<p>My son is attending our in-state U on a full tuition scholarship. With 2 in college this year, his remaining expenses were still slightly above his FAFSA EFC, and he got about $1000 in federal subsidized loans. We paid the rest of the bill for the semester. However, my son was placed in a very expensive room style (that he did not request) and thus there is now an $800/semester additional fee due. Fortunately, the housing department at his school does offer some discretionary funding for students in these more expensive room styles, and my son applied for it. We figured since he is (barely) financial aid eligible even without the added expense, he might qualify. I don’t know if they also take into account the fact that he didn’t request this room type (he requested a room type that was comparable in price to the standard double that is included in the basic COA computation). </p>
<p>The dilemma is that the discretionary funding is not decided until 2 days after the add/drop deadline. But the supplemental housing fee has been billed and is “due upon receipt”. Financial services said they will place a hold on his account as of the add/drop deadline if he has a balance due. Is there any reason we should really care about this? It would only be there a short time as at that point we will either come up with the money or (hopefully) take out an additional subsidized loan (which I believe he should qualify for, as they should be able to increase his COA according to the cost of the actual room he was assigned). I’d obviously rather not take out the loan and incur fees before we know whether or not he will receive the discretionary funding. (And I’d rather not have to try to scrape up the cash right now, as things are pretty tight after paying both boys’ bursar bills!) I’ve asked them if they can notate the account stating that he has applied for discretionary funding, and we will pay or take out a loan if needed after we learn the decision on that (but have not yet heard back). But if the bureaucracy is such that that is not possible, is it a big deal for them to put a hold on his account for a week or so? He won’t be trying to do anything at that point like adding or dropping classes, since it will be past the add/drop deadline anyhow.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Can you pay that $800? If he gets the aid, it will be credited to his bursar’s account, and you will have $800 less to pay next term.</p>
<p>We could scrape it up if we really had to, but I’d really rather not. Mid-October my self-employed husband has more money coming in, but we’re really tight until then. I will either pay or having him take an additional subsidized loan if it’s going to be a big deal to have a hold put on his account, but if it’s no big deal, I’d rather wait. (He should qualify for an additional sub loan, right?)</p>
<p>I would check the school policy. Some schools will drop students from all their classes if they have any outstanding balance, and it’s a nightmare to get back into them afterwards</p>
<p>Thanks Jazz, that’s the kind of thing I needed to know was a possibility.</p>
<p>Some schools will also put the amount owed after the pay date onto an automatic payment plan that can have a fee of anywhere from $15 to $100+. Both of my daughters’ schools do this. They’d probably go back in and waive this fee if some kind of grant or aid paid that, but I’m not sure.</p>
<p>We personally had bills not paid on time at our college- because the tuition remission from DH’s employer was always late and this amount went up a bit, each year. Long story but it meant we often didn’t know our exact final billing until after the semester started. The billing folks were willing to work with this. As long as everyone was on the same page, things were fine. But not a large U. </p>
<p>You have to learn from the college what they expect, in your case. Either someone in authority will assure you or you may need to speak with all the involved depts. Good luck.</p>
<p>If he can take an addition subsidized loan…do that. You can immediately pay it off in October.</p>
<p>That’s my plan @thumper1 unless they’re willing to wait and see about the discretionary funding (which would save us paying the origination fee on the loan unnecessarily).</p>
<p>If you did not request the “nicer” room but that is where they placed him the school should eat the differential.</p>
<p>As others have said, you should talk to the college and find out exactly what the implications of being on hold are. At my son’s schools, they would not the students register for the next term classes until any hold was released, nor would they release any transcripts to outside agencies when a hold was in place. But it did not affect current classes or anything else that I was aware of. But some schools won’t release a schedule if the current term is not paid for and will even take the kid out of the classes, which could be an administrative nightmare. Can you go on a payment plan? That usually breaks the payment up so that you may not ever be behind. It usually involves a fee, but then you only have to pay portions and if not paid up in full by the add drop date as long as you are on that payment plan you are fine. IF the ramifications are not anything that will affect your son–at my son’s school, it would not be, then just let the hold happen for that time period. When is he supposed to sign up for the next term’s classes in relation to the add/drop date or when this can be resolved? That, I know, was an issue with all of my kids’ schools. Had to be up to date, either on payment plan or full pay for the term to lock into next term’s classes and I don’t remember when in the semester one registers for the courses for the next term.</p>
<p>Check into school loans rather than the federal loans. My undergrad had a small (500 or 1000, can’t remember) loan program that provided immediate relief in situations like this. The pay off period was a few months, but it was enough of a stop-gap measure and was much simpler than doing anything with federal loans. </p>
<p>I would also try to raise a fuss about him being placed in a more expensive room without requesting it. That’s not fair to him and maybe the school will work with you </p>
<p>We knew it was possible that he’d be placed in this room type, so I’m not going to make a fuss. Basically the honors college only has 2 types of rooms for freshmen, and more request the cheaper type than there are cheaper rooms available. I do think it’s weird that they have a program for helping students cover the extra cost, but you can’t find out in advance if you qualify. It seems like having the program is an attempt to allow finaid-eligible students to have more room options available to them, but one certainly couldn’t request an expensive room type (prevalent in the honors housing and also special program housing) and count on it since they don’t let you know until not only after you have requested the room, but after you are supposed to have paid for it. </p>
<p>I’ve been communicated with both departments by email (easier to keep a “paper” trail) and I just heard back from financial services saying we could wait until after he knows to pay the supplement. I wrote back asking them to confirm that that either means they will not place a hold, or that the hold wouldn’t have any consequences on his current classes, incur any additional fees, etc. They said they usually can’t increase the budget to cover the additional room fees, which seems strange - I would have thought this would have been nearly automatic (and at my older S’s school, things like that are just a matter of filling out a form stating what expenses over COA you have, which can include discretionary things like health center memberships, etc.) They said once he knows his status wrt the discretionary funding, he can write a letter to request a special case increase in his budget. Not sure it’s worth all that hassle, we’ll probably just scrape it up at that point if he doesn’t get the funding.</p>