Support Mary In Obtaining Her College Degree

Update 12/2/24: As of December 2024, I have been able to obtain my transcripts from App State that I am free to send to any college I apply for, however, I still owe a balance towards the university. Any donations from this point forward will still be used entirely to pay back App State so that I can be debt-free starting my college career anew. Any donations remaining after the debt has been paid will 100% go towards application fees and/or resources needed for school. I am working full time to contribute as much as a I can within my means, so your support means the absolute world to me!

Hi, my name is Mary and I’m trying to raise money to release my transcripts from Appalachian State University. Before my admittance to App State, I had taken about a year and a half of community college classes since I couldn’t afford college straight out of high school. I acquired the required number of transfer credits and in 2017 I was accepted to App State to pursue my degree in English with a concetration in Creative Writing and a minor in Communications. I was awarded a Pell Grant and $5,000 in student loans which paid for my first year. By December 2017, I fell into a heavy depression and fell off on all my classes. When the spring semester rolled around, I was battling health issues (both mental and physical) and trying to survive the toxic and abusive relationship/household that I was in at the time. I ended up having to withdrawal from a couple of my classes and fell on academic probation for the spring semester. I decided to withdraw for the following school year in order to better my mental state. I left the toxic relationship and began working full-time until COVID shut everything down. By Fall 2021, I was ready to attend school again. However, I wasn’t aware that my student loans fell into default while I had taken a 2 year break. Since my loans were granted before 2020, they didn’t qualify for the government hold that was being held on all student loans. Which meant I had to pay for the 2021-2022 school year out-of-pocket since I wasn’t eligible for Financial Aid. App State allowed me to use a payment plan and this is where things got far more messy.

My parents are divorced and both come from rural backgrounds. Neither has a college degree and certainly couldn’t afford to help me through college. As a result, I was left to work full time while taking full time classes. A family member agreed to help with the monthly payments of $900+ if I agreed to help to make payments as well, to which I consented, completely unaware that I would soon only be working 20/h a week making $7.50/h all while taking full time classes. At the time I was 24 and panicked because I felt so far behind my peers (people who were accepted to App State 2 years after me were preparing for graduation and I was still crossing off basic Sophomore level classes that I had failed when I withdrew) so I added two extra classes for the Spring semester to make up for lost time, convinced I could power through and stay on track. I failed one and withdrew from the other. My GPA for the Spring 2022 semester was 2.83 with 89 total credit hours under my belt, just under a year and a half to be considered for graduation. I didn’t have the money to finish making payments on my payment plans to the school for the year and turns out, neither did the family member, which I wasn’t aware of until last year.

I took advantage of the 2023 Fresh Start program through the Department of Education and was able to get my loans out of default, which I have been making steady payments on since the beginning of this year. Feeling inspired, I tried to apply to colleges in my area to continue my education and finally finish my degree. I signed into my student account through App State’s portal and found multiple late payments and fees accredited to my account. The payment plan had never been payed off and as a result, App State now held my transcript for ransom. Every class that I had taken leading up to the 2021-2022 school year was now owned by App State (classes I had taken, passed, and already paid for regardless of if they were taken at App State or not). After calling the Financial Aid Department at App State and pleading with them to form some kind of payment plan for the payment plan, they told me that nothing could be done and the amount must be paid in full. They suggested that I “ask [my] parents for the money or take out a bank loan”. Knowing that neither of these options were viable for my situation, I hung up the phone utterly defeated.

Since the end of the 2022 Spring semester, I have moved, began a new career, gotten engaged, and learned *a lot* about myself as a person. I am working hard to pay down my debts, but I feel unfulfilled knowing that the one thing I would feel the proudest of accomplishing is completing my B.A. in English. There are schools I would like to apply to, especially now that I qualify for Financial Aid once again, but I am unable to do so until my debt to Appalachian State is paid in full. This is an extremely vulnerable position to put myself in, asking for help in this way, but as I’m sure mostly anyone can relate — times are tough out here. Anything helps and it would warm my heart to be supported in this way, especially when I understand there are far more pressing matters in our world. It has always been a dream of mine to walk across a stage to obtain my diploma, wherever that may be. At this point, it is far more personal than “getting a good job”. This is an opportunity, a first step, to uphold a promise I made to younger me when she didn’t think she’d even make it this far.

Despite how it may seem, I love school. I love learning. I know I can do it.