<p>Has anyone had their financial aid disbursed yet? I know mine hasn't.</p>
<p>FAO is pretty slow, they only started sending them out last week. I’ve gotten mine but that shouldn’t be discouraging.</p>
<p>If I can’t be discouraged a week before my bill is due, then when should I be? Because I am freaking out right now.</p>
<p>the school is quite accustomed to the fin aid getting disbursed after the due date - therefore it is not a very serious deadline.</p>
<p>So then what exactly happens when you can’t pay the bill by the 15th?</p>
<p>You get registration blocked like I did. I’m going to pay the minimum 20% after finals though. Kind of stupid to be honest since all I do is pay full tuition and then get refunded all my money back and more because of Regents anyways…</p>
<p>Well getting a registration block doesn’t sound fun at all.</p>
<p>The 15th is pretty much a soft deadline, late fees aren’t assessed until something like a month later. In years past, I’ve gotten aid a few days before the deadline and even on the deadline itself this one time.</p>
<p>As long as you don’t have any academic blocks or missing forms, you’ll get your FA. If you’re really freaking out, like many newcomers (which I’m assuming you are since you’re freaking out) are, call the FAO in the morning.</p>
<p>My financial aid is reflected in my quick statement on BearFacts, but not on my CARS bill. Do I just pay what it says is due on the quick statement?</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>The “CARS Bill” (named Monthly E-Bill on bearfacts) is actually an e-statement, a point-in-time representation of a paper bill. That is, they run it once a month and freeze the image you would see if they were still killing trees to ship paper to you. It doesn’t change, ever. There is a new statement the following month, but the old one is there to go back and review. It will stay that way forever including the ‘balance due’ stuff. </p>
<p>The Quick Statement shows you the balance as of the evening before. It updates every business day. That is the way to check whether payments were received and whether new charges have arrived to your account. </p>
<p>As far as what you pay now, that is a bit complicated. </p>
<p>The e-bill for the first month of a semester includes two ways to pay tuition charges, either you would pay 20% that month and 1/5th each additional month, or you pay the entire semester’s tuition right away. Financial aid pays the entire amount right away, not the time payment choice.</p>
<p>On the quick statement, there are three amounts listed. Minimum Amount Due Now is the payment if you are choosing the time payment choice, it includes 20% of tuition charges and the current month’s room and board. Room and board are always billed a month at a time over the 10 months of the calendar year (ignoring summer). Minimum Due + Full Reg. Fee is the amount that pays the semester tuition and the month of room and board, no time payment plan. That is the amount to pay, if it is not zero. For many, financial aid pays more than the semester tuition and months room and board, with the remainder of the money that is left over sent to your bank account for use to buy books, etc. The Minimum Due+ Full Reg. Fee would be zero and you pay nothing. The third and final quantity on the quick statement is Account Balance which reflects charges that have arrived after the e-bill statement was prepared, thus they are not due until next month. It lets you know this is pending, it may go up when the post the next months room and board, but all you need to care about for making payments this month are the first two numbers.</p>
<p>More confusingly, the e-bill statement will list an account balance that includes all of the semester’s tuition and the full year of room and board - not a full years cost but more than the semester - yet that is not what is due. It is more of an accounting and legal technicality. Since you sign a housing agreement for the entire year, you owe the entire amount (unless they find a replacement if you leave the dorms, which isn’t hard since they are hugely oversubscribed right now).</p>
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<p>So I tried calling the office in the morning, was put on hold for about an hour before I decided to hang up. That Peanuts music was getting on my nerves.</p>
<p>As you may realize, just about every freshmen receiving FA is calling in a panic to wonder about their aid, the deadline, etc . . . probably the worst couple of weeks to work in FA for the entire year and consequently they will be very very backed up and hard to reach. </p>
<p>Picture a subterranean cavern filled with gnomes chained to a sea of desks, green eye shades on their heads and old school mechanical calculating machines in continuous use. It is dark, dank and noisy, with telephones ringing continuously and the flickering torchlight of enraged freshmen milling around the cave entrance trying to push the rocks aside and enter. The beads of sweat falling from their brows, the financial aid staff are furiously calculating and annotating scrolls, while others drag wheelbarrows full of money from account to account. The gnomes know their only hope of emerging to daylight and fresh air is to complete their herculean task, thereby simultaneously satisfying the vicious finance ogres and the muttering student body outside. </p>
<p>In the spirit of full disclosure, this might not be an entirely accurate depiction, but it represents the deeper truth.</p>
<p>You would think that the flagship school of the UC System, which was founded in the 1800s, would have their act together by now when it comes to financial aid. Sure, this newfangled internet stuff is somewhat recent, but COME ON!</p>
<p>growing demands for aid to students + funding from state getting slashed to bits = amazing they manage to pull it off at all</p>
<p>Do note the fact that 50yr ago, Cal didn’t even have tuition! It’s because of budget cuts that we even need a billing department and a financial aid office.</p>
<p>Still, it seems to me that I’m getting screwed over by Berkeley and I haven’t even moved in yet. And I’m sure I’m not the only one with the same feeling.</p>
<p>I still think you’re in the minority. They’ll get it done, just have to wait a bit.</p>
<p>Full disclosure, I was technically a half-time student with only 9 units (I planned from the get-go to petition into a few classes since I can’t enroll into them online). Some of the stuff I read on the Financial Aid website said that I’d be eligible for the Cal Grant A as long as I was enrolled half-time. </p>
<p>It was then pointed out to me that Berkeley wouldn’t disburse any of the Cal Grant unless I was a full-time student NOW. Fast-forward to this week, specifically Tuesday, and I signed up for a 4 unit class so it can push me to full-time student so I can get my aid before the August 15 bill deadline. So I’m sitting here, cursing and hoping that I didn’t screw myself over by signing up for the class too late.</p>
<p>The idea here is that you’ll be put into several very scary situations, but you’ll end up fine as long as you’re persistent.</p>
<p>if they don’t give me my financial aid before move in, can I still move in and go talk to them in person to see what’s going on?</p>