<p>i just checked my fin. aid info online, and was completely shocked
to discover how much i had received.</p>
<p>i looked further and was even more shocked to find out that i had
agreed to take loans& work study grants, which i thought i had declined to accept.</p>
<p>i am completely panicking right now.
the one thing i didn't want to do was to take out a loan that'll just burden me when i'm out of college- i didn't even need to take the loan- the grants were generous enough.
and my parents were adamantly against my taking work study grants, for fear that it would take an unncessary amount of my time in an already stressful freshman year.</p>
<p>what do i do?
how can i somehow cancel the loan& work study grant w/o completely foregoing my other aid?
you have no idea how much i NEED this aid, but i can't take the loan& ws loan!!</p>
<p>I went to my account and it read that i had an x. amount due
and i clicked to see the details, and it gave me this chart, w/
“offered” on the left column and “accepted” on the right.
and it read that i had accept all that was offered- including the loans.</p>
<p>i asked around, and apparently, the loans aren’t official until i sign a permissory note,
which i don’t recall signing.</p>
<p>however, i’m confused as to what to do, b/c it reads that i have an x. amount due,
and that’s w/ the loans.</p>
<p>so what do i do, ignore the loans and just pay more?</p>
<p>yes, i know, i should just call the fin. aid. office but it’s around midnight here-
i’m tired, nervous, and freaked out.
i need some help.</p>
<p>yeah i know XD
but i’m crouching in the dark right now, typing away, trying not to voice my panic& wake the family& my mom, who will inevitably panic even worse…
i guess i’ll just break the news tomorrow& call around this time again…</p>
<p>i do think that (hopefully) the loans aren’t legit until i sign that promissory note.
i mean, cornell just can’t force me to take out unwanted loans…i love cornell& all but…</p>
<p>Even if you have to “accept” both of these don’t worry it … work study involves finding a job when you get to campus; if you do not seek out a work study job you will not have one (you also won’t have the bucks from the job but that does not sound like a problem) … similar story for the loan; the worst case would be you take out the loan and immediately pay it back (or pay it back when you graduate at the end of the time the interest is forgiven). </p>
<p>PS - the piece that doesn’t fit for me in this is … the work study and loan probably add up to a pretty good amount of money … turning them down will not lead to a bigger grant … it will lead to your having less money to pay for school … are you OK paying for school without the bucks from the loan and from work study?</p>
<p>work study is just that. You work and get paid and use that money to pay for your expenses. If you don’t work, then you have to pay for your expenses from other monies.</p>
<p>As for the loan. Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to take the loan if you don’t want it. No money will be distributed fromt he loan maker to Cornell until you sign a promissary note. But the money will have to come from somewhere. So if you don’t get a loan, your grant aid is not going to suddenly get bigger.</p>
<p>As for the accepted thing. You probably don’t remember accepting any of it because you probably never did. When my D looked at her financial aid, everything said accepted and she had never even looked at it before.</p>
<p>I would recommend that you accept the work study grant. There is no downside to accepting the grant. If you chose not to work you just don’t get a job. You are not penalized in any way, you just don’t earn any money. However, if you do not accept the grant it will be very hard to get a job on campus should you decide that you DO want to work. </p>
<p>You may not think you want a job right now, but its very possible that you will get interested in research and decide to work as an RA for a professor, or you might do really well in an class and get asked to TA. If you do not have work study these opportunities may not be open to you. This is because when you have federal work study the federal government pays a large portion of your salary instead of the department for which you work. It cost a department much less to hire a student with work study than a student without work study. If you are at all interested in graduate school, experience as an RA and/or TA will be more helpful to you in gaining admission than a couple of extra tenths of a point on you GPA.</p>
<p>You should accept the loans and work study on the financial aid package - you don’t actually take out the loan until you’ve signed the master promisory note (which you will definitely remember doing because there is loan counseling, pages of reading etc. before you do this). If you don’t want to work, don’t get a job.</p>
<p>If you decline the initial offer however, you may need to refile FAFSA to qualify all over again should you later learn that you need this money to make ends meet.</p>
<p>Don’t panic, talk to financial aid and learn what your next steps are should you need to use the loan funds.</p>
<p>if a student is a T/A for a professor, they get paid? My D was asked to be a TA for a professor but she wasn’t sure if she should do it because she didn’t know how she would find the time to do that and work. But if the TA position is paid, then she wouldn’t need to work. Details would be appreciated…</p>
<p>I heard the student can choose either (s)he wants it as a credit or gets paid, also from I heard that getting the credit means that it would be an A in the transcript or something, but I’m not sure if this information is correct or not.</p>
<p>I just found this in the course of study catalog for HumEc, so now I am thinking it is for credit only. So if somebody knows differently, that would be awesome. Dewdrop?</p>
<p>“Undergraduate Teaching Assistant. Advanced students can serve as undergraduate teaching assistants. The teaching assistantship requires work with the professor teaching the course as well as contact with students. Undergraduate teaching assistantships are for-credit only. Teaching assistantship credits count as elective credits toward graduation (up to the limit specified by the college).”</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of an undergraduate TA receiving monetary compensation, however some RA positions are paid (although, I do believe the majority are for course credit).</p>
<p>My TA and RA experiences are both for course credit, and I was never given the option of getting paid instead. Other colleges/departments within the university may have different policies though. :)</p>
<p>thanks for the info. I am pretty confident now, she will just get credit towards her electives, which doesn’t really do her any good. So I guess she will have to do it for the experience, credit and hopefully a great letter to be used for grad school. Not too mention it should give her a deeper understanding of the subject.</p>
<p>uhh… has everyone received their aid packages? I still have inquiry access denied for the 10-11 year and my current owed amnt is ~$19000… this is not good.</p>