<p>I'm a freshman so I have some panicky questions about my CARS account.</p>
<p>I have a $0 balance. Even though I have already accepted a couple of loans and even though I received a grant and a scholarship from Berkeley. </p>
<p>And since a couple of days ago I received the payment schedule for housing, I'm a little panicky about paying for August. Yikes. </p>
<p>So my question is: when will loans be distributed or have they already been distributed? </p>
<p>Also, will grants/scholarships show up on CARS balance? Or do they get spent automatically paying for tuition fees?</p>
<p>Thanks for any input.</p>
<p>First you'll be charged registration, fees and housing.</p>
<p>Then they'll process your financial aid, including all grants and loans that you've accepted for this term.</p>
<p>When they do that second one, they'll apply the amounts to your CARS account. The grant and loan amount so placed with automatically pay off whatever balance you have on your CARS account. If you have any excess, it will be available to you in check form at the office (or else you can set up an EFT account, which I highly recommend).</p>
<p>Loans and grants have not been forwarded to CARS yet. They actually don't do it until a LOT closer to the start of term, so don't panic just yet. :)</p>
<p>thank you so much!</p>
<p>When are we supposed to pay for the minimum payment on our CARS accounts, if loans aren't taken into account, yet?</p>
<p>My CARS quick statment says that the minimum payment due is 5700. </p>
<p>Am I suppoed to accept my loans already?</p>
<p>Let's see... I've looked for past disbursements, and it looks like they processed my excess monies in CARS and EFT'd my refund on 8/27/07 and 1/22/08 for Fall 07 and Spring 08. </p>
<p>nhsharvard: The deadline is officially August 15th, but they don't charge the first late fee until a month after the due date, so you should be fine.</p>
<p>Yes, you need to accept your loans. You will also need to fill out the MPN in order to have them disbursed. If you don't do this, your loans won't be credited to you (and if you don't do it relatively soon, they won't be processed in time enough to pay fees).</p>
<p>Can you explain why we get refunds and how much they are? I thought we were supposed to pay for college, not the other way around (though that would be really nice!)</p>
<p>The "refunds" are just because the Cost of Attendance accounts for more than what the school charges you for directly.</p>
<p>Within the CoA are textbooks, transportation, personal expenses, etc. Those don't get billed to you directly by Cal, you need to deal with them on your own. The school charges you directly only for Fees and, if you live in campus housing and/or have a meal plan, Housing/Utilities/Board. </p>
<p>So, when you get a financial aid package full of loans and grants which covers your entire Cost of Attendance, you're going to have money left over. The money left over after paying the necessary costs is then "refunded" to you. The amount will vary greatly, depending on how much financial aid you have (in loans and grants -- remember that Work Study does not translate into available funds until you work for it), what kind of housing (if any) you live in, and what meal plan (if any) you have.</p>
<p>If my parents want to pay the amount that Cal has given me as loans in full, do I still need to accept the loan and pay them off immediately or just not accept the loan?</p>
<p>Just don't accept the loan.</p>