<p>Does financial aid cover textbooks and/or school supplies? I'm in the under 60k pool so I only pay student contribution and SHIP, but I can't seem to find out if I will have to pay for my textbooks etc as well. </p>
<p>Thanks. :)</p>
<p>You pay for books.</p>
<p>uh i thought financial aid did pay for it. it said it in my package. im in the <60k pool</p>
<p>lost4words09, where at? I only got that 1 sheet of paper like 1 month and a half ago saying my financial aid, which I just handed off to my mom after a quick skim.</p>
<p>I though it said on the paper that it would cover the cost of some books to the amount of about $500. But of course, some people end up having to pay out of pocket for the books cause for me, I still have a student contribution.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have student contribution too. Does that cover books?
…I’m confused lol</p>
<p>Student Contribution is the money YOU have to pay. So essentially, it’s the money put into books and food.</p>
<p>everybody has student contribution no matter what. Books are included in your budget, so essentially the money for your student contribution is what goes towards books and personal expenses. You don’t actually pay your student contribution to Cornell</p>
<p>Ohhh, I see. Alright, thanks everyone. :)</p>
<p>So…they arent going to give us money for books? so that means i should be trying to buy crap off amazon/half.com for cheap? since i assumed id be getting up to $370 for books (thats how much it says under financial aid summary on student center), i was just going to buy them from the cornell store. why would they put it under financial aid if we had to pay it?</p>
<p>Also, unrelated- what does transportation refer to on the financial aid summary? The summary says theres $525 for transportation. for the bus or…what?</p>
<p>The way financial aid works is the calculate your cost of attendance. That includes things like tuition, room & board, books, transportation from home to school and back at breaks and personal expenses. Whatever else they list on there.</p>
<p>Once they get your COA, then they take out your student contribution. That is your need. If they meet your need with 100% grants, then the only thing you have to come up with is your student contribution. Most if not all of that will go towards books and personal expenses etc…</p>
<p>You can charge the books to your bursar account, but you will still end up having to pay for them as there shouldn’t be any grant money left over after paying for tuition, room & board and the other misc. fees etc…</p>
<p>Hope that helps you understand things a little better</p>
<p>I thought always thought Student Contribution was how much money the student had, and divide by 4 years. Cause, when someone said they had no money, contribution was $0. My contribution is really 1/4 I have now.
Sometimes ppl have Federal Work Study good for up to about $2K which may be used to pay for your small expenses.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks yeah that helped. ive also won $10,000 in independent scholarships, and i’ve asked and cornell said they wont let me use it to reduce my student contribution, but if my student ocntribution just goes to books why wouldnt they let me!? my scholarhsips are specifically given to me for books, room & board…etc. if the cornell grant isnt going to cover my books, shouldnt they allow me to use some of hte scholarships for books? should i just wait until i get to cornell, charge my books to my bursar & that way i can fill out the budget increase form and have them give back some of my scholarship money (since they just applied it to my fin aid to reduce cornell grant) to pay for my books?</p>
<p>^ ditto. I have a $2400 scholarship, could that be used towards books n such? I’ve heard about asking for loans but having scholarships that end up absorbing them, how does that work?</p>
<p>I’ve always had to pay my student contribution directly to Cornell.</p>
<p>There are I think two distinct types of contributions from students. One I believed they defined as 1/4 of any money held in your name not directly earned by you, like a college fund given to you by your grandparents or something along those lines. The other one is the 2300~ for books and personal expenses we’re expected to earn over the summer. The way I was led to understand it is the first one goes to Cornell, and the second one you keep to defray the costs of being alive and studying stuff.</p>
<p>bump. anyone have the answer to our scholarship and book questions?</p>