UND aviation flight school costs - Financial Aid Crisis

Don't think that this financial aid crisis can be caused by you. The reason I got forced out of school and the aviation degree program, was because of the UND financial aid department's poor financial services and staff. If a problem came up, there was nothing the student could do about it. The kind of work in my crisis was a problem I was not legally able to solve; it had to be done by a financial aid official. In the end, 3 semesters at University of North Dakota aviation and areospace would cost over $87,000 and I would get nothing out of it.

University of North Dakota Aviation Finance and Aid

It is the student's responsibility to submit their FASFA and fill out loan applications and such; this is just the same old process that a normal student has to do. The whole problem that ruined me at UND was the school is supposed to legally approve financial aid from the government, basically let them know to send the grants, loans and funds to my UND aviation flight account so I could use them. This is basically the fundamental job of the UND financial aid office and a student is legally not allowed to get "behind" the financial aid desk and do any of that themselves.

UND financial planning and scholarships - UND Aerospace

The story starts off after my first semester, after gaining a 4.0 GPA and winning my first of two D.J. Robertson awards. Everything was perfectly fine until the aviation program started up. I decided to take 21 credits that 2nd semester and was very excited to start flying. The odd part was they decided not to let me fly during my first semester with much of the other students. Something Idona Holbrook said about the UND aviation flight program being too small... Well, everything was fine the first semester, but then the second semester when aviation started, that's when my financial aid started going to hell. Someone down at the aviation department, the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences hall, or financial aid office dropped the ball big time.

UND School of Aviation - University of North Dakota

OK, so what happened was I had all my papers in and FASFA in, which was done many months prior, but they had problems getting my funds from the government. So I did the smart thing and went to the UND financial aid office many times a week to get an update and straighten things out as soon as possible. Well, this went on and on for about a month before they told me I needed to submit my verification forms, after they told me countless times that everything was fine and they were just waiting for funds. Well, that was a big lie and waste of time; they were supposed to send that stuff much sooner or at least even in the fall semester. SO I get that filled out and give it to them, and they tell me it will be about 2 weeks before funds arrive, so I wait two weeks and come back to get an update. Still no funds and they tell me to wait 2 more weeks, so I then I start coming back to the UND financial aid department every day. Don't forget, I'm doing this wild goose chase while I'm taking a 5 credit private pilot course and 21 credits total. Well, about two weeks of going back and forth, they tell me they have NO VERIFICATION information from me! THAT is a load of crap. So that information just got lost in the financial aid office, probably the incompetent staff losing papers and too lazy to send stuff out. So I just try to start over and fill out the verification form again and wait two weeks, then the SAME monkey business happened AGAIN two weeks later. They claim I never gave them any verification information. Finally, I came in one day and a new woman was working there and I asked for an update about the verification form, and she silently was looking through the computer and quietly told me "they were supposed to send this out"... NO SHIT!! really?

Costs of UND aviation and aerospace program

So with all that on my mind and all that running around, I was late for class feeling like crap every day and was a pain trying to fly all the time being bogged down with that much stress. Even with that, I was still able to manage a straight A in private pilot and the FAA written exam at UND aviation with professor Foltz. The problem was I had no time to complete the actual flying (because of a massive financial aid blunder) so I was told I could finish it next year and take the incomplete and the additional costs. Unfortunately, I didn't get a 4.0 GPA that semester obviously with my mind on other things, but spring of 2004 was over and fall of 2004 was when the nightmare really began and the idea behind this website was born.

Best Flying school - UND aviation program is the worst flying school!

Fall of 2004 began with a verification form right off the bat, me being half a year behind and a whole mess of financial aid problems already. I knew the smart thing to do was get that verification form in as soon as I could. I received the form from the University of north dakota financial aid and filled it out so I could get funds for the UND aviation school and start flying again. Well, I got the same "wait 2 weeks" and decided to go in every day and get an update, which is the smart responsible way to do it. Well, I wait 2 weeks and I get the same "we never got a verification from you" even though I personally handed it to a financial aid worker 2 weeks beforehand. Well, this went on and on every day. This time it took 3 months before someone saw in the computer records that no one sent out the paper. The problem was that I couldn't do this stuff myself, a UND financial aid official had to submit that to the government with a signature and authorization. On top of that, my stafford loan papers were not getting to the government and my grants did not come in, all because the UND financial aid department never send that verification letter to the government, which was basically the "green light" to send funds into my account!

UND aerospace suicides and flying dangers

Finally I decided to start taking matters into my own hands by calling the government myself and trying to go around the UND system since the semester was ending with still no money for UND aviation and that would mean I couldn't start the spring semester of 2005 either. Well that didn't work so I started asking for help directly from the UND aviation department which is in control of funds for flying to get a solution. This is when I was introduced to a "rag-tag" team of two women. This was "Dee", the financial clerk in the Odegard school of aviation building in the administration office and "Tina" from the financial aid department. Unfortunately I didn't get their last names. Wait until you see what type of wild goose chase they put students on.

UND Flight Instructors and Aviation Student Pilots

It starts off with Dee telling me about getting some type of special stafford loan, (which I've already applied for but UND financial aid office cant get any forms or papers to the government). She tells me to talk to Tina who works in the financial aid office. I've been to the UND financial aid department countless times but never saw Tina before. So Dee tells me to ask Tina about some loans and that she would be my personal financial assistant. Everything sounds like it's moving along smoothly now doesn't it? Well I start off on what would become a crazy wild goose chase. Dee gets off the phone with Tina telling her that I will dropping by shortly so I run over to the financial aid office and ask to speak with Tina. So I get there and walk knock on her door and she addresses me by "what do you want?" in a bitchy unwelcoming monotone voice. So I let her know that I just got done talking with Dee and asked her if she would be able to help me find some loans and fix my financial aid problem. So she's sitting there loudly slurping a giant soda with a straw while I ask her this, then she says "Yeah, so what do you WANT?" in a stern mean voice. So here she is, supposed to be a professional UND financial aid worker, slurping a soda while I'm explaining an important financial aid crisis while she leans back in her chair like some fat fucking slob, which really caught me off guard. She was obviously not listening, either she was incompetent, drunk or just a plain bitch, so I asked her to call up Dee and talk to her again and maybe Dee could explain it to Tina a little better because I don't know what to do at this point with Tina's erratic behavior. So I figured, maybe let the two UND professional financial aid "experts" talk about the situation and they'll know exactly what to do. It's their job anyways isn't it? So Tina says she can't help me and lets me know that Dee wants me to come back to the UND Odegard School of Aviation building and discuss it.

School of aviation - Grand Forks North Dakota

I get back to Dee to talk about it and she starts to explain to me that Tina thought I was "confused" and was becoming emotionally stressed out and unstable. It's funny because I thought the same thing about her... That really caught me off guard and then apparently when I was gone for that short time at Tina's office, Dee had a discussion with some clown named Ken Polovitz, the assistant dean of the UND flight school about me. Somehow he knows what type of person I am and that I am very emotionally unstable. It's kind of funny because I've never personally met the guy or ever talked to him face to face. So not only is he telling a flat out lie, but he's telling everyone else I'm "emotionally unstable". The real kicker is Dee and Ken Polovitz both recommend that I see Warren Jensen, a Medical Doctor at UND aviation for a psychological checkup and screening, which is apparently what typically happens to aviation students who are trying to fix problems like mine. So here is assistant dean clown who has never met me before, yet making claims about how I'm "mentally unstable", and a financial aid clerk Dee saying the same thing based on Tina's lie or just her own stupidity. Both of them incompetently doing their jobs, Dee not doing her financial work, but screwing around with Polovitz and the Doctor. Basically the whole problem with this is they try to turn the whole situation around to make it look like the students screwed themselves up, thats what the "best" UND flying school does to it's student pilots. Just for the record, before this point, I kept me temper and never made a scene or yelled at anyone, I was very cooperative and optimistic, but extremely annoyed with UND's work ethics.

Flight schools in the midwest - North Dakota

When Dee first told me to visit Warren Jensen, she told me he might be able to help with my financial aid, she never told me it was a psychological evaluation. I found out when I was talking with Warren what the situation was, after I expected that maybe he had some financial aid experience or knew of some special scholarships. At the end, he said I sounded perfectly normal and didn't see any fuss about it, but said that other UND student pilots have committed suicide and he had to do that. (Apparently some UND students would commit suicide if they had their most of their life ruined) After that discussion, I confronted Dee and pretty much called her out in front of everyone in the office including Warren and yelled at her for talking behind my back and making matters personal, especially misleading me into a psychological evaluation rather than doing her job. Instead, sitting on her lazy ass doing nothing but stirring up trouble like Tina rather than working on a financial aid solution that would solve all the problems. Well, I called her out in front of Warren and she gave a shocked look to Warren like he wasn't supposed to tell me that she was the one who actually pulled the fast one on me, and then Warren looked a little embarrassed about me telling her that and tried talking it off and walking me away. So that was probably the worst personal insult and back stabbing that I ever had with Dee and Ken. It's like a circus run down there..

Best Aviation Degrees? - UND has the worst flight program costs

That was a pretty lousy attempt to solve the UND financial problem, but this just shows how many levels of the UND aviation department and financial aid office are THAT incompetent. With that entire charade going on, I still managed to complete my second 4.0 GPA and win my second DJ Robertson award and get on the UND aviation Dean Bruce Smith's list. Not many people would be able to score flawlessly academically while handling a financial aid crisis with failed administration and "so-called" professionals along with the heavy costs. That just goes to show that when I'm in control of something such as my grades, they are flawless, but when the ball passes to UND aviation and is out of my hand, that's the only way I fail. The end of the semester came and the era of UND ended. I basically (and quickly) had to clear out my room and somehow put my stuff in a storage until I possibly returned if there was a chance. Then I got thrown out on the streets in the middle of winter when the dorms closed at the end of the semester. UND wouldn't even let me wait in the warm exterior lobby for an extra hour or two for my ride to come, they just locked me outside, yet the lobby people got to sit in there for awhile... So that's just one last UND cheap shot at the 4.0 aviation student before I headed home with over $87,000 in debt.

4 year aviation flight school - UND aerospace

So after I got home, I had to spend all semester at home and in the summer, so because of UND, my loans went over the 6 month grace period so now I was required to start paying my loans back while I started looking for another school to transfer to. My credit rating was ruining, I got an A in my private pilot class and the FAA exam, but since the money didn't come in because of UND screw up, I received a heavy 5 credit F in the class and that ruined my GPA. That also ruined 2 years of my life that I could have used at a different school. I am now at a much better university and the difference is like night and day here, not a single problem ever, the success rate of pilots is in the upper 90s compared to UND aviation lousy 60% failure rate, and got my 4.0 GPA here as well! Everything is back on track but I will never forget the UND experience and I deserve more than a full refund for all that time, money and stress caused by UND's incompetence. I thought this would be a good personal experience to share with current or prospective UND aviation students looking for a 4 year degree program or any flight training for that matter...

UND "Harvard of Aviation"

I'm not the only person who thinks this way about UND. I wouldn't waste my time building this website if I didn't think UND caused so much damage. Check out UND Fraud and UND News which are the main two of many other sites like this one. Great schools like Embry Riddle or Spartan don't have pages like mine, because they are reputable and aren't as screwed up. You may have heard many great things about UND aviation and about them being "Harvard of Aviation" but of course they are going to talk about only the good things, they aren't going to talk about all the bad problems they have, they are going to cover all that stuff up. You hear other students who graduate from UND talk about how much they like the school, well they were lucky enough not to get screwed over or rich enough not to have to deal with a financial aid officer! A lot of people have been screwed over, I just happened to know how to build a website and respond. I would strongly recommend not going to UND. If you are having a second guess about which flight school to attend, follow your hunch, would you want to go to the school with all the websites like this one talking about how much it sucks and an intelligent 4.0 GPA hard working student getting their life ruined against all odds, or the clean flight schools with no records, suicides, trouble and websites against them like this one? Don't take that unnecessary risk.