What I mean is is that do you have to pay the full amount that owe first, and then they refund you however much from the financial aid just to make sure you didnt drop or switch classes and what not … or will they deduct my scholarship/loans out of my total amount due and that’s what i’ll owe???
For financial aid awarded by the colleges…they will credit your account with those monies…and you will be billed the balance.
My daughter’s did not get offered (and did not want) loans. Their aid was in the form of merit scholarships. The bills that we have seen have all had the scholarship amount deducted from the bill before we needed to pay it. Therefore we only had to pay the additional amount. I am pretty sure that the same will be true for need based grants and scholarships. Of course with a need based grant or scholarship the entire point is that the school believes that you don’t have the money, which implies that they better not bill you for it.
We don’t have experience with loans, but I am pretty sure that the same is true at least for loans offered through the school (and probably also for federal loans). Of course loans will eventually need to be repaid, which is something to keep in mind before taking them out.
Admissions and financial aid staff at the school should be able to help you with this question, and will be familiar with the specific types of aid that you have been offered. In my experience the admissions staff at the universities that we have dealt with have been very helpful.
Generally speaking, grants (Pell, FSEOG and institutional) are credited to the student’s account. Loans cannot be credited until they are actually disbursed … and federal loans cannot be disbursed more than 10 days before the start of the semester. Students have to figure out what the net loan amount will be (multiply the amount requested by .98931 and divide by 2).
I think how your bill appears with regards to federal loans depends on the college and their billing department.
In the case of my kids…both undergrad, grad, and professional,school, the Direct Loan amount was noted ON the bill and the amount the student was receiving for that was not included in what the student needed to pay for the term.
The approximate disbursal date for the Direct Loan was also noted on the bills.
But from what @Kelsmom writes…apparently that is not the case at all colleges.
keep in mind that your award is an annual award, so only half will go towards the first semester.
so if you got a $10k scholarship, then $5k will go towards this semester’s costs. if the school awarded the scholarship, then they know about it. if your award is an outside scholarship, then send the award there.
Keep in mind also that work study can be part of the financial aid and that is earned over the course of the semester so not deducted from the bill at semester start.
My daughter’s school bills fall semester around July 15 and expects payment about Aug 15. It then starts posting the credits as they are released - all the school credits for grants and scholarships, then the loans as the student accepts them, then federal and state grants, etc.
There is one grant that pays by the credit, so it is on the bottom of the bill as ‘anticipated’ or something like that. The school doesn’t make you pay it up front, but if you take fewer credits than 15 (they always assume 15), you will owe them a few dollar later in the semester.
My other daughter doesn’t even require a payment until 3-4 weeks into the semester, so most funds are available by then. They are also very good with getting the overpayments to you (if you borrow/have grants for living expenses.