Thousands of students applied for aid; many have received their decisions but those who haven't worry that hanging in the balance could ultimately cost them.

On Wednesday, students at OTC were throwing around a football on a campus lawn. Inside, though, the game looked a little different.

"We're pushing a lot of money and paper around,” said OTC Financial Aid Director Jeff Ford.

Students say they’re not pushing fast enough. Beau Cormier, a sophomore, says he's still waiting for financial aid to come through.

“They said, ‘Prepare for the 5th,’” said Cormier.

Nov. 5 is when students are supposed to be paid in full for the fall semester.

Cormier is not the only one dealing with money troubles. The Financial Aid office is flooded with frustrated and nervous students.

"We're in a perfect storm where we've had a lot of factors come together to create the situation at hand,” said Ford.

Among those factors is a record enrollment. OTC’s enrollment is up another 16 percent this semester, and more of those students are applying for aid.

Last year, the school received around 13,500 applications for student aid over the entire year. not halfway into the fall semester this year, it’s already received nearly 15,000.

"We've added personnel,” said Ford.

Ford says his office has been able to process a majority of loan applications that were completed by mid-summer.

"The goal is to wrap up everything that's in the hopper by the end of this semester so we start the spring with a clean slate,” he said.

For many students playing the waiting game, that's not enough. Some have moved to keep OTC from making previously authorized withdrawals from their bank accounts.

“I’ve put a lock on my checking account. I can't even put money into it,” said Cormier.

A reporter talked to a couple of other students who had made that same decision to put blocks on their checking accounts. In that case, they say, the office has told them they'll be charged fees every time they try to make withdrawals and can't, but those fees do at least buy them a little time.

If the school takes money out of a student's account, and that student ultimately receives financial aid, the previous withdrawals will be applied to whatever balance remains on the student's account; anything over the balance due will go back to the student.