Web Editor’s Note: This story was written for the MCOMM 3309 – News Editing & Reporting Class

A month into the fall semester, the university’s financial aid department is still busy at work. One task the department is currently trying to complete is verifying the approximately 4,000 students selected this semester.

According to WT’s Associate Director of Student Financial Services Marian Giesecke, the U.S. Department of Education requires all federal universities to “verify” a third of their enrolled students, which simply means the university’s financial aid department has to check that the information on the FAFSA matches the information on the other forms filed, like a tax return. Since the selection is taken at random, there is no way to avoid it.

“Whenever you file a FAFSA, if you just happen to be that third one that they pick, then you get kicked out for verification,” Giesecke said.The verification process is not an easy mild procedure. Since the process requires the collection, submission, and then verification of a number of different pieces of paperwork, verification can be a time-consuming process.

“Right now, at this time of year, it’s about six to eight weeks from the time we get all your paperwork,” Giesecke said.

When students are selected for verification, their financial aid, such as grants or loans, cannot be awarded to them until the process is completed. This can trouble some students who rely on their student loans, grants or other form of aid to pay for their tuition. WT Alumni Mandi Miller was selected for verification the fall semester of her senior year.

“It was really hard to pay rent,” she said. “It was the semester I was doing my internship. I was depending on my financial aid as my income.”

Although Giesecke said that the financial aid office at WT sends an email to students to notify them that they have been selected for verification, some students said they never received an email and found out about being selected by chance.

“I called financial aid. They never told me,” Kellie Chandler, a WT sophomore selected for verification this semester said. “I called them and they were like ‘Oh, by the way, you’ve been selected for verification, and we need this and this and this.’”