Howard University told more than 500 incoming students they had been unenrolled weeks before the fall semester because of remaining balances, then later said some of those students had their classes restored.
For Isabella Williams, the notice landed after she had already moved from east Alabama to Washington, D.C. to start college. She said the email said there was no way back in and pointed her toward returning as a transfer student, a message that left her unsure what had happened to the scholarships she believed were helping cover the cost.
The university said it had sent detailed communications from March through July to first-time-in-college students and their families explaining the steps needed to secure enrollment for the fall 2026 semester. It also confirmed that over 500 students received the unenrollment notification tied to unpaid balances, making the dispute a broad one rather than an isolated billing problem.
Williams said she had two Howard scholarships, worth $11,000 and $16,000, and said her original balance had been $13,000 before the school let her waive health insurance, leaving $12,000 to pay. That is why the deadlines mattered: under the university’s tuition figures, the 2026-2027 bill is about $37,996 for the year, or $18,998 per semester, so a missed payment step could quickly turn into a loss of enrollment status for students already trying to make the numbers work.
Still, the university’s account and Williams’ experience do not line up neatly. Howard said it had been warning students for months, but Williams said the notice was confusing and that some scholarship committees could not get a response from the university. She also said some students had their classes restored while others had not, which suggests the school was still sorting cases out even after the first wave of notices went out.
Williams said her own classes have since been restored, but she said she no longer had any of her scholarships after that happened. “I’m more so disappointed in the way that Howard is acting, but I’m not disappointed in the school or the promise itself,” she said, adding that Howard runs deep in her family and that one of her uncles was a vice provost there in 2001. What remains unclear is how many of the students who received the notices were ultimately brought back into enrollment, and what exact payment steps satisfied the school’s deadline rules for the rest.
