<p>Please let me know what they say spiritualwitch!</p>
<p>It’s good Friday so I doubt they will get back to me before Monday.</p>
<p>Hello, just got an email from the Office of the Prez. Tuition increase. Wondering if anyone who received financial aid knows how much tuition will be next year – explicitly tuition vs. room and board.
Thanks</p>
<p>My FA updated yesterday (I think) and I also got it by mail today.
The tuition and fees are $40,862.00, room and board are $10,660.00, and total budget including books, travel, and personal expenses is $56,022.00.
I think Amherst is pretty generous with their FA :)</p>
<p>Do they give you money for books in certain extreme financial cases?</p>
<p>Also, smpgd: when was this postmarked?</p>
<p>Amherst has great FA! I just got my package.</p>
<p>In my experience they’ll expect books, travel and personal expenses to be paid directly by the student and/or parents, although they do factor those things into your total COA. If the parents are not expected to contribute anything at all, then it would be the student’s summer earnings that would cover those costs (up to $1600-1800 or thereabouts.) Workstudy would cover the student’s personal expenses during the school term. You can apply to the school for loans to cover the cost of a computer or something like that (I suppose books would fall under that catagory too). There may be occasions when they award additional funds when the cost of books and travel exceed the expected contribution from student summer earnings. Books are also available at the library at no cost, although if they’ve been put on reserve by the professor, you’d probably have to use them in the library and not check them out. Still it’s a good option for the time before your work-study income starts coming in.</p>
<p>It was postmarked the 29th, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t update till the 1st online, because I checked everyday…</p>
<p>You guys shouldn’t worry too much if you haven’t gotten your FA yet. I’m sure Amherst wouldn’t just ignore your financial need after admitting you in when you applied for it in the first place.</p>
<p>Thank you smpgd!</p>
<p>I havent received my financial aid. Does anyone know about the noncustodial waiving process? I submitted the form and the documents, but stil not financial aid</p>
<p>@vane1vanela: I haven’t received my financial aid either. I didn’t have to do the noncustodial waiving process because my parents are still married and I don’t have a noncustodial parent. I emailed the office late Thursday and still have yet to receive a response. The office is only open until 4:30 and I really need to get the financial aid package so my mom will let me call and arrange a plane ticket to get to Amherst for the Admitted Students weekend. They originally said that the financial aid would be up last week but clearly this is not the case.</p>
<p>ALSO: Has anyone else received their financial package in the mail? I know smpgd has but who else?</p>
<p>I emailed yet again and still no reply. My ‘My Amherst’ page says that my financial aid award is now available but nothing is there when I click the link provided. I really hope they get back to me soon…</p>
<p>I just called them to ask, and they said that they are looking through the financial aid files for students still. I guess they are going on a rolling basis, and the students that submitted their aid documents earlier are being looking at first. I thought I had my files submitted pretty early but oh well 
So I guess sit back and just wait for them to get through all the files.</p>
<p>Thanks for that information oneric! I am still unsure as to why they say my award information is available when it isn’t.</p>
<p>No problem! I’m glad to get some news rather than getting left in the dark by them… and that’s really strange that they would tell you that, spiritual. I was really hoping that they would have the finaid ready since my final college decision does depend a lot on it, but I guess we’ll just have to wait a few more days (hopefully not weeks).</p>
<p>I’m still waiting for mine as well. Granted, I found out I forgot to send them a copy of my own tax return until a few days ago (didn’t see it was required initially), but…</p>
<p>At least the finaid calculator on their website spits out a promising number.</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat, and it is driving me CRAZY!</p>
<p>yea, i submitted my documents pretty late…maybe thats why i still havent gotten any finaid info…</p>
<p>My IDOC documents were sent out late because the stupid post man guy waited 2 weeks to inform me that I needed more stamps on the envelope! Now I know why my financial aid award is so late!</p>
<p>But the calculator on Amherst’s website says my EFC is zero so I really hope it’s right! Do they usually honor their own calculator?</p>
<p>spiritualwitch,
do not worry about that; they will meet a hundred percent of every admitted student’s need.</p>
<p>My application was incomplete until the beginning of this month, but the same day that I faxed them the missing document they got back to me with my tentative award - around $58’500. Not only that, but they also waived tax and income documents because it was not relevant in my case (parents not being employed/responsible for the family’s income). So, if you do have “demonstrated need,” you should expect a reasonably decent award as well.</p>
<p>Ps- I am an overseas applicant. I used their NetPartner website to check my award.</p>