Towson University

“I must say, I am only on my secondJan 26 2005Communications
I must say, I am only on my second day at Towson University and I have found it to be an absolute struggle to get the staff to do anything that is necessary to assist you in school registration. I was approved for a private loan back in mid November, as well as a federal grant in December. I have been in contact with both the loan companies and the school to ensure that everything was received and processed correctly. I had been staying in Seattle at the time, so I was unable to go back and forth to the University personally. I had been repeatedly told by the Private Loan company, and the federal government that all my paperwork was in order, and that they were waiting for Towson University to let them know that I was indeed a registered student, and then they could immediately disburse the funds. I called the University financial aid office and they assured me t hat everything would be taken care of the day I arrived for registraton.

Low and behold, after a 5 day drive across the country from Seattle to Towson, I sign up for classes and I received an email from my private loan company. They told me that they have made numerous attempts to contact the financial aid office at Towson University and they have made no attempt whatsoever to get back to them. All they need for Towson to do is verify that I am indeed registered as a student and they can immediately release my funds. Naturally, I found this quite disturbing as I had been told repeatedly time and time and time again that everything was ok and that I had nothing to worry about. I went to the financial aid office and demanded to speak to a supervisor. I come to find out that the school has had my information for over a month and has not done a thing with it. They have made no attempts to process anything so therefore, my financial aid is not being released to me at this time. I demanded to know why I had been told that everything was ok, and that it would all be smooth sailing when I got here. The lady informed me that by the time they got my financial aid info, it was almost Xmas vacation so they put it all on the back burner until Mid January when they came back from Winter Break. In other words "screw these applications we will take care of them when we get back from our 3 week break. Who cares if students will be depending on these loans and gants to pay their bill and assist them with purchasing books, rent, etc etc etc..."

After raising all hell about the financial aid's office lack of conern or their complete indifference to my situation, I demanded that they immediately contact my private loan company and inform them that they are to disburse my funds immiediately. They also assured me that my federal grant money should be disbursed within the next 24 hours.

I went through similar experiences like this when it came to my application. I applied online in early November. I had all my transcripts sent, and was just waiting like everyone else to hear as to whether or not I had been accepted. A month went by and still no word. Xmas came and went and still no word. I began calling the school to see what the hold up was and again, I got an incompetant student on the phone who assured me everything was ok and I should be hearing from them any day now. Almost 2 weeks before classes started, I still had not heard a thing. So I called the school and demanded to speak to a supervisor. She took down some of my information, and called me back a few hours later to tell me I had been accepted. I had to have all my information faxed to me because I was on the west coast. If I did not have a fax machine I would have never been able to receive and send back all of the vital information necessary to assure I could reserve myself a spot for the final orientation session before classes started. If I had not called and if I had not demanded to speak to a supervisor, I would still be sitting in Seattle right now waiting for my acceptance letter, all the while student workers in these offices would be assuring me that everything would be ok and that I would hear something soon.

MY BOTTOM LINE IS THIS.....IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE GOING TO TOWSON UNIVERSITY, DEMAND TO SPEAK TO THE HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT YOU WILL BE DEALING WITH EVERY SINGLE TIME. WHETHER IT BE ENROLLMENT SERVICES OR FINANCIAL AID OR WHATEVER, MAKE SURE YOU SPEAK TO SOMEONE WITH SOME FORM OF AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY. CHANCES ARE IF YOU DONT, YOUR PAPERWORK OR OTHER VITAL INFORMATION WILL SIT IN A PILE SOMEWHERE TO BE IGNORED UNTIL YOU COME INTO THAT OFFICE KICKING AND SCREAMING.

It is terribly sad that I have had to go th rough so much hell just to deal with staff members who do not want to do their job. I need my loans to be available to me as I need to use them to purchase books ,put a down payment on an apartment and pay for my tuition. I did all these things a couple months in advance as I know these things take time. I did my homework and constantly checked with the loan companies and the school to see if they had recieved everything they needed. How surprised was I when I arrived in Towson after a 5 day cross country drive and had been told that they actually HAD NOT made an attempt to do something as simple as telling my loan company that I am a student there. These funds I applied for were supposed to be available to me now. Now they are trying to tell me that I may have to wait a few weeks. I am not happy about that whatsoever. I am expecting a phone call from the head of financial aid department tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Male

“I had good grades, decent SATs and had aOct 19 2004Accounting
I had good grades, decent SATs and had a bunch of great ECs such as pit orchestra, state wide music competitions etc.
SAT: 1180 Male

“Pretty easy to get in, I had 3Aug 13 2004Finance
Pretty easy to get in, I had 3.3 gpa and 1090 on SATs. Might be a lil higher now.
SAT: 1090 Male