Weeks into the fall semester, hundreds of medical students at the University of Pittsburgh have yet to receive money from the federal and private loans they took out to pay for school and support themselves during their studies.
Public Source obtained emails showing the delays have spanned over two months, and the university hasn’t hit its anticipated resolution dates. What exactly caused the delay, and whose responsibility it is, hasn’t been addressed by university officials.
A Pitt spokesperson said they were unable to provide answers to a request from Public Source by publication time.
The financial aid office for Pitt’s medical school wrote in a July 22 email to students that the delays were a combination of “computer system changes, recent federal policy changes and staffing transitions.”
In an Aug. 28 email, Pitt School of Medicine Vice Education Dean Abbas Hyderi wrote to students that incorrect school codes assigned by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) were largely causing the delays.
Audio shared with Public Source of a Sept. 25 meeting with medical students shed further light on the situation. Cynthia Bonetti, assistant dean for medical school admissions and financial aid, told the students in the classwide meeting that prior to this academic year, the med school had a different school code than the main university.
Bonetti said having separate codes for schools located at the same address was no longer permitted, but did not explain why. She said Pitt administrators can’t change codes and students have to do it manually because it’s considered protected data by the DOE.
A spokesperson for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators told Public Source that federal rules for school codes did not recently change.
Students were not given the opportunity to ask administrators questions during the Friday meeting.
Tumultuous time for student aid
The administrative logjam comes as universities across the country have been adjusting to changes mandated by President Donald Trump’s sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which went into effect on July 1 and ushered in one of the most significant student loan policy overhauls in the country’s history.
Some of those changes include limits on how much money grad students can borrow and the elimination of Grad PLUS loans. Grad PLUS loans were a 20-year-old program offering grad students money to cover remaining funding gaps for attending school.
Betsy Mayotte, a student loan expert, said, “Congress did not give the Department of Education a very long time to implement these changes. Such a significant policy change in the past, they usually have a year or even two years.”
“Then to add sort of insult to injury, this all happened in a time where the [DOE] is significantly understaffed due to the reduction in force that this [federal] administration did two years ago,” said Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors.
Pitt students struggle amid nationwide delays
Public Source heard from two Pitt medical students and one family member of a student who said some students are struggling to pay rent, buy essential items and afford the application fees for residency placements, a necessary step in qualifying as a doctor.
The students and family member said they feel Pitt’s administration isn’t doing enough to support students financially impacted by the delays. They also questioned why only medical students seem affected by the delays. Bonetti said that boiled down to how Pitt’s software vendor for student records “interfaces” with the medical school.
Another administrator at the Friday meeting denied that only Pitt’s medical students have been affected, and stressed that Pitt isn’t the only university experiencing challenges with financial aid.
Schools like Arizona State University and the University of Central Florida have dealt with delays, with students at the latter petitioning against “administrative negligence” in handling the situation.
Other schools such as Stony Brook University in New York and the historically Black Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta have seen concentrated financial aid impacts on medical students.
Loans can be essential for grad students, as they are not eligible for Pell Grants, a need-based federal assistance program available to undergraduates. Although some grad students work while studying, medical students are often too busy to get jobs to support themselves, Mayotte said.
Last year, a study published in JAMA Network found that 1 in 5 medical students are food insecure and don’t have enough to eat. Some of the study’s 1,834 participants attended Pitt’s medical school.
Mayotte emphasized the financial strain facing some students because of the delays.
“I know the schools are working very hard to get things the way they’re supposed to be, but … hearing that doesn’t help the person who is waiting for their school refund so they can pay their rent,” she said.
Free lunch now, emergency help coming
During Friday’s meeting, an administrator said the medical school would increase the number of lunches provided on campus, and a mini pantry with food and household products began stocking earlier this week.
“There is no official end date for either of these initiatives, so please come to us if you’re struggling,” the administrator said.
An emergency funding pool to assist students in need is also in the works, they added.
Earlier this month, Hyderi told students in an email that the school would write letters to students’ landlords explaining their situation. At least one landlord had agreed to waive late fees for med student tenants, the vice dean wrote.
“Please note that there is a very large team both at the university level, with the Oracle platform, PeopleSoft, that it’s working with, and we are also in collaboration with the Department of Education to get this resolved, ” Bonetti said. “It is ongoing — nightly, daily, 7 days a week.”
One small bright spot Mayotte offered students is that she’s confident these issues will not carry into the spring semester.
“If we can just get through this year, students should not expect these delays … in future years,” Mayotte said.
Maddy Franklin reports on higher ed for Pittsburgh’s Public Source, in partnership with Open Campus, and can be reached at madison@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Rich Lord.
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