You can’t really lose your scholarship over a $30 fee bill… can you?

The Thirty Dollar Fee Bill

This actually happened to one of my best friends in college when we were at LSU. She was in a similar situation to Tori – full scholarship plus living and housing stipends. That semester, she went to the doctor at the LSU Health Center, which led to a fee of a fairly small amount. It may have been more than $30, but it wasn’t more than, let’s say $300. In the grand scheme of things, it was a tiny amount of money. Her parents agreed to pay it.

I remember the day she woke up and discovered that she lost her class registration, her scholarships, her living and housing stipend… the horror and panic on her face as she scrambled to figure out what happened and why she was essentially kicked out of school.

It was over a $30 bill.

A bill that she could and would have paid had she known that it still needed to be paid. She had the money, but her parents owed her a couple of bucks so they said they would reimburse her by paying this small fee bill.

They didn’t.

My god, that girl scrambled to try to fix the situation. She paid the owed money, but by then it was too late, a lot of the damage was done and irreversible. She negotiated with the school to stay a student; however, she lost the scholarships, stipends, and class registration.

She had to move out of the dorms, get a THIRD job, and take out student loans to pay for everything. Losing her class registration meant that her ability to graduate on time was seriously threatened for a couple of semesters.

So, I guess my point is in all this… what happened to Tori – getting essentially kicked out of college over a $30 fee bill – is absolutely plausible and can happen.

I saw it happen with my own two eyes.