<p>Are you paying them with cash from working part time? I'm living on-campus and am considering living in an apartment next year since it would be cheaper, but I'm paying for housing with Financial Aid which consists of grants and loans. Is it possible to use financial aid towards apartments? I'm a little embarrassed asking, because I honestly don't know how it all works.</p>
<p>The financial aid will be given to you as a cheque or a direct EFT deposit once they have taken out tuition, etc. Then, you will pay for your apartment with a cheque, or some places allow direct EFT withdrawal.</p>
<p>So after I have my tuition covered with Financial Aid, I’ll get the check? Does this only count towards grants? What I mean is that I might only get some grants and the rest might be loans. So if they apply all of my grants to the financial aid but I still have a balance and so I pay the remaining aid with financial aid loans, will that mean I can’t get a check of some sort to pay for housing with loan aid?</p>
<p>Most financial aid awards factor in some help for living expenses, so yes it’s allowed and feasible to pay for housing with your aid. I have no personal experience with UT financial aid, so I can’t speak with any authority, but here is how it has worked for me at my CC as well as my friends who have had aid at a variety of universities:</p>
<p>Your total award, i.e. grants, loans, and scholarships, gets sent to the school. They deduct your tuition, and any applicable items like room and board and fees, then the remaining balance is sent to you (often in the form of a debit card or EFT, sometimes a hard check, depending on their setup) to do with as you wish - buy food, books, etc. </p>
<p>If you aren’t utilizing school housing, they can’t deduct it from your financial aid award and so you will get it in whatever format they employ and you can then use it to pay your rent. I’m not sure if any of the apartments or private dorms have agreements with UT to handle this in the background (I’ve heard of it at other schools) - if they do, then UT might be able take your rent from the aid balance and send it directly to your apt complex for you, and then any remaining balance will still come to you for whatever else you might need to buy throughout the semester. Usually, though, most schools don’t do this because it’s added work for them to pay what is essentially your personal living expense, and not a university fee/ammenity.</p>