School still hasn't been paid.

[Disgruntled]

My school sent off an invoice after much confusion on their part regarding SMART paying for my tuition (the damn financial aid office lost the letter I was supposed to give them 3 separate times....) at the end of September. It's now approaching the end of October and the school still hasn't been paid and they're starting to come after me why they haven't gotten paid yet (even though they're supposed to send things like that to SMART who is covering the tab...supposedly). Has anyone's school not been paid yet or am I a special case?

[ThingsToCheck]

My school sent off an invoice after much confusion on their part regarding SMART paying for my tuition (the damn financial aid office lost the letter I was supposed to give them 3 separate times....) at the end of September. It's now approaching the end of October and the school still hasn't been paid and they're starting to come after me why they haven't gotten paid yet (even though they're supposed to send things like that to SMART who is covering the tab...supposedly). Has anyone's school not been paid yet or am I a special case?

My school used to wait until after the add/drop date to bill SMART and then it was due a month later, so late October. I would receive two invoices showing the bill due prior to this, but I was instructed by my school to ignore those. (Invoices were sent automatically, so there was nothing they could do other than tell me not to pay them).

I would check with your school's Bursar's Office to confirm they have your scholarship details. Make sure they billed SMART directly and try to gather information about when, how, and the due date. Simultaneously, contact SMART and try to find out if they received a bill from your school. Its possible your school is unfamiliar with the process and mishandled it, or they didn't provide the information SMART needs to be able to pay it.

This kind of difficulty can be annoying, but just remember to stay positive and polite with the financial aid office, they can make your life very easy or very difficult. Once you handle it this semester, they should know the process for the future.

[Anon_]

I had to deal with this every semester. Every semester, I had to have a 1:1 meeting with someone from the bursar's office to explain that the SMART program will not pay unless invoiced. The university has a policy of never invoicing 3rd parties. This game of chicken played out multiple times. The university gave in every time but never without multiple meetings.

Kind of an aside, but it was real fun during the government shutdown. The university expected me to pay up, I was contractually not allowed to pay, and if I was removed from classes I'd be contractually screwed. I ended up being threatened that my debt was going to be transferred to state tax collections as a tax debt, and removed from enrollment and had to go begging to not be kicked out of university.

[Frustrated]

Update:

SMART informed me they sent the payment off around the 23rd and here we are on the 6th and the school is still saying they haven't seen the money. I emailed the accounting services department to see if they had received the funds. We'll see what comes of that. Not sure what to do while I'm in limbo here. How long does it take for a check to get from point A to point B.

[Degutis]

I had to deal with this every semester.
Every semester, I had to have a 1:1 meeting with someone from the last minute essay writing service bursar's office to explain that the SMART program will not pay unless invoiced. The university has a policy of never invoicing 3rd parties. This game of chicken played out multiple times. The university gave in every time but never without multiple meetings.

Kind of an aside, but it was real fun during the government shutdown. The university expected me to pay up, I was contractually not allowed to pay, and if I was removed from classes I'd be contractually screwed. I ended up being threatened that my debt was going to be transferred to state tax collections as a tax debt, and removed from enrollment and had to go begging to not be kicked out of university.

The same happened in my case all the time. The University of Notre Dame has as well the policy to avoid invoicing third party companies and programs. Now, as I'm planning to re-apply for an MS (majoring in electrical engineering), there'll be (again) a good deal of issues..