Sophomores & up: when do you get your financial aid package?

I am referencing standard continuing students, not transfer students.
We are still waiting for ours from Carnegie Mellon. I am wondering if it is standard at various colleges to wait so long to make financial aid offers to upperclassmen.

Every school can and may have their own policy on how and when financial aid packages for returning students are processed. The best answer for your student’s particular situation will come from the financial aid office at his/her school.

^I do realize that. However, they don’t publish the date, and they are already later than last year. That is why I was asking when other colleges do this. I wanted to know what was conventional. I really don’t need direct instruction in self-advocacy.

There is no convention. If there is no pertinent information on the school’s website, then, at the risk of providing more direct instruction in self-advocacy, you should contact the financial aid office if you truly need or want an answer to your question.

My kids get them at the end of June.

First year they knew by April, or even earlier. Then in sophomore year June or later.

State grant gets updated at the end of May usually.

One thing that both schools did, the first year they mailed the FA letter to our house. After that, the FA award only showed up in the student portal.

So have them check their email and student portal to see if it’s available yet.

Vanderbilt hasn’t sent out yet either, not expected until the end of the month. However you might ring FinAid at CM and just make certain all the right paperwork has been received for your student. While you have them on the phone, ask. Doesn’t hurt.

@belknapppoint Already sent that email. No reply, and last year they also didn’t reply to the same question until several weeks after it was sent. I find it rather disturbing that they do not give us much notice when tens of thousands of dollars are at stake. Why should it be that Freshman can find out first week of April, but everyone else finds out more than 2 months later.

We got ours from an LAC much later than now. I think, for two years, it was early July, maybe the 3rd. Then rather late in June. I remember because, of course, we were on pins and needles, for soph year.

I did call to ask, for soph year. In our case, the FA package remained virtually the same, from freshman year through senior.

@lookingfoward I only wish that would happen to us, but it won’t. We had two in college – and now only one.

If emails are not getting a response, I would call. As you say there are potentially tens of thousands of your dollars at stake; it’s not unreasonable to want an answer sooner rather than later for planning purposes and peace of mind. If you are treated rudely for your legitimate self-advocacy, that is completely uncalled for and if that happened to me, I would be writing a letter to a department head or VP. Some schools process financial aid packages for returning students before the new applicant packages are done; this process would seem to be better for all concerned, but why one school does it one way and another school does it a different way is in many instances a mystery.

Btw, ours came by mail, every year, before showinging the portal.

Freshmen have an earlier deadline and at our school, 1st year packages came with the admit letter. But the FA deadline for returning kids was/is May 1. Plus, there can be 3x as many packages to finalize.

Good luck. I’d place a call, asking. Emails can get lower priority, at this time.

Both of our kids got their financial aid for the subsequent years sometime during the summer…July for the semester kid who started Labor Day ish. And August for the quarter kid who started in September.

Ours was emailed today.

Thanks folks. Still waiting, but now at least I know I am not alone.

My daughter received her award from St Olaf on Saturday via email/postal.

My D’s school sends out financial aid packages for returning students in July

But is there nothing on the portal? My daughter used to have things start appearing in the spring but not be final until mid-July, when the school set the tuition, fees, r&b for the next year. Things were posted as they came to the FA office, like her athletic scholarship was renewed in May so that amount would be entered. Then the stuff off FAFSA, like a Pell grant or student loan. Then stuff from the state, like the resident grant. Her merit was set by the school when she was a freshman, so there wasn’t a change in amount when it appeared.

For us, nothing on the portal. Yes, we know about merit but it is the rest that is up in the air.

We are still awaiting FA from University of Rochester (D is a sophomore). Payment’s due in a few weeks, so it’s pretty frustrating. We’ve emailed and call and they just keeping saying, “Soon.”