as they will send you to collections. Further, if your mother was approved for a PLUS loan, she may be approved as a co-signer for you on one of the loans mentioned above.

Ultimately, you need to get this issue remedied as soon as possible. Failure to do anything will result in never getting official transcripts and therefore you will have to either retake all of those classes that should have transfered (and pay to take them again) OR you will never graduate since they don't have official record of your credits/grades.

It's a bad situation, but a good rule of thumb to follow in the future, is anytime you get a refund check from your school, speak to Financial Aid and/or the Business Office/Bursar/Student Accounts to be sure you qualify for the funding and can keep the monies.

Hope that helps!