Troubled Law School To Hold Transcripts, Transfer Packets, Degrees Hostage Unless Students Pay Up
This is all terribly unfair.
Back in December, the Department of Education revoked the Charlotte School of Law’s access to the federal loan program. A few months have passed, and students at the troubled school are set to graduate this weekend, but they still haven’t secured their funding for the spring 2017 semester. When we last checked in with Charlotte Law, many soon-to-be graduates were concerned that their degrees may be held hostage.
Time and time again, representatives from the for-profit law school have assured students that their loans would be released, but that has yet to occur. Last week, however, school president Chidi Ogene offered students a glimmer of hope. In an email to students, he claimed he’d spoken to people at the Department of Education, and that students with fall/spring loans would allegedly receive their spring disbursements by this Thursday — two days before graduation.
Students with different loan award periods will be out of luck. If the Department of Education doesn’t release federal loans to those on the fall/spring disbursement cycle, all students will be out of luck. As luck would have it, Charlotte Law is offering up institutional loans for students without a way to pay for the semester they’ve just completed without having paid the school a cent.
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We’ve got all of the information about those loans thanks to an email sent last week (available in full on the next page), and right about now, they must look pretty attractive to students who want to graduate or transfer to another law school. Charlotte’s loans are interest-free for the life of the loan (10 years), and students will have a grace period of one year from their date of last attendance in a juris doctor program to begin their repayment. Students who are uninterested in signing up for a loan from Charlotte and are unable to secure federal loan funding will be able to withdraw from the school, without cost, until the close of business on May 9. Students who do not withdraw will still be on the hook for their spring tuition, less a 20 percent discount for their troubles this semester.
Students who are forced to withdraw because they don’t have any funding and refuse to be roped into a loan from the school will have completed a full semester’s worth of work, but won’t receive any grades or academic credit for it. Students who don’t pay in full or sign up for one of Charlotte’s loans will not receive their degrees, their transcripts, or a transfer packet reflecting their spring coursework. Students at Charlotte Law have been left between a rock and a hard place, and all of this is terribly unfair. What a way to spend your final days as a law student.
In the meantime, the Department of Education’s page on Charlotte Law’s certification denial still shows no update or status change. For what it’s worth, President Chidi Ogene says the school’s application for reinstatement into the federal loan program is still under review, but it’s unlikely a decision will be made before the end of this semester. Best of luck to all students at Charlotte Law who have been made to suffer through this unfortunate situation.
Charlotte School Of Law Students May Finally Get Their Federal Loans [WFAE]
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Staci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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