UCI - The Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships Aldrich Hall, Irvine

Wow just wow so if y'all wanna visit in person just to be told to download some app to book a booked appointment have at it! Best chance is to call the office and be on hold for two hours :).. (it's not like students have any other life obligations :) ) But then again you might receive help from someone who doesn't even have the answers *when you have your tax forms in front of you. Office of financial aid get your stuff figured out (we're talking about students attendance eligibility and future's... My best advice is just ask for help at the (tax offices) that helped you file y'alls IRS forms *they are at least qualified for these questions****

The service is so bad, all the financial aid advisors are rude and do not care at all.

Very difficult to contact the school. This is a big decision and big financial decision for out-of-state (nearly $70k) and you cannot contact a live person?!?! Their message states they are not taking calls "due to covid" but last I checked phone calls were safe. Very disappointing institution and if anyone is reading this...the lack of support just may be the deciding factor to not attend. I told my child that I cannot support his decision to attend if they wont even take a phone call.

My experience with this department has been nothing but stressful. Not only is finances extremely stressful for most students to deal with but it is also a very sensitive topic. With most of my experiences with this department, I have talked with very disrespectful staff in this department who aren't sympathetic but instead annoyed when you come to them with questions you have been waiting weeks to asked them. I understand that the Financial Aid office is very stressful for the workers since aid is such a huge topic but the staff there is some of the most unqualified individuals for delivery of information regarding financial aid.

I have a financial hold on my account and have been trying to contact them for over a week and no one has picked up the phone or returned my call after leaving several voicemails. If there was an option to leave 0 stars I would.

I had been calling this number and no one is responding to the call. On hold for 50 minutes! I had left voicemail for the last two weeks and no one had returned my call! I am now tempting myself to go in person to see if I can get help with.

The people in this department strive to make you fail. It takes forever for them to respond and when they finally do, gives you misinformation to end the conversation as soon as possible. They are lazy and incompetent.

I wish I could find another way to access my aid without ever talking to this department. What I find interesting is that UCI admin know this department is the worst to deal with yet refuse to overhaul the department. As someone else mentioned I knew more about my loans and aid then they did. I have been waiting for over a month for them to apply my aid, which as of this post has still not occurred. To make matters worse when you are able to get someone on the phone the folks working there respond with such aggravation, when it is MY money. As a graduate student who has attended multiple colleges and been doing this for awhile I never met a more incompetent group of people. If the staff are reading this or anyone with institutional access to UCI reads this, my comment is please do better. As our current administration has delayed payments to people's unemployment causing tremendous trauma, so too does the UCI Financial Aid department hurt its students by ignorantly withholding crucial funds students need for housing, books, and food. No wonder so many students at UCI are food and housing insecure. Just on a human level I have no idea how these people sleep at night.

Very unhelpful, extraordinarily callous about helping students in need of aid.

Never email back, often times have no clue what they are talking about and do not pay attention to students needs! Plus they ask for information that cannot be provided with out being a HIPPA violation. They required me to submit parental medical information even with out parental consent to process independence appeal. While I was approved it was not legal! Plus many workers can be rude and not listen or seem to preoccupied. I had a scheduled meeting with a team member and she complained 10 mins into the meeting (which she talked the entire time and did not allow me to ask questions) that she needed to go take her lunch. Really wish there would be better standards that staff would need to abide by considering they handle student finances that are EXTREMELY expensive. Hopefully not all school financial aid offices are like this because I feel sorry for students who have lost their aid due to unorganized and uneducated workers