<p>I read somewhere a while ago that the official financial aid letters were sent weeks ago. Has anyone actually received a finalized financial aid letter yet, whether online or in the mail? Also, when the books and supplies are included in the tuition total and my financial aid covers this total, does this mean I will be getting a stipend for books or anything like that? If they don’t give a stipend, why are books and supplies included in the tuition total? Can someone please explain this to me? </p>
<p>I don’t know the details of your FA award, but the budget for books and supplies, as well as the travel budget, are assumed to be paid directly by the student or the parent. This could come out of your family’s EFC or if they have a 0 EFC, it may come out of the student contribution sum.</p>
<p>I have a kid on financial aid at Amherst. If you want to send me a private message with the specifics, I can probably help you understand how it works in practical reality. It took me a little while to figure it out when my son got his first FA award.</p>
<p>As to the finalized letters, I don’t know. I know for continuing students it’s all online now and there are no physical letters. Whether or not that’s the case for incoming freshmen, I do not know.</p>
<p>I just looked at my son’s FA award online, and there is a message there that “this is a final award letter.” Do you see anything like that when you log in online? Look under the “Messages” tab.</p>
<p>Budget Category Amount Resources Amount<br>
Tuition and Fees $40,862.00 Veteran Benefit $0.00<br>
Room & Board $10,660.00 Student Contribution $750.00<br>
Books & Supplies $1,000.00 Parental Contribution $1,290.00<br>
Personal Expenses $2,200.00 Total Resources $2040<br>
Travel $450.00<br>
Total Budget $55,172.00 </p>
<p>Above is a detailed summary of my financial aid. My problem is that the parental contribution and the student contribution added together equal less than the travel, personal expenses, and books and supplies combined ($2040 vs. $3650). If the school doesn’t actually give me a stipend to pay for the books etc then why do we owe anything at all? Why are books etc included in the ‘budget total’ at all? </p>
<p>Also: Under the messages tab, it still says that my award is a preliminary award. </p>
<p>I have emailed the office of Financial Aid as well to see what they have to say but I really wanted to get some personal experiences with Amherst’s financial aid. </p>
<p>I sent you a private message. I wouldn’t worry about the “preliminary” as opposed to “final” award. They are probably just still finishing up verifications and stuff like that. Unless there is something unusual about your situation, your final award will look very much like your preliminary award. I believe when my son was an incoming freshman, we didn’t get a final award until sometime well into the summer, but I don’t recall exactly. It was virtually identical to the preliminary award.</p>
<p>All 4 years at Amherst, the FA package was NEVER a final one. We received our letter, then there were adjustments - scholarships, grants etc., so that one year we even overpaid 2K which carried over each year, even though these were taken into account in the initial letter. I can’t say I ever understood it completely, since we had to pay, but then at the end of the year they said we overpaid. Each semester you will get a bill and they adjust it every time. At the end of 4 years, DD received a refund. We paid for books, travel, etc., out of pocket on top of the balance they told us to pay.</p>
<p>The only thing on which there is a balance you must pay is the actual bills you receive. Neither the bills we received nor our actual fianacial aid awards fluctuated at all aside from small charges for things like course packets, a lost book, printing fees and stuff like that. In our case they predicted the grant aid, etc. very accurately.</p>
<p>Hi. Late response, but I spent some time trying to figure this out myself. The “books and supplies”, “travel”, and “personal expenses” are listed in your aid report as expenses for the purpose of calculating your “parental contribution” and “student contribution” (also on the aid report). However, when the school actually sends you the bill, you will notice that they bill you less than the amount of your parent and student contribution as listed in the aid report. This is because the school subtracts the amount for “books and supplies”, “personal expenses”, and “travel” from the “parental contribution” and “student contribution”. Hope this answers your question.</p>