8/31 is the payment deadline while the financial aid will not be disbursed until within 10 days from the first day of school (9/8) that would be tomorrow but not a business day. As this year we have the latest Labor Day, there is only one business day left for us to check the balance and make final payment before deadline. That may make some of us very nervous. Or we may need to pay extra for now to avoid late fee. On my D’s student account, the loan amount in the pending aid does not match the amount on the award notice. So I have to make payment before aid using the number that I would not have any unpaid balance left. To make it more complicated, my D just received another scholarship notice today and further reduced the loan amount. According to the FA office, the scholarship announced today may not be disbursed until next Wednesday. Fortunately, we live in town. If necessary, we may just pay with a check at the office on Monday afternoon. I wonder what would other students do in situation like this. Use payment plan? Or just pay extra in advance and leave money in the account?
I’ve heard from past students that they update the financial aid the day before payments are due. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
But tomorrow is Saturday. Not sure if they will update it tomorrow.
Just checked the student account. The financial aids are still not updated and there is no loan/grant/scholarship deposit into the account yet. So one would have to check it again on Monday.
My S was told yesterday by the Office of FA that all his scholarships will be disbursed on August 31st, due date for Fall term balances.
It depends on the college how worried you should be.
What I tell my students is that they should attend classes unless they are thrown out (and technically, we are “supposed to” get rid of anyone not on the most up-to-date registration list but no one does in freshman classes), and talk to their professors if they cannot access their class websites.
And I have NEVER heard of a student being evicted from their dorm if payment slips by a day or even a week or more. So don’t worry about that aspect.
The only thing that matters is that if there is a slight delay in funds, your daughter may have to spend a bit of time making sure she stays up with her classes.
Realize there are students who are in much more dire situations than being off by a day or two. You can always call the college and ask them, but for the most part, they don’t want to mess around with having to refund you if you pay and then loans come in. If you aren’t sure if a loan or scholarship would come in, that is totally different, and I would pay up front.
I asked about this at our RMF orientation this week. We were told to just ignore it and the FA office will fix it if the tuition waiver doesn’t go through in time. All of our things are “weird” this year. For example, the first stipend payment is coming about a week later than normal so we get two checks in Sept rather than one in Aug and one in Sept. The late holiday is screwing everything up.
This, of course, did NOT come from the FA department and is only applicable to those of us with tuition and fees completely covered.
Seems like it’s poorly planned out though and may cause unnecessary angst among parents 
@rhandco It is not they will kick you out because of a late payment, it is just a penalty for it. I know one can always pay extra in advance and try to get the left over back afterward. However, I have also heard from a former graduate that it took some effort to get the money back.
@parentOf2018 I do believe the aids should be disbursed on 8/31 right on the deadline. The problem is the uncertain amount. Not only the loan amount does not match up with the award notice, there is also a late scholarship that further complicates the issue. Anyway, I guess I have to wait till Monday to check the account again to see if I need to make any additional payment by the end of the day. The worse case would be just overpaying $1000 for now which may apply to the next bill in December.
@billcsho, FA told my S that the entire amount of his multiple scholarships would be disbursed on 8/31. Maybe it’s worth it to contact FA directly in your more complex case…
@parentOf2018 It is likely I need to contact them on Monday. Since the new scholarship would just offset the loan amount. I guess they may disburse the old loan amount and then return the difference later on. They don’t even have the latest award notice in my D’s account although the new scholarship appears on the award summary since yesterday. I doubt they will have the correct amount of loan or all scholarships disbursed on Monday. I the the timing is really bad this year due to the late holiday schedule. They should have extended the payment due day this year.
Fwiw, this was never an issue I experienced. The one semester that the excess didn’t go back to me automatically, I just sent the FA office an email requesting it and it was deposited shortly after.
OP, is there some way to activate a payment plan with the school’s billing office?
I had the same issue this past year, but was unable to get a hold of the school before the start of the term. So early in the morning, before the deadline to pay the due amount on the day of, I went to the billing office and activated a financial aid payment plan, which effectively delays the due date for you.
You should look around on the billing website for UMich, and see if you can find anything similar. They are inexpensive to activate, provided you have proper documentation as proof of pending aid, which it seems like you might.
Best of luck with this situation.
But there is also a fee for payment plan. I guess I will just pay the amount of the new scholarship and just let the money sit in the account. The financial cost would be just the interest of that amount which is nothing these days. I am pretty sure the other aids should be disbursed on time.
@romanigypsyeyes That was for my friend’s son who graduated a few years ago and left Ann Arbor. The last time the told me they gave up the money at the end which is a few hundreds dollars. Not sure if that is because he has graduated.
After I graduated last spring, the money left over in my account was automatically refunded to my bank account. It was all of like $5 lol.
I’m not doubting you or him, I’m just giving another anecdote 
@romanigypsyeyes Thanks for the info.
Just checked the account. It has a negative balance now. It pretty much matches the reward summary. So the loan amount on the pending aid was wrong from the beginning and the new scholarship got in today too.
My scholarships were applied as well this morning.
Came here to say the same thing.
@billscho as long as it is negative, things might still get adjusted. However, if you want the loans reduced, I’d call U of M today and ask them to reduce the loans by whatever amount the account is negative.