To Whom It May Concern,
I write this letter as a desperate plea, a cry for help, and a call for action. I am a medical student at the American University of Antigua (AUA), and like many of my peers, I am caught in a nightmare that seems to have no end. This situation has been brewing for over a year, and it is high time someone takes notice of the plight we, the students, are facing.
Since September 2023, AUA has been under the United States Department of Education’s scrutiny, placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring 2 (HCM2). https://studentaid.gov/data-center/school/hcm has information of what this means and shows we are the only school in the Caribbean at this level. It originally started because of complaints from the hundreds of U.S. students who fail each year.
This means our school has been on their radar for much longer and representatives from the U.S Department of Education were recently on campus, randomly selecting students for interviews.
Answers to their questions were hushed because most of us are too afraid to speak up, fearing retaliation or further repercussions. We are being kept in the dark about what is truly happening with our financial aid, and it is terrifying. For a medical education that will leave me and many others with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, being in the dark is not right.
Many of us are not receiving our living stipends; worse, most of us don’t even have our loans listed on our U.S. student government accounts. There has been no trace of any U.S. government loans for over a year now. Imagine the shock and horror of finding out that your undergraduate loans have gone out of deferment because your loan servicer believes AUA is no longer eligible for U.S. financial aid. We have had to send enrollment letters to our loan servicers from AUA just to keep our heads above water.
The reality is sinking in—if AUA loses its federal funding, they will likely force all of us to take a private loan with a crippling interest rate or risk dropping out. The financial strain and uncertainty are unbearable. We came here to pursue our dreams of becoming doctors, not to be ensnared in a financial trap set by the very institution that should be supporting us.
The school has been covering tuition costs out of its pocket for over a year, amounting to approximately $50 million U.S. by our estimate. This is not sustainable.
The recent graduation class was predominantly composed of non-U.S. students who pay out of pocket. Few U.S. students were able to graduate, and those who did seem to have bypassed the same financial hurdles that are now looming over us.
This is not just a financial issue; it is a matter of fairness, transparency, and justice. Squeezing every possible dollar from U.S. students, then turning to foreign students as a fallback when the well runs dry is what’s happening. We are being used as pawns in a game where every outcome benefits the institution, leaving us drained—emotionally, financially, and mentally.
I speak not just for myself but for every student who is suffering in silence. We deserve answers. We deserve transparency. We deserve to know if our dreams of becoming doctors are being jeopardized by the very institution that should be helping us achieve them. We need someone to step in and hold AUA accountable before more students are caught in this web of financial ruin.
Please, hear our plea. Investigate further. Help us get the answers we desperately need and the justice we rightfully deserve.
Sincerely,
Year 2 AUA Student
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