<p>I think they may be reducing their grant if you bring in outside scholarship?? I’m so confused 
. My parental contribution is zero and my own contribution should be $1500, with $2500 term-time job.</p>
<p>They won’t reduce the grant, I’m almost certain.</p>
<p>From Harvard’s Financial Aid Office Website:</p>
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<p>[Financial</a> Aid Office](<a href=“http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k51861]Financial”>http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k51861)</p>
<p>Maybe they’ll reduce the parental contribution?</p>
<p>Nah, that never happens is what I understand from financial aid, universally I think (unless you are so badass that you receive so much scholarship money that you can pay for your entire school education without any grant aid)</p>
<p>Intenex, </p>
<p>I looked at your Financial Aid letter. It looks somewhat like my sons, and like I said before, I found it difficult to parse.</p>
<p>But based on a year’s experience, I can tell you that:</p>
<p>Your parental contribution is 2600, your student contribution is 1500, which totals 4100. The 3726 in Personal Expenses and Travel Allowance will come out of that, so you shouldn’t expect any cash. (I do think there are cases where parental contribution is 0, and Personal Expenses and Travel Allowance exceed “Resources,” and I am still wondering how the College handles that.)</p>
<p>What will happen is that you will receive a term bill for half of Tuition and Fees and Room & Board (board means the meal plan, and HUSD makes good food and it’s all-you-can-eat, unlike some other colleges). You will apply your Scholarships and Grants (and maybe work-study) against that, and then your parents or you will have to write a check for the difference.</p>
<p>@Mebble - I don’t think you factored in the $4,000 I’m receiving from outside scholarships (National Merit Scholar and Robert C. Byrd). This covers my student contribution and my federal work study, and leaves only parental contribution, which is less than the $3,726 in Personal Expenses.</p>
<p>intenex, let me clear things up for you, because the award letter is admittedly confusing. (I’m a current student, by the way.) </p>
<p>Your award letter tells you that you personally will be expected to contribute a total of $4000 toward your cost of attendance: $2500 from a Federal Work-Study job and $1500 from summer earnings prior to matriculation (that’s what they mean by “Student Contribution”). This $4000 you will earn is $274 more than the sum of your personal expenses and travel allowance, which means that you are expected to pay $274 to the university. The rest stays in your pocket for use on personal expenses and travel costs, which in all honesty probably won’t total $3726.</p>
<p>Your award letter also tells you that your parent(s) will have to pay $2600 to the university. (“Parental Contribution,” I’m pretty sure, means money that your parents are expected to pay directly to the university.)</p>
<p>But since you have $4000 in outside scholarships, you won’t need to earn anything over the summer or take up a term-time job. Instead, there are two plausible scenarios. The first is that $274 will be deducted from your outside scholarships to pay for your term bill contribution and the remainder ($3726) will be refunded to you in a form of a cheque; your parent(s) will still need to pay $2600 to the university. The second is that $2874 will be deducted from your outside scholarships to cover the combined term bill contribution of you and your parent(s), leaving $1126 to be refunded to you via cheque. This would mean that the $2600 your parents were originally expected to pay to the university will now be going to you. Frankly, I’m not sure which way they do it, since I didn’t have a parental contribution. </p>
<p>If you’re relying on your refund to buy books and your plane ticket, it’s up to you to see to it that Harvard gets the scholarship money in advance so that it can cut you a cheque before school starts.</p>
<p>This is probably the clearest explanation you’ll get from anybody. Trying to understand the FinAid representatives over the phone is a feat and you may get some inaccurate information, because some of them, I’m convinced, don’t fully understand how the system works.</p>
<p>Sweet deal. So I will get a check? Thanks a bunch for clearing that up.</p>
<p>Mustafah is right. For the last time, you will not get a check for personal expenses or travel, except possibly for a winter coat or extremely dire circumstances.</p>
<p>Perhaps you should not ask for advice from those in the know if you don’t want to hear the correct answers.</p>
<p>What you should do is call the financial aid office so that they can explain this to you. If you’re polite to them, you’ll find them to be very nice.</p>
<p>@Twinmom - Mustafah just said I <em>would</em> get a check. Perhaps you should not comment if you’re not willing to read what people actually say before giving your redundant opinion.</p>
<p>^To be fair, I think twinmom has a point. For most of us, we will not be getting a check, like what she said. I think it’s only your situation that is a little different :).</p>
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<p>You go to the financial aid office and ask them to give it to you, and they will write you a check that you can pick up 2-3 days afterward. I suppose you could also have them apply it to your next term.</p>
<p>^ So they DO write a cheque?</p>
<p>I’m SO confused - I just want this one question answered. </p>
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<p>The above. </p>
<p>I (and some other students getting substantial financial aid) have no parental contribution, and no summer earnings expectation either (international students) as well as a term time job that is significantly below the figure for “personal expenses”. </p>
<p>(Which is why the below response is unhelpful and not exactly applicable to this situation)</p>
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<p>The contribution expected of us (and our parents) are significantly below the figure calculated for that expense. Therefore that gap is presumably covered by the college. </p>
<p>Hence, how will our expenses for “personal expenses” be covered by the college? Do we buy things (books etc) first and THEN ask for reimbursement? Do we receive a cheque? </p>
<p>THAT’s what we want clarification on.</p>
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<p>intenex, don’t be so quick to hate on others when you’re the one who didn’t read my post correctly. The only reason you’ll be receiving a cheque is because you have OUTSIDE SCHOLARSHIPS and want them refunded to you. If you didn’t have those outside scholarships, you’d be paying for your personal expenses and travel allowance OUT OF POCKET, like I said. </p>
<p>No outside scholarships, no cheque from Harvard. Hope that clears things up for you all.</p>
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<p>I wasn’t aware such situations existed – it certainly wasn’t the motivation for the OP’s question. But what I said is applicable to virtually all students from the US and Canada. You’d want to call the FinAid office about your particular situation.</p>
<p>It’s probably a situation that occurs more for international students - who have very high estimated travel and personal expenses in the FA package. I’ll definitely check with the FA office during the Harvard pre-frosh weekend. Thanks. :)</p>
<p>(I do agree - your advice is generally applicable to most US/Canadian students)</p>
<p>Intenex: In the eight years that I have been on this board (yes, there was a CC board prior to this one that was redesigned in 2004) I have received much advice over the years. Being that I am now a parent of a graduating Harvard senior, I have turned around and looked to help others with financial aid advice too.</p>
<p>You have much to learn and not just about financial aid. Students at Harvard do not speak to others in that tone. They are humble and most willing to learn. Please do not let your acceptance go to your head.</p>
<p>My kid has received financial aid for four years. I know a thing or too. Yes, perhaps there are some very rare instances that I am unaware of. There’s no point discussing those on this board because no one here will know those particular answers.</p>
<p>Students at Harvard do not get their hands held. If you are so concerned (and perhaps rightfully do not want to accept information off a message board) then pick up the phone and call the financial aid office. If that sounds like another redundant answer to you, so be it.</p>
<p>Just to throw my two cents into this confused coin purse, with reference to the talk of cheques and additional aid situations: I’m a Canadian with no expected parent contribution, and I received this in an email a few days ago.</p>
<p>"In addition to our staff being available throughout the month of April to answer any questions or concerns you or your family may have about your financial aid award, we also want to take this opportunity to highlight some additional services and benefits that will be available to you during your four years at Harvard. We realize that students face a variety of expenses during college, and we will work with you over your four years here to meet your individual needs. </p>
<p>To that end, we want to make you aware of a few of the programs you may be hearing about from our office, should you decide to enroll. These include the Beneficiary Aid, Student Events, and the Winter Coat Funds. These additional funds are awarded on the basis of need for some of the expenses you may be anticipating. Beneficiary Aid is available to students receiving Harvard Scholarship assistance who incur emergency term-time costs for medical, dental or other non-discretionary education-related expenses such as tutoring. The Student Events Fund provides free tickets through the Harvard Box Office website, to all Harvard-affiliated events, such as concerts, formals, dramatic productions, and other student events in which you might want to participate. Finally, the Winter Coat Fund is made available to students with no expected parent contribution and provides students with money to purchase clothing that will have you ready to take on our New England winters."</p>
<p>Hopefully, that will clear up any of the ambiguous ideas about “special circumstances.”</p>
<p>lol @ twinmom accusing you of being rude when she was the one being rude and close-minded the entire time.</p>
<p>@Mustafah - I realize what you wrote is in regard to my outside scholarships. The question I’m asking had to deal with the outside scholarships to begin with - it was never a question of sole financial aid. Like you said, the situation outlined by theskylitup is rare and entirely different from mine.</p>
<p>Understanding that, please re-read what twinmom’s been saying:</p>
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<p>And even <em>after</em> I clarified the situation as much as possible and you admitted that I <em>would</em> be getting a check as a result of my scholarships (which, again, were what we have been debating the entire time, please read my first post, which begins: “After financial aid and scholarships, I’ll have to pay $2,600 a year, which is less than the ~$4,300 for personal expenses and travel”) twinmom still obstinately remarked</p>
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<p>@twinmom - am I the one who started using <em>that tone</em>? I’m fairly certain I was only echoing your initiation of hostility.</p>
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<p>You probably do know more about the financial aid situation at large than I do. I never said that you didn’t. But I don’t like it when you repeatedly comment on my thread with a remark that entirely misses the subject in question (which I can only assume came about as a result of your failing to read everything posted, as I remarked in my last post, since it seems that you know so much about financial aid). Again, I was <em>never</em> talking about sole financial aid. There was absolutely no reason to remark that under no circumstances would I receive a check - if you had any inclination to answer my actual question, the answer should have been the same as Mustafah’s - <em>because of your outside scholarships</em> you <em>will</em> receive a check, but your financial aid situation will not warrant you one alone (something that I understood clearly before even posting this).</p>
<p>I’m glad you assume I’m letting my acceptance go to my head. I never said a thing against you until you attacked me first, in a post with no additional helpful information from your first, and no justification for your statement, unlike other posters on here who’ve been much more useful. If you’re going to help, thank you, and I really appreciate it, but I didn’t see what you were posting as helpful at all.</p>
<p>In reference to asking the financial aid office - I already have. I sent them an email Friday night. Unfortunately, if I’m not mistaken, it happens to be the weekend right now and I doubt I’ll receive an answer until Monday. In the meantime, I didn’t think it would hurt to see if anyone who understood my situation had an answer to give me. But thank you for trying to help anyway.</p>
<p>Edit: Thanks eliana for the post above this one. I’m glad to know someone else understood what I was trying to get at here :)</p>