Unfortunate school situation
This is a long situation, but I’ll keep it as concise as possible. I’m just looking for advice or perspective at this point.
Started college Fall 2024 with a private scholarship from my high school’s donor program (meant for students with financial need without it, I wouldn’t have been able to attend at all)
I also had the NY Excelsior Scholarship (tuition-only, last-dollar aid)
Spring 2025: my private scholarship was applied in a way that canceled my Excelsior because it was labeled as covering tuition despite me completing the designation for excelsior recipients through the scholarships portal (This was confirmed by Hesc)
Scholarship director acknowledged the issue and agreed to pay that semester another way and fix it going forward
After that, everything went downhill
Director stopped responding for weeks after this promise
My bill wasn’t paid → I couldn’t register for classes for next semester
I followed up multiple times and got no response
When I finally got through, I was blamed for “not meeting,” even though I had reached out repeatedly
Then spring 2026:
Same issue happens again with fall 2025 bill (even after it was already identified)
I’m left with a $5k+ balance I can’t afford
Someone working with committee tells me to schedule meeting with director
Director cancels a scheduled meeting last minute saying she doesn’t know why I wanted to meet
I explain → get ignored again
School gives me deadlines → I relay urgency → still ignored
Final outcome:
My classes get dropped
I’m told to “just enroll” without the balance being fixed
I’m forced to take a leave of absence to avoid full dismissal
Complaint gets shut down because the person I’m complaining about is the director
When I escalate higher up, I get a quick response but they refuse to reopen the complaint and tell me to “move forward” (and kept the higher up off this part of the thread)
Now I’m home while my classmates are moving forward, and I genuinely feel like this situation was out of my control.
I’ve already filed with the Attorney General, but I’m struggling with:
Whether I have any real legal options
If I should keep pushing this or just give up even though I literally can’t
How to even process something like this when it feels like it didn’t have to happen
I did everything I was told to do, and it still ended like this.
Any advice or perspective would really help.
Ps ( I have this all the exchanges documented in a pdf if someone actually wants the ins and outs)