<p>My school's total cost of attendance includes tuition, room & board, meal plan, etc, but it also covers a certain amount designated for books ($950!), transportation, and "personal expenses." I received a little more than half of the total cost in scholarships from the school, and covered the rest with a sallie mae unsubsidized private loan. </p>
<p>Now, I am in the process of buying school books and just remembering that I am supposed to have money to cover it. Money that my school is in possession of. Can anyone tell me how I access these funds??</p>
<p>Also, has anyone had experience using the "personal expenses" funds?</p>
<p>Without seeing or knowing your FA package or where you’re going, it’s hard to know. But just because something is listed on COA doesn’t mean you’re being reimbursed for it. But if you got a loan that covered these things and if the loan money went to the college, contact the FA office immediately to ask.</p>
<p>In your financial aid package, did it have a student contribution that you were suppose to earn from summer work (earnings)? Even with getting financial aid, there is an expectation that students work over the summer to have start-up money to offset some of your expenses (books)</p>
<p>ilywellesley…The COA figure is a computation done by your school to give you an idea of what a year at the university might cost you, but it isn’t directly tied to your FA package. Every COA for every school shows an approximate amount that books would cost you during the year, but it doesn’t mean there is money specifically set aside in your FA package for that.</p>
<p>Whatever the difference is between the COA they told you and the total of your FA package is your expected contribution. There is no “specific” money for your books that can be accessed. You are expected to pay for them either from the FA package they gave you or from your own funds.</p>
<p>In our experience FA is based on the school’s COA including all those costs such as books, personal expenses, travel expenses etc. If your total COA is covered by your scholarships and the loans you took out (i.e. there is no parental or student cash contribution needed in addition to the scholarships loans) then you should get a refund from the school of any FA/loan money in excess of their direct charges. </p>
<p>The way it happens at our school is that the direct expenses for the semester (tuition and fees, room and board if you are on campus, books if you buy them at the school book store) are charged to the bursar account. The semester’s scholarship/grant/loan money is paid into the bursars account. If the expenses are higher than the FA money you owe the school. If the FA money is higher than the direct expenses, they owe you money and it is refunded to you. At our school this happens in about the 3rd week of school after the add/drop period. But this will vary hugely by school. My son’s school it took about 6 weeks. You would have to ask your school what their process and timing is.</p>
<p>We always had to buy books long before the refund came. So to buy at a cheaper source (we usually buy online and save $100s compared to school book store costs) you need to have money set aside. Otherwise you may have to buy at the school book store (if they allow you to charge it to the bursars account).</p>
<p>As SCM says, it varies by school; at the ones my kids went to the aid went directly to offset tuition, fees, room and board, and textbooks were handled by parent or student contribution</p>
<p>so you need to talk with yout financial aid office</p>
<p>In the meantime, it’s good to develop money saving habits early:</p>
<p>[How</a> to Find Cheap Textbooks - NYTimes.com](<a href=“How to Find Cheap Textbooks - The New York Times”>How to Find Cheap Textbooks - The New York Times)</p>
<p>You need to call the school and find out when those funds will be disbursed. Their book store may let you buy “on credit” while you’re waiting for the disbursement.</p>
<p>Since you’re borrowing for remaining school costs, personal expenses, etc, I would recommend that in the future you try to use some summer earnings so that you don’t have to borrow for “personal expenses” and other such costs. It’s very easy to “borrow, borrow, borrow”…but it will be painful paying that all back.</p>