<p>I will be attending Baruch college this fall. I got into their dean scholars program, meaning that i will have my full tuition covered. I recently got my financial aid, i received the max TAP and pell grant. I also won a $6000 scholarship, which is suppose to be sent to my school directly for up to 5 years, with the scholarship sending $1200 a year for me. Since i got a full scholarship from the school, will i be refunded all of my financial aid money and possibly my scholarship? When i got into the program it said, "Dean’s Scholars have their entire tuition covered, inclusive of scholarships and financial aid, for four years". Can anyone explain this to me? thank you</p>
<p>Are you living at home or in dorm or off campus housing?</p>
<p>I’ll most likely be living at home and commuting to school @brownparent</p>
<p>OK, so you want to look at the Cost of Attendence for students living at home. You can get ‘refund’ for the amounts listed.</p>
<p>@BrownParent just checked the email i was sent. It says this:
COA: 26495
EFC: 0
FINANCIAL NEED: 26495
let me know if theres any other info you need to help me out</p>
<p>Call the school. Some awards are not ‘refundable’ to you, but I believe a pell grant is, and it looks like your private scholarship is $1200/yr refundable. It’s unlikely any of the school award is. You need to check on the TAP award.</p>
<p>Well, your letter shows expenses of living away from parents. It will be adjusted if you are living with your parents…</p>
<p>Here are the Costs (COA) the school estimates on the website for living with parents.</p>
<p>Tuition 5430
Fees 480
Other Expenses 6804</p>
<p>So you should be able to get the 'other expenses, which includes, books, transportation, personal expenses, and small housing cost. You will get refunded the Pell for sure 5630. Sounds like the scholarship too. I don’t think they will give you a ‘refund’ on anything over the COA. But you can ask. You can ask for a laptop allocation perhaps.</p>
<p>All of the money you get will likely go to the school. Baruch 's bursar’s office will have a procedure on how to deal with all of this. YOur account will likely be billed for everything that everyone gets charged for, and the then you will get credited for those amount. It generally takes a few weeks at most schools before the dust settles on all of the charges listed and all of the checks received and credits made, and then the schools will refund the money according to their set policies. Some schools will not refund the money until after the drop date of that semester so that they do not have chase after you for some of the funds. So you have to contact the bursar’s office and ask what their timing is as well as how you get what’s excess in your account. At some schools, you have to specifically file a request for it, or it just stays there to be carried over to the next term. No checks automatically returned. Some put it into some account that the school has a contract with and you have to get your money that way. It all depends on the school policies.</p>
<p>Most of the time, in these situations, a student needs seed money to start out the semester as the school WILL NOT release those funds until they are finished with their account for them. You can request a loan or help for books, metro pass or other such things, but again, it depends upon the school as to whether they will advance you that money. </p>
<p>Your refund will be Total amount credited by School for their tuition coverage, plus TAP (if that isn’t reduced by student aid–I don’t know this for sure), plus PELL plus scholarship money. Theamount for the semester will be billed by the school for tuition and fees (there are always fees, don’t know if that’s covered by your award), What’s left is the excess that you can get somehow. But if the release date is after classes have started, without some loan slip or something, you gotta get to the school, expending money, buy your supplies, books, feed self and that may mean money out of pocket until reimbursement date. </p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys. So, based on my full ride, financial aid and scholarship, I will probably not have to worry too much about paying for college right? Would you guys say I’m in a good situation for my future so far, money wise? </p>
<p>Your tuition is covered, from what you have said. Your scholarship, PELL and TAP seems ample to cover most commuting costs and then some, and if you are continuing to live with your parents, you got three squares and a cot, right? So in such a scenario, you should get money back from the school. The issue I see is that you need supplies, books, and may have transportation expenses for the first few weeks before you get your refund that you will need to cover somehow if the school will not float you the money in advance which a lot of schools will not do because if you disappear, that’s it for them. THink about the fraud that could be so perpetuated. So some schools wait until you show up in person to classes, and some until the official drop date so they are not out the money. You don’t show—the money has to go back to the feds, state, etc and if they advanced it to you, it’s out of pocket for them. </p>
<p>However, for some kids who get such an award, if their living arrangement for the school years costs them something in the way of rent, they need to feed themselves and getting to Baruch means a train AND metropass, that amount may not cover it. The COA figure is an estimate of what it costs to do all of that if parents aren’t picking up the room and board costs for you, and that’s probably a low estimate when one looks at what housing costs are in the NYC area, right? So, yes, you are in good shape for a student living with parents who are covering a lot of the living expenses. and if the commute cost isn’t that high. My son has a friend commuting from north Westchester county to NYU and his monthly commute costs, from the drive to the train station, parking at that station, Metro north pass, NYC metro pass, lunch and whatever food and drink he did not pack from home adds up to more than $600 a month and that’s with his parents providing what’s in the fridge and a roof over the kid’s head and use of an extra car. If he’d had to have bought a car and insurance for that necessary drive to the train station, it would be even more. So, it is possible for someone living out where that kid is, to run short even with the generous aid you have gotten. That $26,495 figure is a real one for someone who does not have parental/family/whatever support for living expenses, and you did not get that much in aid.</p>
<p>You said first you had “full tuition” not “full ride”. Full ride means that all costs are covered in addition to tuition - room, food, books, transportation.</p>
<p>Yes if you are living at home and your parents cover your rent and food, it looks like you are in good shape. You will get around 6 or thousand extra. The college estimates:</p>
<p>Books 1,248
Transportation 1,150
Lunch 1,289
Personal (including health insurance) 1,780
Housing 1,685</p>
<p>You have half of this expense each semester. So if you spend less than this, you keep the extra. Look into buying used books or renting to cut costs. As someone mentioned above, you might not get the ‘refund’ until a bit after school starts so be prepared to purchase your books and transportation pass. </p>
<p>Sorry for the confusion, I meant full tuition. This is what the program gives me:
4-year, full-tuition scholarship inclusive of financial aid for in-state residents
MacBook Air laptop
$1,300 study abroad grant.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help guys. I’m still looking for scholarships, hopefully I can save as much money as possible. Knowing that I am in pretty good shape right now feels good. My parents will cover my rent and food, so basically my main costs will be transportation (metrocard) and books.</p>
<p>You need to look up the fine prints for each scholarship you received and also check with the financial aid office. If there is any need based component in the scholarships, they are likely adjusted when you have excessive aid. Also, the FA office may have a limit (e.g. up to $3000 above CoA) of total aid received from both internal and external. The extra money may be returned to whichever agency. Last, you need to check out the eligible expenses for each scholarship. Even you have all those money, it does not mean you can use them on whatever way you want. Some scholarships may be only for tution/fee/boarding. Let’s say if you have an external scholarship that can be used only for tuition, that is basically useless as you have full tuition covered.</p>
<p>Baruch has listed its COA according to OP, so it appears that is fine. I am not sure what “inclusive of financial aid” means. Does it mean that the full tuition award from Baruch is integrated by other aid such as the PELL and the TAP? Or does that total COA make it so that the OP can stack it all. I don’t know how Baruch works these things. The most liberal interpretation means that you will get your scholarship, PELL and TAP money refunded to you to use towards living expenses, commute, books, etc. But this sort of thing is defined and interpreted by the school itself. Call the financial aid office and get an estimate from them as to what you will get as a refund and ask if they know what the time and process of the refunds. They’ll likely refer you to the bursar’s office for the latter, but they will be able to tell about how the awards will be stacked.</p>
<p>At this time you don’t need anymore scholarships, usually you can only get money up to the COA and it looks like you will have that covered, you should get an aid letter that lays it all out. So save your time. But I will tell you about one for future, if you are going to try study abroad, bookmark this link:
<a href=“Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program | IIE - The Power of International Education”>http://www.iie.org/programs/gilman-scholarship-program</a></p>
<p>Also that’s a great scholarship you got, mind sharting where it was from?</p>
<p>I appreciate the help everyone.
@BrownParent I won the Horatio Alger State Scholarship</p>