<p>What is disbursement and packaging?</p>
<p>Edit: As I look at the financial aid checklist, I notice that the documents that were processed comparatively late (as in mid-march) are the only ones that are required for “disbursement”. The rest were recieved Feb or before and are required for “packaging”. Clearly, disbursement comes before packaging in the financial aid process. (Common sense tells me disbursement is expending from financial aid funds available, while packaging sounds like finalizing and putting everything together)</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I have a strong feeling that much of this has nothing to do with admissions decision however, based on experience from other colleges and the general knowledge that admissions/financial aid offices are separate.
(For example, I was recently rejected from MIT, but I had emailed the fi-aid office a few days prior to knowing this decision about waiving some of my information. I recieved a prompt reply with instructions about completing a waiver and procedure, etc. You’d think they’d just not reply to my email, had they known that my decision of rejection would come by in 3-4 days anyway)</p>
<p>My status for aid was updated on 3/23 and it says everything listed is needed for packaging</p>
<p>But like you said it probably doesn’t matter since admissions and financial aid are separate.</p>
<p>Question:</p>
<p>Did any of you guys have to do FAFSA verification? And if so what is your FAFSA status on the website?</p>
<p>I’ve been selected to do FAFSA verification and have been asked to submit it for every college I’ve been accepted to… except Columbia asked me to mid-March way before decisions…</p>
<p>Also to ppl who are citing the whole "Columbia Universitys educational financing options consist of federal, state, institutional and private sources of funds that will help meet the diverse needs of the student population. Columbia recognizes the importance of choices in educational financing and hopes that the options provided will be useful in planning and managing educational expenses.</p>
<p>Before you explore these options, we ask that you read the disclosure below regarding the suggested lenders featured on this website.</p>
<p>Please note: If you receive financial aid, you are required to notify your school’s Financial Aid Office upon receiving any funds that you did not report on the original financial aid application, such as University tuition exemption, scholarships, tuition reimbursement from your employer, or sponsorship." thing everybody gets that. It’s there before you even log in. lol</p>
<p>^^Do you mean the Dependent Verifcation?</p>
<p>I submitted everything after Marcg 2nd and everything except me dependent verification (listed as disbursement) was listed for packaging on the 23rd.</p>
<p>Stupid typos. hard to type on an iPod lol.</p>
<p>I just called the fin aid office and they said the admissions and financial aid offices work independently. ( but they can’t say no , can they? because if they do, I will automatically imply that I am rejected? )
At first they could not find my CSS profile but after a while, they did. But my fin aid docs are still listed as Not received. Sighhh</p>