<p>With financial aid, I realize colleges cover up to the full cost of admission which is tuition, room and board, etc.. This might be a silly question but if youre being covered for more than just tuition and room and board, how exactly do they finance this? For example, how would they cover "books and supplies" or "estimated personal expense"?</p>
<p>Thanks for any input!</p>
<p>In our experience the financial aid/scholarships are credited to your bursar’s account at the school. Any direct school charges (such as tuition and fees/room&board if you are on campus/meal plan etc) are charged to the bursar’s account. If the charges exceed the financial aid/scholarships you owe them money. If the financial aid/scholarships exceed the charges they owe you money. At the 2 schools we have experience with the excess money is ‘refunded’ to you to cover your non direct expenses. How and when this is done varies by school. My daughter’s school issues the refunds after the add/drop period. The add/drop period is 2 weeks after class starts so the refund comes sometime in the 3rd week of school. At my son’s school it is much slower - usually 5-6 weeks after class starts. I have heards of schools that don’t issue the refunds till the end of the semester. Bit awkward if you are living off campus and have rent to pay.</p>
<p>Your school should have this info available. If they have a friendly web site try searching for ‘bursars account’ or ‘bursars office’ and ‘refund checks’.</p>
<p>Thank you! Just the answer I was looking for.</p>
<p>some school like mine ,UCR, offer a direct deposit plan to your bank account a week after they deduct fees</p>