<p>Does anyone know how financial aid works for continuing students? I completed the normal forms as usual but how do they award financial aid? Do they consider grades? Do they look at transcripts from this past year? Is anything awarded based on merit or is it just based on financial need? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Also, has anyone received their financial aid yet? I hope my application is complete. The CSS Profile includes tax forms and stuff like that right?</p>
<p>Financial aid comes out mid to late June. Go to the Student Link to see if they received all your documents. You only need a 2.5? Or something to continue getting the same aid you got from your first year. Getting good grades won’t get you more money.</p>
<p>oh… well thats disappointing! i was waitlisted last year so i didnt get very much financial aid. i was hoping this year would be different since i did well in terms of grades and school</p>
<p>I don’t know how it works for people that got off the waitlist, though. I was offered a decent amount freshman year and that amount continued.</p>
<p>ok well thanks! i’m crossing my fingers!</p>
<p>If you don’t get enough aid you can always appeal. Although it sucks tuition and room and board has increased in cost. D:</p>
<p>i sure hope so =/ I haven’t sent in any tax forms because they haven’t emailed me about anything… i hope that doesnt affect my financial aid T_T</p>
<p>I would send them in as soon as possible. The later you wait, the less financial aid there is. I actually had this problem. I sent in my IDOC on time, but they told me my W2s were not legible. Of course, they didn’t tell me this until way into May so now my application is counted late. =/ And if you turn in documents late your financial aid is based on the funds they have available at the time you turned in your documents. This is causing me huuuuuge amounts of stress. It’s nerve wreaking I won’t know if this mistake will hurt me or not.</p>
<p>This is what it says at the top of my student account when I check the status of my documents now “Your application for financial aid is complete. Review of upperclass financial aid begins once Spring semester grades are available. Decisions are mailed beginning in mid June. For applications completed after the deadline, awards for eligible applicants are based on funds available at the time the application becomes complete.”</p>
<p>It depends how late it is. I sent my PROFILE and FAFSA on the morning of the 1st of May, but I mailed my packet to the IDOC on the 3rd. Then I made corrections to my FAFSA on the 7th, so by the time BU got everything it was about 8-10 days into May. Back then I asked the financial aid office if it was okay; they said it was fine as they started to process stuff in late May. Recently I got financial aid - it’s slightly better than last year :). I was concerned about my GPA, which was about 2.9, but apparently it didn’t matter.</p>
<p>I think you should get more than last year, since they raised the tuition, room+boarding, and dining hall rates. Granted some of the costs were to account for inflation, but it was still more than accounting for inflation =/. I got about the same grant money and they took out a subsidized loan =(.</p>
<p>oo…seems like it varies for each person =/ i’m even more scared now since i FINALLY got in all my documents last week. around what date did you guys receive your aid packages? there’s not going to be anything left for me :(</p>
<p>I just got my financial aid today (online). The date on my application is June 1st since that’s when they received my W2s. The aid was the same as last year, which is a bit disappointing since the price went up. However, I’m sending in an appeal. When I turned in my forms I wasn’t able to give an estimate of how much it would cost to send my sister to college since she hadn’t decided where she was going yet. Now that she has decided I’m going to send them receipts of the expenses.</p>
<p>Edit: Your grades only make you eligible for financial aid. I think you only need a 2.5 to keep getting money. I’ve made the Dean’s List the last two semesters and they still don’t give me more. =/</p>
<p>well how much did you get again?(if you dont mind me asking) because i only got 5k in loans last year…so i’m just about to die here with this years expenses coming up. i’m going to appeal as well if the aid i receive isnt decent D:</p>
<p>STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP $14,400.00
STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP $1,000.00
FEDERAL PELL GRANT $900.00
FEDERAL SEOG GRANT $1,000.00
FEDERAL PERKINS LOAN $250.00
FEDERAL DIRECT SUBSIDIZED LOAN $2,737.00
FEDERAL DIRECT UNSUB. LOAN $995.00</p>
<p>Last year I didn’t get a pell grant or a SEOG grant, however, I had more BU grant money last year so it all turns out to be the same amount of grant money, only this year some of it comes from the government instead of BU. So this semester I got $21,282.00 including loans.</p>
<p>wow i would LOVE to take your fin aid off your hands. those student scholarships would make a world of difference for me! oh well i just hope they can offer me something similar this year even though my stuff was in late! wish me luck :] btw, congrats on what i consider decent aid hahah.</p>
<p>Thanks. Even with that much money, though, I’m barely scraping by. =/ It’s a huge strain on my parents. This semester I pay $4500 since the price increased. My parents barely make 60k a year together and we’re also supporting relatives in El Salvador. We just really don’t have any money. Plus, my sister is starting college this year.</p>