UC Santa Cruz Financial Aid Office

"Terrible hours and generally unhelpful, I would give this place zero stars if I could."

"i just went in today to clear up an issue with a payment i’ve been having that’s affecting my enrollment. they proceeded to tell me two things: that the issue with the payment was because they were having issues with the scholarship in question, and that any issues im having are my fault. they continued to be so unbelievably rude and condescending after this. they actively know that students are struggling and come to them for support, and use that to demean them and make them feel awful for being confused about issues that they purposefully make more confusing to exploit and reel as much money as they can from broke college students. and i’m not the only one who’s experienced this kind of treatment, just look at the other reviews. god i hate this school."

"Lines are excruciatingly long, doesn't pick up phone, only open for 4 hours a day and 2-3 staff in charge for helping 100s of college students a day. Very dissapointing."

"I would give this place zero stars if I could. One star implies that there is something, no matter how small redeeming about this place and the awful human beings who work here but that’s not true. They delay money, will refuse to give you grant money that FAFSA gave you. I am 100% that there is some sort of money laundering or financial abuse going on here by the admin and upper level management because they have delayed every single financial aid award of mine, and have taken some money out of each disbursement. I have kept meticulous records of how my financial aid was applied to bills, and when pointing out discrepancies such at the fact that amounts of up to $5,000 dollars have disappeared without notice, they become rude and extremely patronizing, and yet somehow can never explain to me where this missing money has gone. Talking to other undergrads has led me to realize that I am not the only one with this problem. These people are liars and thieves with no marketable skills. How they manage to keep their jobs while so many of us struggle is a mystery. I fully expect to wake up one day years after I have graduated and read a breaking news story about corruption and money laundering at UCSC amongst the people who work in this office. They are extremely shady and can’t be trusted for anything. Expect money to disappear and not be reflected on your bills."

"Be ready to waste your time it takes forever to talk to a person. Pressed the button to talk to a person and the line disconnects."