Hello,
For the 2019-2020 school year it seems like I did not receive as large of a financial aid award as last year. Last year I received a refund check of 1,200 dollars for both semesters which helped me buy new textbooks and cover transportation expenses.
Now it seems like I am only receiving a refund check of 63 dollars. I assume this is because the award I received this year was not too big. I am saddened by the refund check being so little because it would have paid for my drivers ed classes and a new laptop.
That being said, I currently have a scholarship of 6,000 dollars that has not yet been disbursed to my tuition. (It is from an organization) I have the option of applying it all to the fall semester. Should I apply the entire scholarship for the fall semester, what will happen in regards to the refund check that I am supposed to receive in 2 weeks? Will it still be 63 dollars?
It depends. Some scholarships may be designated for only tuition or only institutional costs- others are refundable. You would be best served to ask your FA office before you proceed.
Thank you. All the organization says is that my institution is able to disburse the remaining funds once direct costs are paid.
Did you notify your college that you received this outside scholarship?
[quote=“thumper1, post:4, topic:2063488”]
Did you notify your college that you received this outside scholarship?[/quote
Nope but I’m doing it tomorrow
Do you know your college policy on how outside scholarships affect need based aid?
In terms of your refund this year…is it possible that your college costs went UP but your aid did not?
Not not too sure on the policy.
My thought was that I am recovering only 63 dollars this semester because I am going to have less left over. It seems I am receiving about 8000 dollars less than I did last year.
You should be able to pull your bill from last year and see how much you got in FA, how much was applied to tuition, how much to room and board. Then you can look at this year’s bill and see how much you received in FA and how much the costs have gone up or down.
Pell this year for a $0 EFC went up $100, or $50/sem. That’s good. But how much did tuition go up? $8000 seems like a lot of change in one year.
If you had gone to the state school, they may have defined ‘full ride’ the same way Wash U does, covering costs billed by the school (tuition, room, board) but not travel, not incidentals. It’s up to the school.
Update: I spoke to someone from financial aid earlier and all she told me was that refund checks are distributed after the first week of school. When I asked if there were to be extra funds after disbursing my extra 6,000 from a scholarship she said that if that was the case I would receive a refund check after the first week of school.
But still, I am unsure. How much would my refund check be if I disburse all 6,000 dollars to the fall semester, or 4,000 dollars?
We can’t tell you that because we don’t know any of the restrictions of your awards from the school or the restrictions on the outside funds.
My daughter ‘lost’ $1000 her last year of college because of the order the grants and scholarships were applied to her bill. Her junior year a really nice FA officer did everything she could to get my daughter as much as she could. The next year the new FA person said no, the awards couldn’t be applied in that order. Same school, same awards, different person applying them. At her school, the policy was the school would NOT give any unused school funds to the student. If the school’s money couldn’t be used for tuition, room, board or fees, it was forfeited. Pell grants, SEOG could be refunded to the student, but not school funds. School required bright Futures to be used for tuition (other schools allow it to be refunded). The Fl resident grant was restricted to tuition only.
I think you probably will be better served to split the outside award, but you won’t know until you sit down with a FA person and talk to them.