<p>Having attended a different college for the Fall 2011 semester, when I filed financial aid there, I accepted the max for my sub. & unsub. loans, and after the school subtracted my tuition, I received the rest......which is what I expected for my refund.</p>
<p>Well, for Spring, I have transferred to another school and I accepted 1750, and 1000. I was expecting to receive quite a bit for my refund since my new school was much cheaper. I was in shock when I saw my refund would only be in the realm of $500?!?! </p>
<p>When I started looking at my Award Information, it shows what I was awarded and what I accepted, but what was paid was much, much less.
I was only given exactly half of the total amount I accepted-1375. I'm not sure why and I don't understand.</p>
<p>If I needed more money back for books, and my meal plan, what would I have needed to do???? $500 will not be enough!</p>
<p>Can someone give me a rundown on why and how this happened? I am really confused and cannot get in touch with my financial aid office to see how they got those figures!</p>
<p>I am definitely trying to get in touch with them, but to no avail, and I live an hour and a half away, so no easy drive for me…but I called the college HelpDesk, and they said financial aid is for 1 academic term which is always Fall and Spring Semesters, and since I didn’t attend this particular college for Fall, I can only receive half of the aid, since I only attended half of the semester?</p>
<p>Maybe I’m just not keen on how FA works, but is that how it works?</p>
<p>aid is for the year…so, yes, you would be receiving half of a year’s aid for one semester - especially since you rec’d loans for the FIRST semester.</p>
<p>*If I needed more money back for books, and my meal plan, what would I have needed to do??? $500 will not be enough!
*</p>
<p>However, meals plan costs are often subtracted by the school, so check to see if the school has already paid for your meal plan out of your loan.</p>
<p>Could it be your new school awards by the quarter? I assume you took out 2,750 last fall? If so it looks like you received 1/4 of the annual amount ($1375) which would suggest quarterly awarding of aid.</p>
<p>Hmmm…seems to me that I read somewhere that the Stafford loans are awarded 1/2 at a time. So maybe for your current school, they have given you the first half of your semester’s award, and the rest will be following at another date.</p>
<p>Call their financial aid office and ask them.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, I’m confused…the OP expected to get a larger refund based on the loan amount she opted for. Your post makes it sound like she is not entitled to even the smaller amount that she received.</p>
<p>One possibility is that the school does two disbursements for their one-term loans. We did not do that where I work, but some schools do. You will get the second half at some point later in the semester.</p>
<p>Another possibility is that you were awarded for fall/spring, and you accepted 1750 only from a larger offered award. While you accepted 1750 thinking it was spring only, there were actually two aid periods to the loan you accepted At some point after you accepted the fall/spring loan, the school may have batch-cancelled fall aid for those who did not attend in fall. So now you have just half of the 1750. This is easily fixed by doing a loan revision request for the rest of the money.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies! : )
I was actually able to get through the phone lines to speak to a FA counselor…</p>
<p>Kelsmom, they echoed what you stated about accepting the aid thinking it was for Spring only, which is exactly what I was thought I was doing. Turns out because I didn’t attend school there last semester, and aid is distributed on an “Academic Year” basis-
Fall AND Spring, they could only offer me half of the aid, since I only attended the latter half of the academic year…</p>
<p>What I didn’t understand when I spoke to the FA counselor (or perhaps she didn’t understand me!) is now when I accept my 2012-2013 aid, for presumably Fall 2012 and Spring 2013, based on how they do the aid, will I be accepting both semester’s financial awards?</p>
<p>When you accept your 2012-13 aid, it will be for fall 2012 and spring 2013.</p>
<p>I hope that the school’s representative told you that you can request an increase in your spring loan if there is room in your cost of attendance for spring-only. You should be able to borrow the remainder of your annual loan eligibility, as long as the total of all aid does not exceed the one-term COA. In other words, you should be able to borrow the full $2750 remaining of your $5500 2011-12 loan eligibility. You just have to request it … check the website … the form is probably somewhere on the financial aid page. If you can’t find it, PM me the school name … I am a whiz at finding that sort of thing!</p>