<p>In this forum, you will always see kids having a hard time trying to cover all the university costs but my situation is different. Im going to go to a local university, live with my dad etc.</p>
<p>To make the question short, as of right now its looking like im going to have leftovers of like 2,000 every semester which I would receive as checks at the beginning of classes right? I am just wondering if anyone ever did this? It just looks weird that im getting paid to go to college. Will the college remove some of my aid and decide I dont need it?</p>
<p>My son is the same. He did received money from his scholarships that was in excess of what was needed. But, remember that scholarships are earned through merit, so he deserves to keep it. He had a small student loan that they paid $313 on . We are waiting for his package this year to see how, if anything changes because of that. </p>
<p>He had departmental scholarships that he was able to get in his second semester that helped him alot also. Make sure you continue to apply for scholarships in your major. His major (mining engineering) has alot of money to give out to students. </p>
<p>He lives at home and doesn’t have to deal with the room/board and maintenance that was marked in his package. We supply everything he needs at home. He does have to have gas in his car to travel and lunch ~ but he can also take that with him but he chooses to eat out. He parks free at the colliseum…Alot can be trimmed off your package if you are commuting. Alot of students do not have the option of commuting or choose not to ~ Room/Board/Meals are a huge chunk of their money needed for college.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot droopy. That was all very useful.</p>
<p>Heres my situation:</p>
<p>—> Will receive BrightFutures 100% Tuition so I dont have to worry about it.
—> $2,500 annually scholarship from the university.
—> EFC is 3596 so Im expecting a Pell Grant around $500-700
—> As well as other Fed grants.</p>
<p>If you just commute to school the only costs you have are tuition and books right?</p>
<p>Correct ~ It’s not like the college says, “Your EFC is $$$, so you need to send us a check for that amount.” It is just a figure worked into your financial aid package. Ours wasn’t even labled EFC ~ Just a Federal Direct PLUS Loan that just so happened to be our EFC amount.</p>
<p>My son also received State Grant money of $600/year since he was going to an out of state college ~ $3,500 in University Grant money ~ $8,000 Academic Excellence Waiver from University ~ Then his scholarships totalling $3,000 for his second semester. </p>
<p>The only reason he took out the student loan was because we didn’t know anything about it and thought it would be good for him to establish some credit of his own ~ Looking back, he really didn’t need that with the reimbursements that the college sent him. But, he could use that money for gas since it is $2.55/gallon here.</p>
<p>We have learned that if you want some top $$ for your books ~ take them to your book store after your last class of each semester! Don’t wait because they may come to find that they may not need as many for the following semester and you will get less $$ for it. We told our son to stop as soon as his class ends in May.</p>
<p>remember that you do have costs other than tuition and books – transportation, room and board. Just because you have already been paying this doesn’t mean there isn’t cost to it – that is why you are getting a disbursement.</p>
<p>you can use the disbursement for food and gas, to fix the car that you use to go to school (or buy one with great gas mileage). save the money so that you can do a study abroad or give some of the money to your parents to help offset the cost of food.</p>
<p>Remember you only get money disbursed to you if your financial aid and scholarships exceed the direct costs that must be paid to the school. </p>
<p>The way it has worked at both my kids schools is that direct cost are charged to the bursars account, financial aid/scholarships is credited to the account. If the charges exceed the financial aid/scholarships then we owe the school money. If the financial aid/scholarships exceed the charges then the school owes the student the money.</p>
<p>When the money is ‘refunded’ to you depends on the school. My daughter and son start school on the same date. Her ‘refund’ is paid to her after the add/drop period which is 2 weeks after class starts. She usually gets a check in the 3rd week. His refund check takes about 5-6 weeks. Neither gets their refund in time to purchase books off campus but she goes ahead and buys them off campus using a credit card. They also both have rent and bills due well before they get the refunds so use money from their jobs or savings to pay them. </p>
<p>Other schools may be quicker or slower in issuing the refund checks. You would have to check with your school for when they issue the refund checks (if you are due one - do your scholarships/financial aid exceed your direct costs? Do you know if you even have a refund due to you?).</p>
<p>I’m confused. Have you received your FA package yet or are you applying for fall '10? If you’re already starting classes (fall '09), then you should have your answers based on your FAFSA already. </p>
<p>Any scholarship $ that exceeds tuition is considered taxable income so you may need to use some of it to cover taxes. Even as a commuter, it is assumed you will have to cover food/board, transportation, books and school “fees”. At FL schools, the “fees” are quite high (I think several thousand - perhaps the U scholarship is intended to cover the fees). Is the annual $2500 university scholarship guaranteed even if you have no need or is it strictly merit based? Usually schools use a different COA for commuter students than those living on campus,</p>
<p>jerzegrl - the original post with the $2500 is from 2 years ago. The thread was resurrected by post # 6. Though I am also puzzled by post #6 as hopefully the poster would know at this point how they are going to pay for books and if they are due any sort of refund.</p>