Financial Aid Notification

<p>I called the financial aid office today and was told that financial aid packages would not be available until the end of April. This means that one cannot use cost of attendance as a criteria of attending. Does anyone know when the packages were released last year?</p>

<p>I can't believe they are going to let us know that late.</p>

<p>Um.. is that even allowed? Lol. Guess I'm not going to UNC cause I'm not willing to take a $120k crapshoot, thankyouverymuch.</p>

<p>well, technically, it is allowed. Most likely they will notify everyone a couple of days before May 1(which is the date to pay for your deposit to whichever school you decided to attend)</p>

<p>well.. a person from UNC called me yesterday and ask if I had any question about UNC.... I asked when the financial aid will come out and she said mid april...but she wasn't sure....</p>

<p>holy crap that is crazy.</p>

<p>S accepted EA. In an email back at the end of Feb. UNC responded that we should receive packages "sometime in April." I wrote to them today to see if they could offer a more exact time. Will post if I hear anything new.</p>

<p>Would it be posted online any earlier? I'm hoping for the laptop grant but if my EFC exceeded the Cost of Attendance, is their any likelihood to that? Also, any hope for small scholarships? I thought I had heard you could still receive a small merit one with aid notification. Anyone know for sure?</p>

<p>yea my efc is kinda high compared to others efc in my school.</p>

<p>It will be before the end of April, I'm sure...I think I got mine in early-to-mid April a couple years ago.</p>

<p>We went to Decision Days yesterday at UNC. They were not really specific about actual date for FA packages other than they will be in before the end of April. The goal is to have packages by mid-April. Best is to have a MyUNC account as it will be posted there first. My son has the info on this, but I am not going to wake him up yet. They also stated that if you do not have anything posted by mid-April, it is OK to call or email and find out if they have any preliminary packages drawn up yet. Also said that if you have been marked for verification of documents for FAFSA, then get these in as sson as possible and do not wait for FA dept. to contact you (although this is what they have on the applicantcentral.com website. I questioned the issue because many people are waiting for FA packages to make a final decision and it would be beneficial to have as much time as possible to get to that decision. There was no specific answer other than they do not want you to wait and if FA is the only issue, then you should call after mid-April to get your estimate. Being a state school, UNC has to weigh many different options and regulations than a private, this on top of waiting to see who actually will be accepting positions without FA will slowly give them a better idea of packages. The idea is to keep loans at a minimum and is one of the reasons why is takes more time. </p>

<p>Please know that the main thing that we came away from yesterday is that UNC wants to work with you to make sure that all your questions are answered. They truly made a point of embracing their admits. </p>

<p>Sorry I could not get more specific information.</p>

<p>UNC is my son's first choice, but unfortunately we have to weigh everything - including the cost. He has been offered money to every school he has applied to. We are just hoping for something from Carolina - especially since even the travel is going to cost us more.</p>

<p>Just noticed that I received an email for UNC Student Aid Office last night and it stated: </p>

<p>"Students are usually notified of financial aid packages around early to mid-April. Please be patient in waiting for your aid package. You will be notified through email when your aid package is complete and you can view your awards through the Financial Aid page of your MyUNC account (<a href="http://my.unc.edu)"&gt;http://my.unc.edu)&lt;/a&gt;."&lt;/p>

<p>Again, nothing specific, but this info came after the presentation at Decision Days.</p>

<p>Last year all Carolina bound kids from D's school had received their F.A. package by mid-April. However, D did not. A little advice: if nothing by mid-April start calling and checking w/ the F.A. office. Make sure they are taking the time to check your ID# when you call. We knew that D had received Carolina Scholar scholarship, but it and any other F.A. award/notification never showed up on her account. We kept calling and getting the same answer; they were still working on some F.A. packages. Late April 2007, I took D to Chapel Hill to spend night w/ honors student and decided to go ask face to face in F.A. office. After being firm w/ them about needing an answer that day, they finally did some digging and discovered that the university had mistakenly given D two ID numbers! The number that she had been given had no F.A. info. in it. The other number which was unknown to us, contained everything.</p>