New Student Finances, Housing, and Meal Plans

<p>Since school will be starting soon and my parents are getting curious, I just need to know a few things upon arrival:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>How do I sign up for meal plans? I'm gonna be a transfer, so I'm required to have the 14-meal plan, but the question is how do I go about doing it? Should I have received something in the mail, or is it something I can and must do online?</p></li>
<li><p>When do I get my housing assignments and information? </p></li>
<li><p>When is everything -- tuition, room, and board -- gonna be billed? HOW is my family gonna be billed? And when and how will they implement my financial aid? My FA covers MORE than tuition, and I do have a few thousand in loans, so when will all that come in when the school bills my family? </p></li>
<li><p>Do you pay monthly or all at once for tuition and housing? </p></li>
</ol>

<ol>
<li><p>You’re automatically enrolled in the 14 meal plan. You can view/change your meal plan online: <a href=“MEALS - Login”>Sign On;
<li><p>Have you signed up for housing yet? That information should be coming soon if it hasn’t already. A quick call to the housing office would clear it up if you’re curious.</p></li>
<li><p>Your bill is online. In YES, you’ll see a “billing portal” which shows all charges and credits to your student account (financial aid and loans included, if they are federal Stafford loans anyway), as well as bills. You can also set up a “parent” account so parents can log in and see bills without having access to the rest of YES. Vanderbilt should send you an email when the bill is viewable-- that will probably be August 1. If your financial aid covers more than tuition, room, and board, then you won’t have any bills to pay. You may even be due a refund. If you have a federal loan as part of your financial aid package, I believe it will be credited to your account even before the government actually disburses the loan, which is usually in late August. Again if the financial aid exceeds all your bills, they’ll send you a check to your campus mailbox for the balance. </p></li>
<li><p>The default option is to pay all at once, but you can also set up a monthly payment plan.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>@Pancaked thank you SO MUCH for answering!</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Yes, I did. I was just curious to see when I’ll get my assignment.</p></li>
<li><p>My financial aid and loans combined cover my tuition and more than half of my room and board, so I will still be billed.</p></li>
<li><p>How do I set up a monthly payment plan?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>From an email sent by Vandy (never done it myself):

</p>

<p>@Pancaked When I visited that website, it said to use the e-bill. Since I don’t have my first bill yet, I’m not sure if I can calculate the bill exactly (I can review my FA award, I guess, but I need to be totally sure of everything).</p>

<p>Also, the payment plans available say that they began either in March or in May, so I’m a little confused. Does that mean I’m too late? Or will it just mean my family will have to pay more per month?</p>

<p>@Juvenis The Bills have not yet been posted but you can view the costs at <a href=“https://finance.vanderbilt.edu/stuaccts/documents/2014-2015%20Undergraduate%20Tuition%20and%20Fees%20rev%2005_02_2014.pdf”>https://finance.vanderbilt.edu/stuaccts/documents/2014-2015%20Undergraduate%20Tuition%20and%20Fees%20rev%2005_02_2014.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
You can take the semester cost and deduct your financial aid award and that is the amount that is going to be due by August 13 (without any penalty or additional late fees). I have not used the payment as you mentioned you need to start paying in advance of the due date and then they let you go out a few months after as well. </p>

<p>Here is the information on payment plans or you can call student accounts. </p>

<p><a href=“https://finance.vanderbilt.edu/stuaccts/payments/options-fall.php”>https://finance.vanderbilt.edu/stuaccts/payments/options-fall.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Email from yesterday:</p>

<p>Dear Student, </p>

<p>We would like to inform you that we are now calculating tuition and related charges for the Fall 2014 term. Once you have enrolled in classes, most of these charges will be available to view via your YES landing page. Please understand that we are currently posting other charges also (housing, meal plans, commodore cash, parking permits, etc…), and some may not be showing on your account immediately.</p>

<p>While we are currently accepting payments, we want to inform you that we will not be generating an actual e-bill until August 1st, 2014. Also, please note that these balances will be due on August 13th, 2014, so please begin making your payment arrangements now. Feel free to contact us locally at 615-322-6693, toll free at 1-800-288-1144 or by email at <a href=“mailto:student.accounts@vanderbilt.edu”>student.accounts@vanderbilt.edu</a> with any questions or concerns.</p>

<p>Please accept this email notification in lieu of a preliminary bill for the upcoming term. </p>

<p>If you are not planning to enroll this fall, please contact your school immediately.</p>

<p>Sincerely,</p>

<p>The Office of Student Accounts,</p>

<p>Vanderbilt University</p>

<p>Thank you. Very helpful</p>

<p>Kind of last minute if you have to get money from certain accounts. 529s, UTMA, etc.</p>

<p>^Doesn’t your 529 plan have a direct bill pay option?</p>

<p>Our 529 says it takes just 2-3 business days after order is placed – can have check sent to us or to Vandy, so should be sufficient time. Curious whether Vandy allows bills to be paid by credit card and whether there is a fee for that. Anyone know?</p>

<p>You can pay by credit card or by checking or savings account. They charge $1.00 processing fee. </p>

<p>Really?! Wow – might be worth the miles!</p>

<p>Actually, it’s a $1 fee to use your checking or savings. To use a credit card, they charge a 2.65% fee.</p>

<p>Sorry to bring this thread back up, but I just received by Bill online, and it hasn’t factored in my financial aid yet. When will they do that? </p>

<p>EDIT: It just seems confusing. On one section it shows my “tuition” charges, which is really all my charges plus financial aid factored in. On another section it shows “Cumulative Activity” and shows the charges when FA isn’t factored in (but has a sidenote saying it will). Which one should my parents and I be concerned about? And is the tuition payment per semester or a one-time thing?</p>

<p>Also, I haven’t received my housing info yet. Was I supposed to have gotten it by now?</p>

<p>As well as I can tell from looking at the payment webpage, Vandy does not accept checks, but instead payment must be by electronic transfer from a checking or saving account (or by credit card). Is that correct?</p>

<p>Yes, but I was wondering which of the two bills I see do my parents have to pay and be concerned with. Is the fulll summary just a summary of activity and nothing more, or is it actually the amount I have to pay?</p>

<p>@Juvenis, here’s what I did: Once on your student accounts page, click on the “Bill” tab in the upper left corner. Then, under “Bill Summary”, click “Account Summary”, and another window should open. You should see your itemized bill with any merit/financial aid applied. Look for where it says “Balance” and that should be what you need to pay. Also, if you scroll down to the bottom of that page, you should see “Print Payment Coupon”. If you click on that, you can easily see the exact amount owed to the school. Hope this helps.</p>

<p>Post #18 may answer my question in #16 – you can send a check with the billing coupon, I presume? If you do that, do you have to fill out anything on the website?</p>

<p>Vandy could do a better job of explaining the process . . . </p>