{"id":2461,"date":"2020-03-18T17:18:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T17:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=2461"},"modified":"2020-03-18T17:18:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T17:18:09","slug":"when-tap-goes-missing-students-head-to-financial-aid-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2020\/03\/when-tap-goes-missing-students-head-to-financial-aid-office\/","title":{"rendered":"When TAP Goes Missing, Students Head to Financial Aid Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sound of feet tapping on linoleum fills a windowless room accompanied by heavy sighs and shuffling papers. Faces turn up to a screen, hopeful that their name will be the next to pop up. A bell dings, followed by a pre-recorded message: \u201cPlease report to counter two,\u201d and a woman in a navy coat strides up to the counter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is five weeks into the Spring 2020 semester and Hunter\u2019s financial aid office is bustling. On top of classes, deadlines and tests, an unpaid tuition balance on CUNYFirst can have a significant impact on students, and especially those who rely on aid. For one Hunter Freshman, Victoria Cecere, the financial aid office is an all too familiar place. \u201cI have made countless appointments with Hunter\u2019s financial aid team. They took some of my aid last semester without any warning. It wasn\u2019t until yesterday that I realized that part of my TAP was also missing due to one of their random recalculations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More than an estimated 11,500 students receive TAP in the Fall and Spring terms within the academic year, according to a spokesperson from Hunter\u2019s Financial Aid Office. The number of TAP awards reinstated or not reinstated varies by term and for several reasons. While no precise statistics are available, the number of students who lose TAP funding is relatively low, compared to the number of eligible students, according to a Hunter spokesperson.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

NYS Tuition Assistance Program awards are often given in supplement to Pell Grants, for full-time students in good academic standing. TAP is New York\u2019s largest grant program and is based on student or parent income. Students who are enrolled full-time in an eligible program at an institution within the state can be granted awards ranging from $500 to $5,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0For students, a few hundred to thousand dollars can make all the difference, and what doesn\u2019t cover tuition often covers books.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve felt that anxiety at times I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d be able to cover my tuition bill,\u201d said communications major Bob Palos. \u201cIt starts to bleed over into other areas too. I worried about paying rent,\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Undergraduate students can receive TAP for up to four years.\u00a0 Minors are not counted towards TAP, as they are not considered necessary towards a degree, required from ineligible courses, major changes, or as assurance the student will remain within the appropriate GPA range.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NYS Higher Education Services Corporation websites states that the most common reasons TAP can be dropped are losing full-time status, not being a NYS resident, or falling below the necessary GPA range, which is a C-average. A spokesperson from Hunter\u2019s Financial Aid office did not recommend calling HESC directly, as representatives do not have direct access to student accounts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A spokesperson from Hunter\u2019s Financial Aid Office additionally recommends r<\/span>eviewing all academic policies and program requirements listed in the Hunter College catalogue, as well as responding to MyHunter emails in a timely and efficient manner in order to ensure their award status remains active.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cPart of my decision to attend a CUNY school was based on the low tuition rates. Seeing this money be randomly taken away is not only frightening but also aggravating,\u201d said Cecere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For students that are within GPA requirements, navigating the ins and outs of reinstating their award can be a daunting task.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like there needs to be a new system put in place so that this doesn\u2019t happen to us every semester–at least that\u2019s what it’s starting to feel like,\u201d added Cecere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sound of feet tapping on linoleum fills a windowless room accompanied by heavy sighs and shuffling papers. Faces turn up to a screen, hopeful that their name will be the next to pop up. A bell dings, followed by a pre-recorded message: \u201cPlease report to counter two,\u201d and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[184,268,269,270],"class_list":["post-2461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cuny-hunter-college","tag-cunyfirst","tag-financial-aid","tag-tap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions\/2462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}