Financial Aid Disbursement Question. Help!

Paying for College
1

<p>I am currently in my third semester of community college. Last semester I was considered an out of state student at my school in Florida. I paid for my classes with a pell grand and Stafford student loans. This semester I transferred to another school in Florida. I applied for student loans again because there was a chance that I wouldn't be able to prove that I have been a Florida resident for over a year.</p>

<p>It turns out that proving residency was not a problem and my tuition has been cut from $4500 to $1300. I will still need student loans for this semester though, as I need to purchase transportation and need help paying rent as well as other school related expenses.</p>

<p>I have a total of $2800 in pell grants and $4700 in student loans. I recently asked 2 financial aid advisers when I can expect to get the remaining financial aid disbursed to me and I received 2 different answers. </p>

<p>One told me that I will get a refund of the total balance of my financial aid at the same time as everybody else at my institution within 10 days of the Add/drop date of 08/27. The other adviser informed me that since this is the first time I have applied for student loans at this particular school I won't receive the balance of my loans until 30 days after the term started on 08/19. I don't understand this second adviser's stance. I already waited 30 days when I initially received loans last semester. It was at a different school but it is the same loan account, I didn't have to complete any additional counseling, all I had to do was update my MPN to the new school. So my question is, is the 30 day waiting period implemented by the loan provider or the school I'm attending? And when can I realistically expect the full amount of my refund?</p>

<p>Let me give as many details as possible. My Student Loans disclosure statement dated 08/07/13 states that my school plans to disburse the amount of $4700 on 08/09/2013. My student account shows that I have the $2800 of my pell grant applied towards tuition with a $1500 line of credit for books. It states that I have $4700 remaining in financial aid(the amount of my loans)</p>

<p>Sorry for the long winded post, I just wanted to be as detailed as possible so I can get some clarification on the two conflicting accounts I got from the financial aid advisers. Thank you very much for your time.</p>

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<p>I can’t speak for your college, but where my two kids went to college, the Direct Loan was not applied to their bursar’s account until about four weeks or so into the term.</p>

3

<p>My college pays out all refunds within 7-14 days of the add/drop date which was 08/23. The exception being first time student loan recipients. What’s throwing me off is I have already received student loans last semester at another school, so this is the second semester I have gotten student loans but one adviser told me that I will have to wait the 30 days for my refund like a first time borrower since this is the first semester I am attending this school.</p>

<p>Basically, is the 30 day waiting period put in place by the loan issuer or the school?</p>

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<p>The school wants to be sure that you are not going to take the student loan disbursement and drop out of school. The 30 waiting period is pretty standard.</p>

5

<p>Yes, the 30 days is standard for those borrowing for the first time at a new place. As a freshman at ASU, I had to wait 30 days to receive financial aid. Semesters after that, it came within 1-2 weeks…then I transferred elsewhere to College B and had to wait 30 days again. Now that I’m a grad student in a new university (College C), I am waiting 30 days again.</p>

<p>I would wager the conflicting accounts came because the first adviser you spoke to didn’t realize it was your first time borrowing loans at the new institution. Almost all schools follow this rule.</p>

<p>If your school started 08/19, I would expect it around September 23rd or so.</p>