I am a transfer student and this is my first year at Oakland University.  I received the OU Distinguished Transfer Award for my first four semesters at OU. However, my scholarship was quickly revoked due to the fact that I switched from Physics 151 to Physics 161.

Since I am a new student at OU, I was unaware of the different rules and regulations that apply to students, and over the past semester I was very poorly informed. Before registering for the fall 2014 semester I had met with my advisor.  We had gone over possible schedules of the classes I should consider taking during the semester.

I was misinformed, however, that as an engineering student I should have been in the Physics 161 class without the lab instead of Physics 151 with Physics 110 (the lab). I was unaware of this fact until after the deadline date to add/drop classes, and I only learned of the correct requirements when making small talk with my fellow colleagues instead of my advisor.

As soon as I found out about this mistake I went straight to registration services to get the corrections. There was no problem with registration in switching from Physics 151 to 161, since it is the same exact class except without the lab.  However, I was once again never informed of the right information and was unaware of the fact that switching from 151 to 161 would lose me my scholarship.

I cannot understand why when I was still carrying 12 credit hours.  I was told by financial aid services that once you drop a class after the deadline, classes that you add aren’t taken into consideration.  However, Physics 151 and 161 are the same exact class, except without lab.  So the only class I actually dropped was Physics 110, and I was always a full time student even after the change.

If I was informed or aware of this rule earlier I would’ve just stuck the year out with Physics 151 so I wouldn’t lose my scholarship.

At my previous college the registration and financial aid services were always very straight forward, very informative, and extremely helpful. I have yet to experience those qualities at OU.

The only reason I even found about my scholarship being cancelled was because I went on my Sail account to switch some classes for my winter semester. It said I had a hold on my account because I owed money again. 

I was never emailed or even contacted about not being eligible for my scholarship, or that I had another charge to my account.

I was instructed that in order for consideration to get my scholarship reinstated I had to write a letter to financial services. I did so in hopes they would see the errors I made were due to a lack of correct information given to me by advisors/employees at OU.

My request was not approved. Financial services told me once again that I was not a full time student, but there was no period of time in the fall semester where I wasn’t taking 12 credits.

If financial services would’ve been more considerate with this situation, they would’ve seen by looking at my records and transcripts that I am a very hard-working and dedicated student whom takes pride in what I do.

The first time I spoke to financial services about my scholarship being revoked they simply said that they understood I was still in the same class and they could see that I was a full time student, but that they didn’t have the time to look and consider the changes made in student’s academics. 

So instead, without any thought, they just took my scholarship away that I had worked really hard to earn. I wholeheartedly felt this situation was out of my control.

I had other options and scholarships offered to me from several colleges in Michigan and this whole circumstance has made me regret my decision to attend Oakland University.  

I am now sending this letter to you in the hopes that this may make the situation more visible to the board and faculty at OU and show how wrong all of this has been. I guarantee I am not the only student that something like this has happened to, and circumstances like this are going to give OU a bad name.

Word gets around and situations such as this portray to incoming students that OU doesn’t care about honoring initial commitment to their academically proficient students.

After all, that was one of the reasons I chose OU in the first place.