<p>My financial package includes things such as personal expenses, travel, and books and supplies. Will Amherst actually give me this money to purchase my books? Will they really pay for my books and everything? If they do actually give me the money, do I have to spend it on books from an Amherst approved bookstore or can I purchase them online? </p>
<p>My actual financial aid award requires me to only pay $2040 (for both parental contribution and for my own contribution) so do I acutally have to pay this money to Amherst or could this go towards things like books and supplies? </p>
<p>Also, will I be getting a course guide at some point? Like a physical, in my hands, course guide?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help and I hope some of my questions can be answered! If they can’t be answered, I will be attending the Amherst weekend this weekend and so will be able to ask people there for answers.</p>
<p>This was out experience over four years. These are expected costs on everyone’s expense sheet. You will pay the 2040 to the college. You then pay for your personal costs. Check with the FA office, but that is what happened to us. There are some kids who have a zero EFC and they are awarded the additional, but since you owe a balance, this shouldn’t apply. If you are worried, you can still work on campus and pay for those incidentals yourself.</p>
<p>I have a different take on it. If your parental contribution is the 2040, then they do pay it to the college. If the entire 2040 is yours, i.e. summer contribution, you do use it for books, travel etc. If it is split, your parents do pay theirs directly to the college, then you use your part for allocated expenses. If those expenses exceed your amount,(and most likely they will) for personal expenses, books and travel, the school will deposit the appropriate additional amounts per semester to make up the difference.</p>
<p>Ask FA this weekend when you are there for exact details.</p>
<p>edit: just for clarification, any parental contribution is paid to the school. Any student contribution is all/part of your expenses, (travel, books, personal) and is not paid to the school. You are just expected to have that amount to pay for those things.</p>
<p>It’s hard to say without seeing exactly how your award is laid out, but I can speak to how it works generally. Amherst won’t give you money directly for expenses like books, travel, etc, but you also don’t pay Amherst for those things or buy them through Amherst. What Amherst does do is offer you a government-subsidized on campus job, with the intention that your earnings from that job will cover those expenses. There’s a number of jobs which are rather low impact in time commitment and difficulty, and often give you a chance to get work done while you’re there, so it’s not a big imposition. For example, if you work at the front desk of the library, you can do reading/problem sets/whatever at basically any time you aren’t actively checking out books. Of course, if you’d rather not have a job, you can pay for your expenses through your savings our whatever else, just like you normally would.</p>