Fin Aid Personal Expenses

intenex
Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:34:17 +0000

@Guitars - your parental contribution was greater than personal expenses/travel, then. Parental contribution is never reduced at almost any university as I understand it, unless you earn enough in scholarships to give yourself a full ride without fin. aid anyway. This was never being questioned (unless you were respond to fwong - in which case @fwong - I think you misinterpreted what the fin. aid officer told you…by refunded, perhaps they meant refunded to themselves, not you? ;))

What Risumaru said is exactly what I understand the situation to be - he can confirm that I told him the exact same thing when he pm’ed me before he posted this here.

This is what the financial aid office told me when I emailed them:



intenex:

Hello -

Recently, I received my Financial Aid letter. For reference, I’ve attached it here:

http://projecthuman.org/files/Harvard_Financial_Aid_Letter_Ben.JPG

In addition to the aid given to me by Harvard, I’ve received two outside scholarships that total $4,000 and will send their checks to Harvard directly. As this will reduce my term time work expectation (Federal Work Study) from $2,500 to $0 and my Student Contribution (summer work?) down from $1,500 to $0, as I understand it (please correct me if I am wrong), this effectively brings my expected contribution to $0 and my parental contribution is all that is left at $2,600. As this is less than the estimated $3,726 for personal expenses and travel, how will I receive the $1,126 balance from Harvard? Will I receive a check or will it be added to a Crimson Cash account, or something similar?

Thank you in advance for your help!
Ben





Undergraduate Financial Aid:

Hi Ben,

That is terrific!

Yes, you can request a refund (once you arrive on campus) of any credit balance on your account.

For more information about what to do next (including how to report outside awards in June), please visit [Outside Awards](http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k51861&pageid=icb.page244017)



What the office forgot to clarify (probably thinking it already understood), is the fact that the credit balance can only add up to the total estimated cost of attending Harvard (tuition, fees, room & board, personal expenses, travel), minus parental contribution. So there’s only a small window in which a person might possibly get a refund check: their parental contribution is smaller than personal expenses and travel, and they receive enough aid/scholarship to cover the expected $4,000 student contribution. That final aid/scholarship minus parental contribution == refund check. If the scholarship exceeds that $4,000 amount though, up to $2,000 can be used once to buy a personal computer, and the rest is used to replace your Harvard Grant. I am almost certain that this is how the system works, and I hope that clears it up for everyone.