<p>There is money in my grant for books and personal expenses. How do I get this money? Will it be included in the student refund check? also will I pay the money from the student employment expectation to the bursar or will it simply be deducted from any refund check I receive? Thanks for any help in advance this is all very confusing. :/</p>
<p>bump. i’d just call and ask but they’re closed</p>
<p>Bump. Good topic.</p>
<p>It is highly unlikely you will get any money in a refund check.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>Because the amount allocated for books, personal expenses etc. is just slightly more than what they request for a student contribution.</p>
<p>The student contribution doesn’t get paid to anyone.</p>
<p>I will try to explain and make it simple. Numbers used are not the real numbers</p>
<p>Estimated Cost of Attendance - $54,676 (includes books, tuition, personal expenses etc.)
Less Student Contribution (2,370)
Total Need $52,306</p>
<p>Now, if they give you $52306 in grant aid, scholarships etc. That would be just short of the $52,316 needed to pay for tuition, room & board etc. (stuff that gets paid to bursar) Leaving no money for a refund.</p>
<p>In fact, if you have FWS in your package, you will then need to still pay the bursar.</p>
<p>The one exception I can think of is if you are a transfer student and you won’t be living on campus and have a meal plan. Then they will indeed refund you the difference of your grant/scholarship monies less tuition and any other fees that need to be paid to the bursar.</p>
<p>I hope that makes sense.</p>
<p>so you are saying the money for books and personal expenses comes from the student contribution?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I guess if you want to look at it that way, yes.</p>
<p>don’t forget the student contribution also contains 25% of ur assets right now (so u use all of it up by the end of 4 yrs) and this amount stays constant.</p>
<p>Also, the student contribution expected summer savings (the $2370) goes up each subsequent year.</p>
<p>usafa2011dad:
so the student contribution ($2370 in your example), you would use this amount to buy books and personal expenses?
so you don’t HAVE to spend all $2370 if you buy books cheaper ?
it’s just an estimate, correct?
the grant only covers the tuition and room&board?</p>
<p>
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<p>Yes, you can have a lower student contribution if it costs you less for books and other personal items. But they use a pretty low estimate for books, so don’t plan on saving too much there.</p>
<p>Don’t look at it like the grants cover one thing and student contribution covers another. Look at it just like they present it.</p>
<p>You have the estimated cost of attendance (this includes everything) - student contribution (this is a fixed amount) = estimated financial need. This is pretty plain and simple.</p>
<p>Once they compute your estimated financial need they will create your package and it will be made of many components. Grants, Scholarships (same as grants), Federal Work Study (this is money you have to earn by working during the school year). How things work out for each person and how much they actually need to come up with will vary depending on how their actual costs end up comparing to the estimated costs.</p>
<p>Additionally, if your actual costs are higher, you can request an adjustment to your estimated cost of attendance and then get a loan if you want. Some examples would be if you needed to pay for the student health insurance or if you are from the south and need to spend to get winter clothes. But you can’t increase your grant money to pay for these extra items, just loans.</p>
<p>so i guess what im asking is the tuition bill I have to pay will be:
Contributions (Student,Parent,FWS) - books &personal expenses.
As in the bursar is never actually involved with these personal expenses, except to estimate how much they will run you? I realize I’m probably splitting hairs here.</p>
<p>@blee2011 - that is correct. Bursar will only bill for tuition, room & board, student fees and gym etc… Bursar will not be involved with books, unless you buy from cornell book store and charge them to your bursar account of course. Same with personal expenses. You can pretty much bursar anything on campus. Gannett health visits will also go to yoru bursar account.</p>
<p>thank you for being patient with all my questions. :)</p>
<p>btw, don’t buy boks at the campus book store. Buy used ones on half.com then sell them to the campus bookstore when your done. Will save you so much $, but you need an ebay account (my friend who will be 17 when he’s in college will probably have to use his mom’s account, lol).</p>
<p>good tip Jalmoreno thanks.</p>