<p>I just got my aid packet because I was accepted off of the waitlist.</p>
<p>It says:</p>
<p>Books & Supplies $1,000.00<br>
Personal Expenses $2,200.00<br>
Travel $1,000.00 </p>
<p>Are these really expenses that they’re covering? Will $1000 realistically cover what I need for books?</p>
<p>There are usually many ways to mitigate the cost of books & supplies - you don’t have to pay the store price 90% of the time.</p>
<p>They only listed $1,800.00 for personal expenses on mine. I wonder why they’re different.</p>
<p>But are these estimates of what we’ll have to pay or are they how much Amherst will give us towards such expenses?</p>
<p>You can easily buy books for half that by just buying from Amazon. They emailed me saying my financial aid award was ready but I can’t find it anywhere… :(</p>
<p>Borges - You have to log into your ACData account. Then, you go to My Account at the top right, then click to see your financial aid reward near the top left. You have to log in again. Then you click the Awards tab and it should be there.</p>
<p>thisisthais - You pay for what is not covered by your financial aid reward. Essentially they’re giving you that money to spend on tuition and room and board. All remaining expenses are up to you to cover. They don’t give you portions of money for each section. The tab at the left is just an estimate of your expenses at Amherst, but with some searching you can reduce a lot of those prices by a lot.</p>
I realize this is a 4 year old question, but FYI Amherst will cover any amount over the book estimate for kids on FA if you show them that you paid more. So save receipts, just in case.