<p>I have received my award letter from UIUC and my tuition would be $29, 594 and it says that I would only need around and $900 in loans (which is my efc and can easily be paid) and the rest would be covered through grants and scholarships. The only question that I have is that around $3000 of my $28700 reward is work study, so are they implying that the work study is what will cover the "other expenses" part of the are accounted for in the overall cost of the tuition? I know work study means that I can earn up to that amount through working on campus but does this entail that I would need to find another $3000 before the year starts in order for everything to be paid for right away? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!</p>
<p>“Other” expenses usually do not need to be paid up front - it is not billed by the school. This is usually an estimate where books, pocket money, travel money for the semester, etc is lumped in. So you don’t need this to pay right away. If you get a summer job - you will have some of it for books which you will need early on - and if you do work study, you will get paychecks so you have the pocket and travel money during the semester.</p>
<p>You can call up the bursar’s office and ask how the school specifically bills student expenses. Usually what happens is that you are billed approximately 1/2 of what the tuition, fees, health insurance, room and board costs are. But some schools will front load the full fees or some of them and the full health insurance premium, so that the first semester’s bill will be more than second semester’s. Half of your grants and loans will be distributed and put towards that semester’s billed items. If there is not enough to pay everything listed, then you will owe that amount to the school. If you cannot pay for that billed amount in full, you can request that you go on a monthly plan if your school offers one, and pay a fee for that, but it will break down your expense that are due into smaller monthly due amounts.</p>
<p>You won’t get any work study money until you find a job, work it and get a physical paper pay check (usually) for having put in the hours of work during a pay period. So usually, you won;t even see that first pay check for at least 2 weeks, sometimes a month, and it will only be for the hours you actually work. You can put that check into your school bursar’s account towards your school bill or you can use it to pay for some of those living expenses. </p>
<p>However, you need to get to the school, have some things for school, buy books and supplies, all by the first week or so of school, and yes, you will need to pay for that. If the financial aid should have exceeded the amount the school is billing you, that check is often not released until a few weeks into the semester, so even with an excess, students do have to come up with money of their own to get started.</p>
<p>alright thank you guys so much! But yeah on the cost of attendance list it says that other expenses are $2000, travel expenses are $500, and books are $1200 so all of these things are stuff that I would have to pay but they’re just adding it on to the coa so that I’m aware of them?</p>
<p>No, they are adding it to the COA because they are required to do this. Remember, COA is the figure that is given to the government to set a ceiling as to how much financial aid you can get from them. If your COA is $9K, that’s all you can get in financial aid because that is all it costs to go to school there including living expenses, which can be the case at some very low cost schools with the student assuming to live with parents and commute. That means that all a student/parents can borrow get from the federal government is $9K. Can’t get $11,100 which is the maximum PELL and maximum basic Stafford loan because the COA is set at $9k. </p>
<p>What a school does, is estimate what certain expenses are based on averages and composites. There may be a method that has to be followed, that I don’t know. But the book expenses are an AVERAGE of what students at that school spend, as are the travel expenses. If you can take a Mega bus for cheap or get a ride for free to the school, both things my kids have done for transportation, then you can beat that $500 cost that the school is using. But then there might be that kid (and I had one of those too) who has to take two flights to go to a school across the country, and $500 ain’t gonna cover it , or come close. Or you gotta buy a car, pay for insurance, gas, maintenance for it, and $500 a year isn’t going to cover that either. But then some cities give college kids a free pass on public transportation, and in that case the $500 is way over. It all depends on what it costs YOU, but the school uses an average between the guys buying the car and ones getting free rides. An average is when your head is in the icebox and your back side is against the fire, and one says you are comfortable, on average. The allowances and limits are based on averages, but YMMV greatly. And yes, they can serve as reminders that you will have to buy books and supplies for school, have transportation needs, and also need money for personal things like toiletries, sundries, things.</p>