I have a daughter in college. One of her friends checked on the status of her tuition and discovered that the federal student aid payment had not been made. Other local kids checked and none of theirs had been made. None of them was notified. My daughter's college has been told the payments are delayed until November. This means the students will have to scrape up the cash for tuition or be dropped. If the problem is widespread, this could mean a lot of empty chairs.

I have no confirmation, but it sounds like a system glitch. Anyone else have additional info? If it does turn out to be an "upgrade," joanne effect or y2k related issue, it may jolt some of our DGI academicians into awareness.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 19, 1999

Answers

It does not appear to be nationwide or systemic problem as I attend University of Texas at Dallas and received both my Pell Grant and Stanford Loan for the upcoming Fall Semester. During a brief stint (Sp '99 & Fall '98) at Texas Tech University the federal grant/loan checks were delayed for 1 mo due to problems at the Bursar's Office. During that same time my sister who is attending TAMU had no delays in receiving her scholarship and student loan. Lets see if anyone else has observed similar problems encountered by your daughter.

-- brian (d924utd@hotmail.com), August 19, 1999.

I work two blocks from a Missouri Univeristy (not saying which as I like to keep my town to myself)and school year 98 - 99 they had this problem for the Fall Semester, but this years checks are on schedule.

-- somewhere (in@missouri.com), August 19, 1999.

Thanks for the feedback. Guess it is just standard government mess up.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 19, 1999.

Have a friend in grad school at VA Tech in Blacksburg.

His federal loan did not show up either.

He needed to get a temporary emergency loan from the school, which was handled by the savvy financial aid person in the department.

I am not sure if the delay continues.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), August 19, 1999.

My daughter found out days before the deadline that her student loan hadn't been processed. They said she had used the wrong form, but that wasn't possible since she applied online. No one bothered to notify her that there was a problem. After much stressful activity she got the loan processed, but it will be late. She asked for an emergecy loan so she could get her books, and they said they couldn't give it to her until the regular loan came through. Duh! Then she won't need the emergency loan. (I sent her a check.)

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), August 19, 1999.

The last report from the DOE said that the federal government (Dept of Ed) was okay, but that less than 1/2 of the universities were compliant, and (I think) less than 5% had tested their interfaces with the revised federal computer systems.

We do know that that only 3 states (who would be the people responsible for the universities financial packages and programs) are compliant - and that earlier stories about the universities said student aid would be one of the "automatic" programs affecetd through the turnover: consider the interfaces across the fiscal years, the institutions, the agencies, and the date itself.

All are vunerable to "glitches"........I htink you guys just got y2k'ed.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 19, 1999.

I started to school at a local college. While waitng to speak to an advisor, the finiancial aid advisor came out into the waiting room and asked how many students were there wanting to know about their deferrments and Pell grants. Many students raised their hands. The woman went on to say that the computer had a glitch and she could not get the information. She said the students would have to just keep checking back until the computer was fixed. This was last week.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), August 19, 1999.

This is also a national problem in the UK. Can anyone explain this?

-- Graham hyslop (Bob@ghoward-oxley.demon.co.uk), August 19, 1999.

Oh, Robert, that is so funny:

Smile. You just got Y2K'd.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), August 19, 1999.

Over a year now, and my son-in-law is still awaiting re-imbursemet for both medical and moving expenses from U.S. Army, Germany. Foul ups? From day 10! Don't know if y2k related, but absolute, total, incompetence is the primary factor. The U.S. military is incompetent IN THE EXTREME. And I am just an "observer" holding no grudge, owed no monies. And from what I understand, the Navy is in even worse shape. Don't know about Air Force.

-- A. Hambley (a.hambley@usa.net), August 19, 1999.