Hundreds of Maryland students who were erroneously given financial aid grants before the funds were quietly revoked will be able to keep the awards, the Maryland Higher Education Commission said Wednesday.

The move comes after the initial clawback stunned university officials and left parents scrambling for answers days before the start of classes.

Some 500 to 600 students who did not qualify for the income-based state grants received them because of a “system error,” the commission said. When the glitch was discovered, MHEC revoked the scholarships without notifying the families.

Just two days before her son planned to move into his first-year dorm at Frostburg State University, Amy Sawyer on Tuesday noticed the scholarship they had relied on had disappeared from the financial aid portal.

The Frederick County resident immediately called MHEC, and an employee told her the $18,000 grant had been revoked.

“She told us we never should have been awarded the grant, that there was some kind of glitch in their system that was miscalculating income,” she said. “At this point, I’m hysterically crying and my son is freaking out.”

Sawyer’s son had initially turned down Frostburg State, his dream school, to enroll at Harford Community College in the fall because of the cost. Even with his Pell Grant, Frostburg State’s $22,602 yearly tuition was too much.

But in May he was elated when he received the scholarship from the commission, allowing him to attend Frostburg State.

A single mother of three, Sawyer contacted everyone she could think of: her local elected representatives, the university system and members of the press.

Sawyer said MHEC was trying to “yank the rug from under him.”

Earlier on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the University System of Maryland said they were “stunned” by what had happened.

“This is devastating for [the students] and must be addressed quickly,” Michael Sandler wrote. “Many of these students were depending on this money to attend college; receiving this news days before the fall semester begins will make that challenging.”

In MHEC’s statement Wednesday evening, the group confirmed that the grants were canceled but vowed to “honor initial award decisions for students.”

It’s unclear what will be the total cost incurred by MHEC, a state agency that reports to Gov. Wes Moore.

Sawyer said she was notified of MHEC’s decision by members of the press and would not have otherwise known that her son’s scholarship offer was being honored. She said she doesn’t know how she will pay for her son’s tuition next year without the scholarship, only that she would try her best to figure it out.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” she said. “The money is not in his account yet, and they haven’t contacted us.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.