<p>Is my D the only returning student who hasn't received her financial aid award letter?</p>
<p>The balance due of $26,730.00 doesn't even include her student loans....</p>
<p>Susgeek, just call the financial aid office with your questions. We received a postcard in the mail stating the paperless tuition bills are now online, but we haven’t try accessing it yet…</p>
<p>As CarolynB said, Smith has moved to paperless bills! Your daughter should have received an email detailing how to add parents/guardians as official viewers of the bill online (via E-Bill). It’s pretty simple - just added my dad, and he was (cue sarcasm) thrilled!! :)</p>
<p>Once you’re added on E-Bill, you should get an email once tuition statements are available for viewing. They should be coming out this week, I believe.</p>
<p>I always find it just slightly ironic when something is mailed to announce that an institution is going paperless. ;)</p>
<p>Yes, Phanatic, the irony was also not lost on me. Perhaps for second semester, they’ll just send an email announcing the forthcoming tuition bill and then another email for the bill itself! 
Seriously though, at one point in my life, I was in printing sales and I can understand it’s less paper sending out just a postcard instead of a #10 business window envelope and tuition invoice (it’s also less postage).</p>
<p>I was expecting an email saying the bills are available on-line, but did not get one (maybe it went to D, although she has authorized me to go on the site). I checked today, and, yes the bills are posted. But not due date (I know I can find it elsewhere on the Smith site) and the payment plan tab is not live. Guess they need to iron out the baby kinks.</p>
<p>Also I plan on waiving the health insurance which has already been billed to me. Will call them later, but I bet they are overwhelmed already!</p>
<p>We got the email about the paperless bill. We have logged in. The amount due I posted is from that paperless bill. Her financial has not been subtracted.</p>
<p>She emailed financial aid, and they said check Banner Web. She has nothing on her banner web… so we don’t even know exactly how much she has been awarded to estimate the balance due.</p>
<p>So I was wondering if other students hadn’t received their financial aid yet, or if it is just a glitch related to her account.</p>
<p>That’s got to be a glitch, susgeek. I just got a letter in the mail today with my offer, and it had been posted on BannerWeb last week for me. Definitely call them back early Monday morning and get that fixed!</p>
<p>We are also still waiting for FA info - I recall it coming pretty late last year too. I know my d was having issues with banner web so if she can log in Monday but doesn’t see it we;ll call. I do feel the notification vs bill du time is frustratingly short!</p>
<p>Does this apply to first-years? I mean the “final” award letter.</p>
<p>Also, from what I can gather from numerous sources they seem to be having multiple issues with the various systems such as Bannerweb, etc.</p>
<p>I spoke with them Thursday, and my understanding was that they would send an e-mail announcing the e-bill was available. I did not get that e-mail, but my bill seems to be there, and it does reflect our FA. We only got the hard-copy FA letter a day or two ago. My daughter at another school had hers in (I think) April. I was surprised at how late Smith was.</p>
<p>Boss, this is not the same as first-year students. </p>
<p>Colgate had its returning student financial aid awards out by April or May, but Stevens IT was also late like Smith apparently is. We never knew what the balance due would be until just a couple weeks before it was due…</p>
<p>Last Friday, I logged into my d’s account and there was an “accounting” of fees and fin aid. But no due date and the tab for setting up a payment plan was not live. I called SFS and they said it wasn’t a “bill” yet; just an “accounting.” They told me that a bill would be generated by the end of the work day. It wasn’t. </p>
<p>I just logged on and it says that billing statements will “begin loading” this week. Between the record admissions and new systems, they seem to be a bit “overwhelmed?”</p>
<p>:) Yes it is frustrating - it took us several days to get into banner web to do the health insurance waiver as well. My D who was out last semester sick and ended up in a sort of last come housing pool got her room assignment about 2 weeks ago but still isn’t in the directory and knowing the housing office we do want it written in stone :)</p>
<p>They seem to be doing their best, but the new system has some kinks. One issue is that you seem to have to do the down payment and let it clear in order to set up a payment plan IF you want to use separate accounts for these transactions–which is what we do.</p>
<p>Growing pains.</p>
<p>NE MOM-- down payment? Not sure what you are referring to. I didn’t see anything like that on the site.</p>
<p>Upstatemom,</p>
<p>The bill has a balance due. What we do is have payment (4 this year) come out of our checking account on a monthly basis. The amount that is a gap between what is due in the bill and what is paid in those 4 payments, we pay from a different account. Last year, we paid the paper bill. This year, you need to pay it before you can set up your payment plan, and Smith is referring to it as a “down payment.”</p>
<p>I’m the mom of a first year with a Pell Grant, SEOG, state grant, Smith Grant, Federal Loans and Work Study.</p>
<p>I’m more than happy with my daughter’s first year financial aid package and with the FA office’s handling of my daughter’s FA package. </p>
<p>She applied to Smith and a few other schools on a lark, never dreaming she would get in or we’d be able to afford it. She had happily resigned herself to our large state university. But her acceptance letter, the financial aid package, and her visit during Open Campus made it obvious that Smith was her destiny and she fell in love with the campus and everything Smith. She even got into her dream house for housing.</p>
<p>What I need to know from someone on here is what to expect from Smith in future years regarding Financial aid. Any horror stories of Smith pulling a bait and switch on sophomores, juniors or seniors? As her Federal Loan amounts increase over the years, will her Smith Grant be reduced proportionately if the incomes involved all remain stable?</p>
<p>Our FA has stayed very consistant but so has our financial picture. The only issue was that it was too much work time for her to use the work study money in any useful way so it basically is an unused part of our package. She generally does the fundraising job for a couple of weeks each year but she takes a lot of science and with the labs it was too much to have an ongoing job.</p>
<p>The only horror stories i’ve ever heard had to do with the family side, not the Smith SFS side. For example, a divorced parent whose income is counted in the financial aid calculations suddenly decides to stop paying their share or wants to reduce what they want to pay. </p>
<p>As for Smith’s part, what I’ve heard pretty much jives with what overwhelmed says: assuming your financial picture stays the same, your aid package should not change significantly. The mix of loans to grants often does change over time, with gradually more increased loans. This is usually just because the amount of money you can legally borrow in federal loans increases as you go forward in school.</p>