The Epic PTPTN story

So...here's the so-called epic PTPTN loan story which had me waiting for nearly a year to try get the loan, and till today, has failed. =(

1 year + ago
The university, MAHSA, told us that PTPTN loan officers were coming and those who wanted to apply were told to get ready a few things before that, eg. parents pay slip, bank account at CIMB, SSPN account, etc.

The day the officers arrived, we were briefed and had to fill forms. Everything went smoothly. Nearly 2/3s of the class applied, with high hopes of getting it.

And that was the start of the never-ending problems...

Few weeks after summiting the application forms
The list of successful applicants were published. Horror was on our faces when we found out that only a handful of those whom applied got the loan. Mainly, those who did STPM, the government matriculation & A-Levels. The rest of us, including myself, who did other foundation programs like Aimst & CPU, failed to obtain the 100k loan. And we were left clueless.

An inquiry to the department was made and shockingly, we found out that other foundation programs weren't yet approved due to complications between our university and the PTPTN department. The very reasons of that still remains unclear until today. And to think that we were told earlier that our PTPTN loan will be settled by the university, was all bull-crap.

So, the 'rejected' bunch of us including Harvin, Joyce Ng, Vincent Gan, Vincent Ng and a few others who did the other foundations we made to wait till this issue is to be resolved.

We just had to wait for our university to inform us. And we waited...for months & months. We filled many inquiries and waited for notices to be pasted. The answer was usually: "Wait, we will inform you people" You people You people You people...

So, whenever the university called us demanding for our fees, we just shot back at them, saying our loan hasn't been settled.

October 2008
Our first year ended, and this was during our year end break. I found out that the PTPTN loan can be applied online. After much persuasion by my mom, I filled in my details online and had the application approved...virtually.

By then...the loan had dropped 10k. (100k for 10 semesters. With each semester gone by, the loan drops by 10k)

Finding out the loan was approved, I was initially happy that all we needed to do was just summit the printed forms to the PTPTN office, wait for the confirmation and that was the end of it.

But I was wrong.

When classes resumed, Harvin, Vinc G, Joyce Ng & myself went to summit the forms directly to the PTPTN office somewhere near our university.

And we were told that it has to go through the university.

And when we wanted to summit it through the university, we were again told by the department to wait for the PTPTN officers to drop by the uni.

Back to the waiting, and totally frustrated. not knowing that the issue was gonna get worse months later.

Early 2009
We were informed one day that the officers from PTPTN would be coming over in the next few days to verify and collect our documents.

It was on such short notice that we had to rush to get our certs and documents reverified because they had changed a few regulations. To get them certified, we had to go through the college. The biggest problem was waiting for our result slip which was delayed for months due to reasons again yet to be identified. We need the results slip as we were applying from the 2nd year onwards, thus requiring our year one results.

The many reasons were were told: our dean undergoing surgery, the Indonesia university had to recheck the exam slips, the Indonesian dean was away and couldn't sign the result slips - our course is sort of twinned with an Indon university.

Owh, there was this one lady working with the uni admission department who frustrated us so many times. She told us that we couldn't get different witnesses for our certs. Our certificates weren't complete lah. This lah, that lah. Damn tulan.

And when we did get the documents done in time, we were told that they had postponed the session.

Harvin made a few desperate phone calls directly to the management, even to the point where his dad had to come over a few times to resolve the issue. (Thanks for representing us btw Harv.)Yet, it was back to that four letter word: Wait. And, every time we were told that, we had our four letter word F**k coming out from our mouths.

March 2009
Eventually, the officers came. We went to summit...and got rejected the second time.

This time the issue was: "Mahsa has yet to obtain the verification that the university accepts students other than those from STPM & government matriculation to enter the dentistry course

Ridiculous? It's sort of telling us that we were immigrants...unofficial students of this course, and we were taken in without the proper papers.

It was rumored that the university lost the black & white documents and had to reapply them with PTPTN.

We were told to wait for Mahsa to obtain the verification papers and come again when they drop by next time.

...

A special briefing was held few weeks later regarding this issue. And a huge bomb was dropped on our heads:

"The university has gotten the verification. (we were shown the verification letter.) So you people can reapply when the officers come sometime in June this year. However, since most of you had applied during the 2nd year and not obtain the full loan, we can still help you obtain it. By printing a new offer letter for you people, we will change your date of admission into this course, making you starting the course this year. So who wants to change their offer letter please write down your name...etc."

WTF?! Wait there's more...

"But there is gonna a problem; by the time you people graduate later, the university only receive the payment from PTPTN for 4 years because of the change in the admission date. Therefore, you people certificate we cannot release until you have made the full 5 years payment. So kena tunggu 1 tahun untuk PTPTN bank in duit boleh dapat certificate." Which is to say wait another year for the cert or use your own money and pay the balance and get the cert.

Dilemma I tell you. F*** dilemma that time.

In the end Harvin, Vinc. G., Joyce & I decided not to change ours.

June 2009
2 days ago - The dean's secretary announced that PTPTN officers is having a session right this very moment. We were all stunned. Non of us brought along our documents because of such short notice that the PTPTN officers were here.However, our classmate, Mr. Mike, found out through the notice stuck at the admin block of the university. He only told his close friends, the rest of us only found out during the announcement.

He is slowly adding new enemies to his name.

The good news is PTPTN will be here the next day and the following day. The bad news, on both days, we are at different campuses and wont be meeting them except today.

1 day ago - We were suddenly told that those who didn't change their offer letter previously had to obtain a letter of notification from stating that we were students of the university.

Luckily Harvin was there to help us with the letter. He rushed to the other campus just to catch the briefing.

Today - 5 of us skipped the last class hoping to catch the PTPTN session. The surviving 4 of us plus Vinc. Ng who just got his documents ready yesterday and hadn't complete them.

We reached the other campus at 12.15 but was told to come back at 2.30pm, after the break.

Typical of them...

We finally caught up with the officers...but was delivered one final but deadly blow.

Vinc. Gan had his rejected because he required a letter from our foundation (Aimst) stating we completed our course there.
I encountered the same problem as well because we were from the same foundation course. (In the end, Vincent got approved because he had a copy of the statement at home and he had his dad fax it over. I called Aimst but was required to write in to obtain it. ****)
Harvin had his rejected because he had a C in a subject during his foundation. I feel bad for him after all this waiting and rushing.
Joyce had hers rejected as well because she did Biology for her 2nd semester only during her foundation, not throughout her whole course.
A few of our juniors had theirs rejected because of the lack of the foundation letter from other colleges.

Vinc. Ng however had his approved. I have to give in to him. Managed to complete, forge and check his documents all on the spot and send it in. He is a living proof of last minute work'.

None of us were told any of this before. Not by the college or PTPTN. Even the PTPTN officers pitied all of us. So much so for all the waiting.

So for the time being
I have to wait till the next session which is in September to reapply. My documents were complete but because of that one letter.

I bet you are already confused after reading this post. What say me? FML.