My first bill is coming up, due August 1. I’ve received four separate outside scholarships, each are one-time awards that will supposedly go toward my first semester.
The problem is that all but one of these scholarships will likely not be disbursed until September. (If anyone has any info on when NM sends theirs, let me know!)
This leaves me with about a $8000 gap in my financial aid. I can cover it, but I’m confused as to what will happen once those scholarships do come in. Will I get a refund, or are they just applied toward next semester?
And - what if I had been expecting those, and was unable to cover the gap? Seems like a really sticky situation that could have been. How is this normally handled?
Thanks for the input! I don’t have any experience with this, and I’d just like to know what to expect.
If it is a scholarship the school is used to dealing with (like national merit), they may allow a credit until it comes in. Another option is to go on payment plan with your school, but there is usually a fee for that ($25-$100) so if you can cover it you might save the fee if you can pay up front You should get a refund if you pay and then the checks go in to the schoolin September.
Bright futures doesnt pay the universities until several weeks into the semester. The schools credit the funds and then adjust when received, with no late charges. Check with your school’s finance office.
For the following years, wait till you have the check in hand to notify outside awards. And if the check is sent directly to the school, its arrival to the financial aid office is sufficient notification. This avoids the issue of getting a bill based on money you have yet to receive.
Not applicable to any state or fed aid of course.
Our experience was that you could indicate when you paid that you anticipated $X in outside scholarships, and you could reduce the balance you paid accordingly (look at your school’s statement and see if it has a section for that). You should call your school’s Student Financial Office to find out how they prefer to manage that, and what, if any, allowances are made for those scholarship payments that arrive later. In our case, as long as the FinAid office was aware that those scholarships were on the way, we were good (and I think that is pretty common).
Call and ask. You really shouldn’t have to pay up front to cover pending scholarships. But you may need to send the FinAid office something in writing that specifies the amounts anticipated.
Also, make sure you understand the scholarship payouts (again, ask your FinAid office to clarify). In our experience all scholarships were split between 2 semesters. Even a very small $100 scholarship, was split, so that only $50 would apply to the first semester bill. Even though the entire amount is sent to the school, they apply half to the first semester, and half to 2nd semester (I think this is also very common).
Contact the financial aid office to see how your school handles it. At our school, they suggested to sign up for a payment plan , and then they would issue a refund a check or credit for any overage once the check arrives.
The bursars office deals with credits/refunds…not financial aid.
You need to inquire at your college about what happens if you have overpayment on you account for the semester. Some schools will give you the option of credit towards next term, or a refund. Some only do refunds.
If they do refunds, most colleges prefer to do a direct deposit into an account over cutting a check. Again…check with your college.
Both of our kids were allowed to carry over excess money for future terms. They received a notice (via their school email…so your kid will need to check there) asking what option they preferred…refund or carryover.
You are correct @thumper1 that the Bursar’s office handles the credit or refund. The financial aid representative was the one who made the recommendation to set up a payment plan at my son’s school. Each school is different so it’s important to contact the specific school.
With regard to payment plans…this was THE reason we always had an overage in the bursars account. We had to set up our payment plan to begin in July often before the bill even came out. So…we guessed…but aimed on the high side so we wouldn’t have a huge chunk to pay at the end.
As an FYI, your student should be able to set up access for YOU oarents to the bursars account info…so you get all emails regarding bills due, etc. our kids willingly did that! And yes, there were mistakes we had to take care of.
@whitespace is the student I believe .
I agree to first and foremost find out from the school how this is handled and how the scholarships will be applied (to first semester or evenly split between fall and spring). If they split them up then you will have a $4000 shortfall for first semester.
Did you take out any loans, or at least the subsidized loan, although that would only cover $1750 per semester but might help and could be saved for the future?
Also can you afford this school without the scholarships the next three years?
Did you notify the fin aid office of the outside scholarships and the amounts? Will the scholarship checks go to you or the institution? My d notifies the fin aid office every year of her renewable outside scholarship, and it is listed on her award. The foundation doesn’t cut checks u til after school starts, but the institution treats the award like they would a fed loan that won’t be disbursed until after school starts. Ask your institution how they want you to handle this. Other things to think about…if you pay now and the scholarships leave you with a credit, can you just “let it ride” until spring semester?
I had a thirty second phone call with the bursar’s office to inform them that a payment wasn’t going to be sent to the college until early October of Freshman year. The person on the phone asked which organization the scholarship was coming from- I responded, and she said, “I’m going into your account to note the payment. So you won’t have a late fee or charge for being in arrears when the semester starts, thanks for letting us know”.
Done. I think if scholarship checks are coming from “known quantities”, the bursars office is happy to make the adjustment so you don’t get hit with a fee for late payment or penalty. Worth making the phone call for sure.
Literally what @blossom said. I’ve never had a problem with this. Just communicate with your school.
If you reported all of the outside scholarships like you are supposed to it is common practice for schools to deduct the amount from your bill in anticipation of receiving the funds, just like they do with Pell grants, ect.
^^ Lots of schools don’t do that till they actually receive the money.
Well I find it hard to believe that that colleges would have much success getting students to prepay their anticipated Pell grants and student loans that don’t come in until later.
^ I meant that for outside scholarships
Hi all, sorry it took me so long to get back, I actually spent the last couple days at orientation.
I’m not taking any loans for this semester, so I don’t know how those would have been treated.
I notified my school of these outside scholarships in late June, and as far as I know, they’ve received one check so far (out of four). But none show up as credits on my account. I’m fine with them being applied second semester instead, it’s just hard to think that they wouldn’t credit anything that is coming, especially the reputable/well-known ones like NM.