Penn State University- Financial Aid Office

Dear ***:
With respect to your September 8th letter to our office concerning the complaint filed by *** *** (ID Number
***), enclosed you will find an apology letter from *** ***, who is the staff member that *** was working with in our office
I have spoken, with *** about this issue and he is very sorry for the delay that this will cause *** with respect to being able to continue her education at the University of PennsylvaniaDuring my discussion with ***, he told me that he produced the letter requested and he indicated that he was quite sure that he had sent it to the University of Pennsylvania on July 25th*** is correct that she made a number of attempts to contact *** after she contacted the University of Pennsylvania only to learn that they had no record of receiving the letter from ***On August 20, *** sent the letter to them again (copy is attached)
*** has been with the Office of Student Aid since April *** is an excellent employee and one that many staff turns to in an effort to help resolve some very complicated issuesOur office is an extremely busy office throughout the year, but particularly during the July, August and September months as many students and their families are contacting us as they look for ways to pay for a Penn State education
We have also changed our office policy to ensure this will not occur againThe information *** requested is easily accessible through the-.Federal Student Aid website (www.fafsa.gov) and we will now require all students to provide said information to the various third parties directly without the need for our intervention
If you have any further questions or concerns, please do, not hesitate to contact me at ###-###-####.
Sincerely
Senior Manager
Enclosures

Review: It is well known that PSU does not train their financial aid staff well, if at all. Over the past month I was in contact with a specific staff member to write a letter on my behalf to serve as a fee waiver to continue my education. This staff member and I discussed this in July. It is now August and after repeatedly calling and emailing to no avail this incompetent staff member and I finally talked again. In the end, I have to wait a year to continue my education because said staff member messed up the email address they said they sent the letter to well over a month ago. Instead of calling me, the potential school, or I don't know... going online to the potential school's website to confirm the email, they did nothing. There was no apology today about delaying my life a year, only an excuse about how busy their office is this time of year. I love my Alma mater, but the financial aid office needs to do better before someone loses it. Throughout the years I have been a witness to them ruining other's lives as well. The situations range from telling students their last year will be covered by FAFSA when in fact it will not to telling students the reason they heard nothing back about a loan they needed was because they failed to mention the proper qualifications for it. The staff here has no problem ruining lives because it is not their problem. That is what bothers me the most.Desired Settlement: Train staff better and I want an official apology from said staff member.

Business

Response: