<p>So how does the paying for college with financial aid process work? Is it automatic?</p>
<p>In our experience the financial aid is credited to the student bursar account. Then any expenses (tuition and fees, meal plan, housing if on campus, books if you buy them on campus) are charged to the account. If the expenses exceed the aid we are billed for the difference. If the aid exceeds the expenses it is paid to the student to pay non direct expenses. Then if any additional charges are incurred after the check is paid to her, she gets a bill (for instance last semester they were very late charging the football season tickets to her account so had sent her all the refunds of aid, then the next month sent her a bill). This may vary by school as some expect some payments in advance (our doesn’t, my friends daughter’s school has a payment due June), and some have monthly payment plans. </p>
<p>Oh she also has to accept parts of the aid offered and any loans may have to be applied for (if they are not direct through the school) and you may have to complete what is called a MPN (master promissory note) and an entrance counseling for federal loans. Your school should have all this information.</p>
<p>Always check your account at the school to make sure all the aid has been credited and that you do not owe anything or it can lead to problems down the road. This should all be available online. There was a poster a couple of weeks back who ran into a problem where a loan was not disbursed and they were somehow unaware so there was a large outstanding balance, which put a hold on the next terms classes and then everything got very complicated and messy ending up with the student leaving the school and not being able to get his transcripts released for the semesters he had completed. I Did not quite understand how it all transpired as my daughters school sends an email to her and to us every month saying there is or there is not a balance due on her account. But in the end it is your responsibility to keep an eye on it all.</p>
<p>I used a lender for a stafford loan that was not ‘in network’ to the school. I did this to save on the origination and guarantor fees. In this case, I had to fax a paper to the school stating the lender I was using and the name of the guarantor company. No biggie. They sent a paper check to the school and my son had to go to the bursar’s office to endorse it since it was made out to him.</p>
<p>In other words, sometimes there are extra steps :-)</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom, we send students emails about aid changes, amounts owed, etc on an ongoing basis - and they are all too often ignored. We were just contacted by a student who somehow never got her aid packaged in the fall - it slipped through without the automatic packaging routine catching it - so she still owed a small fortune to the school for her fall bill that she had expected would be covered by the aid she was never offered. We had a very public campaign late in the fall term, offering one-on-one counseling with students to try to get their aid finished & their balances paid off so they could register for winter term. It was advertised with posters, flyers, emails, and on the website. We did everything to reach these kids but pull them out of class & lead them by the hand to our office. Yet this girl JUST yesterday called to ask how come she still had a balance & couldn’t register for spring/summer term. Sometimes I wonder how they make it through their classes.</p>
<p>That is sad. Especially not even having an award and just assuming the aid is there to pay for it all. We are pretty anal (can’t think of a better word - sorry) about bills and paying on time etc. I have to admit I am guilty of helicoptering when it comes to the financial side of my daughters college experience. I know a lot of kids on CC seem to have to wade through all this on their own and would like more help, and others will criticize me because I do check that all is ok with the financial aid etc. But (thanks to CC) I am much more aware of certain things including what she might be eligible for (like the SMART grant we hope she will get next year) so I do keep tabs as far as I can and make sure she knows what she needs to know. </p>
<p>When she gets emails from the bursars she usually forwards them to me to check out, and her dad and I don’t ignore anything finances related. We were both accountants but the accountant gene definitely skipped a generation with my kids. I have to admit a kind of glazed look comes across my daughter’s eyes when I try and explain financial matters to her. Luckily she is good with her own money as far as budgeting and paying her rent etc.</p>
<p>I know that the financial aid process is really intimidating. I feel bad for kids who are doing it on their own. As a school, we are trying to help those kids-especially since that’s a large percentage of our students. It’s just so frustrating when they ignore the info & our emails, though. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I know how confusing it all is. Heck, I was checking on my D’s aid for next year yesterday & I saw the notation “ISIR correction in process.” That means that they are correcting her FAFSA. I work in financial aid & couldn’t get the FAFSA right, apparently. Sheesh!</p>
<p>One school “corrected” my S’s FAFSA, and they were wrong in their correction. I have sent them the paperwork showing them that my S had put the correct amount on the FAFSA and they are now “reviewing” my paperwork. Just check to make sure the school’s correction is truly correct!</p>
<p>Actually, that was the first thing I did! The FAFSA doesn’t show any change to EFC, though, so either it wasn’t anything that affected EFC or the change hasn’t actually gone out from the school to the processor yet. I’ll check again in a couple days. Of course, if my EFC goes down, I won’t say anything … :)</p>
<p>If you go to college out of state can you receive state grants from the state that your college is in?</p>
<p>Most, if not all, State grants are for students from that state. often they are given to students from the State that stay instate for college. There may be some exceptions to this but I don’t know of any.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, my S’s EFC went up when the school “corrected” his FAFSA. The school made an error calculating my assets. (Geez, like I was lying to my S about my assets so he could lie on his FAFSA . . . ) It has been so frustrating trying to get through this fin aid process. Seems like little glitches everywhere. </p>
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<p>Another school did a “correction” two weeks ago although no changes were made. Someone said the school simply hit the wrong button when they were verifying S’s FAFSA. FAFSA folks said everytime a school verifies my S’s FAFSA a “correction” will show up, even if nothing is changed. Doesn’t seem to be the case, though, b/c S was offered a FA package from one of his schools which had done a verification without doing a “correction”. So very confusing.</p>
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<p>My S did get offered a scholarship that was suppose to be for students of the school’s state even though he is OOS. We thought maybe the FA Office at the school made a mistake (thinking he is IS), but his expected school expenses match the OOS costs. Again, very confusing.</p>
<p>I figured out that I really didn’t do anything wrong on the FAFSA (at least not that I know of yet) - the info on D’s account was a catch-all heading - turns out they just haven’t marked our 1040’s as received yet. Whew - I’d hate to think I can’t fill the darn thing out right!</p>
<p>As for corrections - don’t even try to figure all of that out. As long as the EFC doesn’t go up, any transactions made by the school are no big deal. For example, if the parent never changed the tax filing status from “will file” to “already filed,” the FAO will do that when verifying. That is a change, but not an EFC change. When the EFC goes up, though, you will want to see why - in case you want to challenge it. I often find that EFC’s change after verification, though, because parents use the wrong numbers - wrong line on tax form, etc. Believe me, if you enter taxes from the wrong line, it can make a difference! Or if you put unemployment income under wages, it can cause a higher EFC than you should have. Or if you put the entire amount of wages in a two-income family under just one parent. Or if you neglect to put retirement savings from W2 into untaxed income. Or if you don’t put child support on the FAFSA but it’s on the verification worksheet. Etc, etc.</p>