<p>Several schools in Florida have now set up their book advances (which come out of your financial aid package) where you have to use them in the on-campus bookstore. I guess the advent of used book retailers and rentals cut into their profits from ripping off students for books. Are schools in other states doing this?</p>
<p>If you are going to school in Florida, you might want to try and get the money from another source so you don’t pay those ridiculous prices. You will still get that money after the add/drop date if you don’t take the advance. It would save you a lot of money.</p>
<p>It’s not a scam. They can’t actually GIVE you any money before they are allowed to disburse the funds. So the only way to give a book advance is to do it through the school’s own bookstore (knowing that if a student gets the books & then drops classes, the school might be out money - the student knows up front that he must pay the school back, but he still might not do so). Many school bookstores give students the option of new, used, rental, and etexts with their advances.</p>
<p>Schools in Georgia are - my sister’s small regional university does this. If you have excess financial aid, they give you a book allowance at the bookstore until that date that they can process a refund, and then you can request that your book allowance be liquidated.</p>
<p>But like kelsmom said, it’s not a scam. It’s an option for students who rely on financial aid to buy their books. Most universities can’t disburse your funds until after the add/drop period but they CAN give you credit in businesses they run themselves.</p>
<p>However, for most students it’d probably be financially smarter to wait until after add/drop and get the refund, then buy the books elsewhere. It really depends on your classes and professors, though - my professors in undergrad were very understanding for the first few classes and made copies of the chapters we were supposed to read in the beginning or put the texts on reserve at the library.</p>
<p>I say it’s a scam because when my daughter first started school and when my oldest was in school, they disbursed the book advance to you and you could buy the books elsewhere. The whole thing is stupid anyway. Different funds are disbursed at different times and the school ALWAYS takes their money first. This year is the first year I have seen schools require book advances to be used on campus. And I know they have used books and rentals in campus bookstores, but they are still WAY overpriced.</p>
<p>If the schools disbursed the money in advance, they were using their own funds … and they ran the risk of losing money if the student didn’t matriculate,etc (plus, the accounting had to be very difficult). In these difficult times, schools do not have money to advance.</p>
<p>Neither of my kid’s schools ever did a book advance. If they bought books at the school they could charge the books and financial aid would cover them. If they wanted to buy elsewhere then we had to come up with the money from elsewhere until the refunds happened (@ 2 1/2 weeks after school starts for my daughter, 5-6 weeks for my son).</p>
<p>What happens to the unused amount of money from your book advance? For example, you are granted $400 in book grant, out of that money you spend $200. There is a remainder of $200. What happens to that 200? and if you are able to claim it, how do you claim it?</p>
<p>Your book advance is simply an advance on any refund you would otherwise receive from your financial aid. If you don’t use it all, the balance is refunded to you when the school runs refunds. Remember, though, that if you change any classes after the book refund is determined, you may end up owing the school … for example, if you add a class & new charges are added, that affects things … or if you drop a class & aid adjusts as a result (for example, if Pell or other grants are prorated due to drop in enrollment), that may also affect things.</p>