May 25, 2023
  • 12:08 pm Fall Convocation 2022: “The State of this University is Strong”
  • 9:37 pm Ogrin Brings the Thunder in Toros 12-3 rout; team plays for playoff championship tomorrow
  • 7:00 am Outstanding Professor Award Recipient’s Mic Drop Moment at Last Month’s Virtual Ceremony
  • 9:10 am Bookworms of the World Unite!
  • 7:46 pm Breaking News: All Students Living in Campus Housing Required to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine
  • 9:00 am CSUDH Esports Creates International Competition
  • 9:35 am Spring Commencement Ceremonies Get Brighter
  • 3:46 pm Breaking News: Spring Commencement Ceremonies Recieve Stadium Upgrade
  • 8:00 am Testing the Teachers (and All the Educators)
  • 9:30 am CSUDH Educators and School Employees, Vaccinated Next
  • 10:30 am For White People Only: Anti-Racism Workshop Addresses Racial Bias and Unity
  • 2:43 pm Greatness Personified: Remembering Kobe Bryant
  • 10:02 am Straight Down the Chimney and Into Your (Digital) Hands: Special Holiday Edition of The Bulletin!
  • 2:44 pm Did You Wake up Looking this Beautiful?
  • 11:43 am A Long History for University’s Newest Major
  • 5:15 pm Issue 5 of Bulletin Live! Collector’s Item! Worth its Weight in Digital Paper!
  • 4:06 pm Special Election Issue
  • 4:03 pm Three best Latinx Halloween & Horror Short Films available now on HBO Max
  • 9:49 am Issue 3 of CSUDH Bulletin Live if You Want It
  • 3:24 pm Hispanic Heritage Month Update
  • 2:00 pm South Bay Economic Forecast Goes Virtual
  • 3:52 pm BREAKING NEWS: Classes for Spring to be Online, CSU Chancellor Announces
  • 9:39 am “Strikes” and Solidarity
  • 8:30 am March Into History: Just 5 in 1970, CSUDH Growth Shaped by Historic Event
  • 8:30 am Will the Bulletin Make Today Tomorrow?
  • 9:04 am Different Neighborhoods Warrant Rubber Bullets or Traffic Control For Protesters
  • 5:07 pm STAFF EDITORIAL: Even Socially Distant, We All Have to Work Together
  • 5:47 pm Transcript of CSUDH President Parham’s Coronavirus Announcement
  • 10:46 am Cal State Long Beach Suspends Face-to-Face Classes; CSUDH Discussing Contingency Plans
  • 5:26 pm Things Black People Should be Able to Get Away with This Month
  • 10:25 am Latinx Students Need a Place to Call Home
  • 2:35 pm Will Time Run Out Before Funds for PEGS? [UPDATED]
  • 8:41 am Year of the Rat? What’s That?
  • 6:20 am Artist Who Gave Life to Death and Inspired Countless Others Gets His Due at Dominguez Hills
  • 5:16 pm Why I’m Rooting for Dr. Cornel West
  • 5:00 pm Under Fire from the Feds, Vaping’s Future is Cloudy
  • 3:28 pm We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat; Tsunami 3.0 Hits Campus, Enrollment Swells
  • 1:22 pm THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE BULLETIN IS HERE
  • 4:48 pm University Weathering a Wave of New Students
  • 9:21 pm The Bulletin’s Public Records Request Offers Springboard to Launch Gender Equity Discussion at CSUDH
  • 4:27 pm Black is the New Black: Raising the Capital on the “B” Word
  • 10:53 am Guns Up for Arrest: Student advocacy group pushes for CSU No Gun Zones–Including the Police
  • 4:09 pm Staff Editorial: Words on the First
  • 8:42 pm Carson Mayor Blasts Media, Landmark Libel Case in Keynote Address
  • 9:27 am Free Speech Week Calendar of Events Update
  • 6:02 am Food for Thought: 40% of Students are Food Insecure
  • 3:12 pm Academic Senate Rejects CSU GE Task Force & Report
  • 3:06 pm Work To Be Done
  • 5:56 pm ASI Elections: What You Need to Know
  • 8:02 pm CSUDH President Parham Announces Cancer Diagnosis
  • 9:47 am CSUDH Art Professor’s 20-Year Journey Results in First Local Showing of Film
  • 9:13 pm Free Speech or Free Hate area?
  • 9:08 pm CSUDH’s Best & Brightest Shine at Student Research Day
  • 9:05 pm Academic Senate Approves Gender Equity Task Force
  • 12:37 pm When Dr. Davis speaks, Toros Pay Close Attention
  • 3:38 pm Investing in the Future: Dr. Thomas A. Parham Reflects on the Past Eight Months and Contemplates​ the University’s Future
  • 3:24 pm Green Olive to Open By End of Feb; Starbucks Not Until Fall
  • 3:20 pm Gov. Newsom’s Proposed Budget Hailed for Extensive Funding Increases
  • 3:08 pm Out of the Classroom: Labor and Community Organizing Course Aims to Teach Students How to Organize for Social Justice
  • 2:54 pm The Other Route in Professional Sports
  • 9:02 am Hail to the New Chief, CSUDH President Thomas Parham
  • 3:36 pm Career Center Holds Major/Minor Fair
  • 5:34 pm After Unexpected Delay, Undocumented Becomes More Intimate Theatrical Production
  • 1:30 pm What to Expect When You’re Expecting New Buildings
  • 1:17 pm Peaches, Peaches, Peaches
  • 1:14 pm Bonner Crowned: The Fearless Leader
  • 1:10 pm A Legacy Defined: Cilecia Foster
  • 1:03 pm The Toros Sweep Stanislaus State, Start CCAA Championships 
  • 12:56 pm Year In Review: 2022-23 Toros Athletics 

By Cindy Sepulveda
Contributing Writer

It’s no secret that attending college now is more expensive than ever. Like most students across America, I applied for financial aid.

Financial aid for college students is one of the most critical processes in obtaining a college education.

In fact, just how important is financial aid in achieving a college education? In a study conducted for the National Center for Education Statistics about 72 percent of all undergraduate students received some type of financial aid, 63 percent received grants, 38 percent took out student loans, and 5 percent received aid through work-study programs, as of the 2015-2016 school year.

Without financial aid, a college education is a lifetime of the financial burden, but it is even more burdensome when your financial aid is lost as a result of a routine audit, as in my case.

 I started my college education at California State University Dominguez (CSUDH) after being accepted in the Fall of 2017 and being awarded financial aid. After reviewing my education plan, I began my journey at CSUDH with a goal of graduating in Spring of 2019. 

That journey was flipped upside down in May of last year when I received an email from the Financial Aid Office informing me that my FAFSA application has been flagged and I must provide documentation to confirm my eligibility. 

Confused about the email, I took the first step by contacting the Financial Aid Office and started the humiliating process of verifying that I have a financial need. I spoke to Rosa Ornelas, a financial aid specialist/scholarship coordinator, who assisted me in my verification process. 

During this process, Ornelas explained to me that the department of education randomly selected my FAFSA application for verification and I just needed to confirm my information.

The Federal Student Aid states that verification is the process that the schools use to confirm the data reported on a FAFSA form is accurate. If selected, all a student needs to do is provide documentation that is requested by the deadline, or else students won’t be able to get financial aid. Seemed like a simple straightforward process, but it wasn’t. 

I started off with providing the school with my financial statements. Bank statements that went back months just to prove that I have a financial need. I also lost my job in Feb of this year, so I also provided information regarding my unemployment benefits. I exposed not just my finances, but my family ’s finances, down to every last dollar.

The process wasn’t over.

 It then transitioned into me explaining my family dynamics. My nephew is my dependent and I financially support him. I felt a tremendous amount of frustration having to explain that I have a nephew who I support financially. Again, I had to expose my family dynamics, provide statements, and financial records to prove that I am indeed a provider. I felt as if I was doing something wrong in caring for and supporting my nephew.

Ornelas personally understood my position of being the family provider and wanted to help me keep my financial aid, but the verification method that was in place was against me and my family dynamics, and I lost my Spring 2018 aid.  Not only did I lose my aid, but I also lost the opportunity to accept federal loans because the Spring semester had officially ended. Feeling singled out, there was nothing left I could do.   

I was left with an outstanding tuition balance. In addition, a registration hold was placed on my account. I felt a sense of helplessness like I was abandoned by a system that is supposed to help those with financial need.  The reality is that I do have a financial need and I have a nephew I support on my own, but how many times do I have to prove that? 

Turns out I am not the only student who has endured the process of verification. According to Inside Higher Ed, “a growing number of colleges are finding more low-income students are being flagged and audited by the Department of Education during the bureaucratic process of verifying income eligibility for federal aid.”

After a much-needed pep talk, I told myself no bureaucratic barrier will stop me from achieving my goals. I obtained a personal student loan from Sallie Mae to help pay for my Spring 2018 tuition and removed the registration holds. 

Ornelas and I continued to work on my financial aid packet and there is hope. A new verification computing model for the 2019-20 cycle is expected to be more effective at targeting applicants for verification, according to Inside Higher ED. With this new model, I hope low-income students and students with unique family dynamics, like myself, can receive the financial aid we so much need.

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