I am trying to come up with a solution for my girlfriend who wants to go back to school. She has her bachelors degree in history and she wants to go back for her teaching degree. Right after she graduated she enrolled in grad school (september '04). Through a clerical mix-up, her financial aid was cancelled and she was forced to drop the classes. This happened well past the refund cut-off date and she was stuck with a $4000 bill for a partial semester.

Now here comes the problem: The university will not release her transcripts, since she has an outstanding balance with them, which kills her chances of enrolling at another school. She could get student loans for any upcoming classes, but she'd have to be enrolled for that, and she can't enroll anywhere since her transcripts are not available. If she was even able to enroll, would she be able to lump the outstanding $4000 in with what she would be charged for any new classes?

I've been racking my brain and much of the Internet trying to figure out what options are available. I don't know whether or not she could take out a personal loan to cover the $4k, but even if she did the payments wouldn't be deferred. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Even if her FA was cancelled it could have been rectified....there was no reason to drop the classes. Federal aid could have been reawarded easily. She could probably have gotten a private loan after she dropped out to cover it too. However, too much time has past the balance will have to be cleared before she can even register, let alone get FA.

There is nothing in the FA system that will cover this. Private loans will not go that far back not to mention they are much more difficult to get now. Has she done anything to resolve this in the 4 years that has past?