We all heard about incidents the first couple weeks of school concerning Financial Aid – the horror stories about standing in line for hours, people passing out, and the list goes on.
According to Financial Aid officials, there are reasons behind the madness.
This year’s increased enrollment effected the Financial Aid confusion. This fall, ETSU set an all-time enrollment record of 13,841 students. The total is up 3.4 percent compared to the previous fall enrollment, and since Paul Stanton became president there has been tremendous growth each year.
The Banner system is also the main suspect behind the misfortune of many students.
“I think that it’s a new computer system and like any new computer system everybody has to learn it and we have done a good job and we will continue to do a good job,” said Financial Aid Coordinator Lisa Bell. “We have a team that is working on continuous improvement and there will be some changes to help students. Students who have not gotten their financial aid by this time of year, it is because we have gotten a lot of late applicants, but we are working as fast as we can.”
The kinks in the new electronic system are the obvious culprit for many students.
“I’m actually homeless right now because I am waiting on my Stafford loans, and I have no source of income,” said James Wilson, freshman physics major.
“I did an electronic Stafford Promissory note which is just the oath that says I will pay it back,” Wilson said. “It did not go through so I had to do a written Stafford Promissory note and I am still waiting.”
Beverly Bennett in the business office has a theory about how all of this could have been prevented, “I think one of the biggest problems was the government not sending the funds. They did not release the funds to the lender; therefore the lender could not send the funds to us.”
“I definitely had a negative experience with financial aid, I still have not gotten my loans,” said Jake Wylie, junior criminal justice major.
“I guess the biggest thing is that I had to put my books and tuition on credit, now I have to pay interest,” Wylie said.
The confusion was evident, the majority of freshman, like James Wilson, and transfer students dealt with the majority of this madness. Sophomore transfer student Amber Davidson said, “I am still waiting for $2,000 for over a month now, me being a transfer I did not know what papers to sign and waiting in line for hours did not help.”
Fortunately, not everyone has had such a harsh experience.
“I called every 2 to 3 weeks to make sure everything was OK,” said Michelle Davis, a junior exercise science major, “I knew with banner there would be a lot of problems.”
Financial Aid and many students have had a rocky start to their school year. Hopefully, as Bell said, the new computer system will become easier once better learned, and everything will work itself out for the students who are still awaiting their aid.

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