I have completed my FAFSA and it has been accepted. I am eligable for money, but how does it work? Does the money go to the school, if so how is it disbursed? Can that money be used for books, or only for class fees and so forth?
127284
The school you attend will determine the amount.After you pay for your books and tuition you will get balance of the amount in a check mailed to you.
213722
That number means that your Expected Family Contribution is $0 (put another way, this means you are a "full need" student).  \n\nHowever, it should be emphasized that this does not mean that 100% of your schooling will be paid for. Many FAFSA applicants mistakenly believe that a $0 EFC (or very low EFC) means that the school or the government will cover the remainder.  This is not the case.  Most colleges do not have the means to meet all their students' full need through scholarships, and almost all of the Federal awards have limits that often fall short of tuition costs. \n\nHere is a sample financial aid package for a $0 EFC student (this assumes that you are a first-year dependent undergraduate student):\n\n-- $2,626 Stafford Loan\n-- $4,050 Pell Grant\n-- up to $4,000 (max.) Perkins Loan *\n-- up to $4,000 (max.) SEO Grant *\n-- a Federal Work-Study Award (FWS) -- from as low as a few hundred $ up to your unmet need *\n\n* {These funds are allotted at the school's discretion. These days, there is never enough SEOG, Perkins, and FWS to go around, so it is uncommon for schools to award students to their maximum eligibility.  While a student *could* be eligible for a great deal of Work-Study, most schools impose limits of a few thousand at most.}\n\n-- Your home-state may offer additional grants/loans to their residents. These awards are based on financial need, but check the criteria before expecting these funds to be part of your package. \n-- scholarships from your school (amounts very greatly and may not be based on your financial need but, rather, academic performance, etc.)\n\nLook at these awards in light of your tuition costs.  If you are planning on attending a low-cost school, it is possible that your financial need will be met with this package.  However, the average undergraduate student's financial aid package won't meet the cost of a private school education and you will need to seek out private/outside scholarships, appeal for additional scholarship from your school, or borrow a non-federal loan to supplement your aid package.\n\n{Just in case you aren't an undergrad... As a grad student, your $0 EFC would make you eligible for up to $18,500 in Federal Stafford loan funds and up to $6,000 in Perkins loan funds.  Graduate students are not eligible for Pell or SEOG.}
155739
Your Pell Grant would never have been disbursed directly from the Feds to you.  If you received a check from the school, they would have first applied it to your student accout and, then, if you owed nothing, they would have cut you a check.  \n\nTechnically, yes, Pell grant funds are meant to be used for educational expenses, but when your school creates your "Cost of Attendance" budget, it is allowed to allocate \n"a reasonable amount... for the documented rental or purchase of a personal computer that the student will use for study for the enrollment period. For example, a computer purchased in the summer for use in the fall term may be included."  If they have cut you a check, it means that your Financial Aid has not exceeded your educational expenses, so you're fine to use the check as you see fit.
567153
"FAFSA" is the name of the application that you file to obtain Federal Student Aid.  Federal Student Aid is available to students.  Period.  So, as far as your question about whether it's crappy for married students to be ineligible: No, it's not "crappy" -- because it's simply not true! \n\nMarried students obtain federal student aid just the same as unmarried ones.  It happens all the time.  It's fine to chat with people but don't base your financial (or financial aid) future on information that you got from anyone besides a professional who knows the rules and regulations that govern federal student aid programs. Talk to your Financial Aid Office; if they tell you that you're ineligible, ask them to explain (ideally, show you) why. There are a lot of things that could make you ineligible for grants and/or loans, but being married isn't one of them!\n\nThere are certainly *some* situations in which getting married can preclude you from being eligible for need-based aid.  Naturally, because you are married you must report your spouse's income on the FAFSA.  If s/he makes too much money, it is possible that you will no longer be eligible for the types of aid reserved for low-income students. Again, though, I want to reiterate that being married doesn't automatically make you ineligible for this aid: if your spouse made $0 and you were a full-need family, it's possible to obtain more aid in this instance than if you were, say, a dependent student reporting your parents' income on the FAFSA.\n\nEither way, there are student aid programs that you can obtain even if you show NO financial need at all -- specifically, the Stafford Loan program (and PLUS, if you are a grad student).  As long as (a) you are enrolled at least half-time, (b) your school is eligible to offer federal student aid, and (c) you don't have any defaulted student loans, your school will undoubtedy offer you a Stafford Loan (in fact, independent students are generally offered more loan funding than dependent students). They will notify you of this award via letter or email.  Once you accept it, they will usually take care of the rest (there may be additional paperwork -- such as a promissory note -- for you to complete, but they will typically notify you of this as well).  \n\nIf federal loans aren't enough to cover your costs, you can always obtain a private loan. FinAid's Web page lists a variety of private loan options from reputable lenders: http://www.finaid.com/loans/privatestudentloans.phtml . Read up on each loan and pick one with terms that work for you and your spouse.
178842
I will "tweak" a student's application in extreme circumstances, but not often. \n\nHere's how it goes...\n\nYour school can adjust your FAFSA (the application for Federal Student Aid funding) under certain circumstances.  However, they are by no means required to -- it's up to them to decide whether the circumstances you describe qualify as exceptions to the already *very* detailed Federal Student Aid regulations.  Their ability to make exceptions to these rules is known as "Professional Judgment," a provision in the regulations that gives your school the power to adjust or override certain FAFSA data in cases where that data does not accurately reflect your situation.  Examples of exceptional circumstances might include...\n\n* If the income/asset information that was reported on the FAFSA does not accurately reflect your earnings/savings for the year in question.  if a parent lost their job (or a lot of income) in mid-2005, their 2005 tax return (on which the 06-07 FAFSA is based) will make them seem as if they earn more than they really do.  Your school could, in this case, use your parents' new income to estimate actual 2006 earnings and correct your FAFSA.\n\n* If someone in your family incurred a great deal of medical expenses not covered by their insurance, your school could take this into consideration, possibly by adjusting your/their assets or investments to reflect the money that was or will be paid out to cover these costs \n\n* If you are technically considered "dependent" according to the FAFSA guidelines, but you can prove that you are *completely* self-supporting (emphasis on "completely"), your school can perform a dependency override to have you classified as "independent" for FSA purposes. Essentially, this means that you will not have to include your parents' information on the FAFSA at all.\n\nI am always willling to take the above information into consideration.  However, even when I have adjusted for these things, often the student's eligibility doesn't change because their EFC doesn't change much.  (Keep in mind that a $5,000 decrease in income doesn't equal a $5,000 decrease in your EFC.)\n\nThere are a lot of expenses that I won't take into consideration.  For example, the FAFSA does not ask applicants about debt at all -- so if your school was to take your debt into consideration, they would have to do so for everyone at their school.  Moreover, when students appeal based on extraordinary living costs, the emphasis needs to be on the basics: rent/mortgage, utilities, transportation, etc.  It is important to know that the federal methodolody (used to calculate the EFC) has *already* left room for many expenses by sheltering a portion of the family's income/assets (through something called the "income protection allowance" and "asset protection allowance"). So, although many parents have additional costs (i.e. a child needs braces, someone's car needs repairs, someone else attends private elementary/secondary school...), these miscellaneous expenses are already accounted for (to a point).   Quite frankly, everyone (inclluding very poor people) has bills, so that doesn't really make for an extraordinary circumstance.\n\nShould you decide to approach, your FA officer, be prepared to not only *talk* about the bills but also provide copies of them.  Your school *must* document any changes that they make to your FAFSA data.  Schools are audited on a very regular basis, and if it is found that they did not follow protocol or "broke the rules," their ability to administed financial aid to future students (including you) could be seriously jeopardized.\n\nEDIT: The CSS Profile is a form that your school can request to help them calculate your eligibility for their *institutional* funding; it can't be used to assess your eligibility for federal aid.  It goes *much* more in dep
560352
Have you applied online with FAFSA?  There are loans that students qualify for, government and bank loans for new borrowers.  There are scholarships on Fastweb also for many different types of students.  Many loans/scholarships are designed to help pay living expenses while a student is going to school.
639090
Your Expected Family Contribution is the amount that the government has determined you are *able* to pay for college in a given year.  However, it should be emphasized that this is NOT necessarily the amount that you will be *required* to pay -- you might pay less or you might have to pay much, much more.  \n\nTo phrase it another way, having a $42 EFC doesn't mean that all your educational costs (less $42) will be paid for by another source. Many FAFSA applicants mistakenly believe that a very low EFC means that the school or the government will cover the remainder. This, unfortunately, is not the case. Most colleges do not have the means to meet all their students' full need through scholarships, and almost all of the Federal awards have limits that often fall short of tuition costs. \n\nYour low EFC *probably* means that you are eligible for most of the aid that your school has to offer for students in your program, including a Pell grant (if you are an undergrad), a Stafford Loan, a Perkins loan, an SEOG, Work-Study. Depending on where you live, you may also receive some aid from your state.\n\nMany of these funds (except Pell -- the amounts for which are set by a specific table that compares your Cost of Attendance to your EFC) are allotted at the school's discretion. These days, there is never enough SEOG, Perkins, and FWS to go around, so it is uncommon for schools to award students to their maximum eligibility -- even to full-need students.\n\nNonetheless, you should take your EFC as a sign that plenty of people out there feel that you show a good deal of need. Search for need-based (and merit-based, if you have done well in school) scholarships anywhere you can: libraries, your former high school, your future college, clubs/associations near you, and the internet:\n\nhttp://www.finaid.org/scholarships/other.phtml\nhttp://www.fastweb.com\nhttp://www.srnexpress.com\nhttp://www.scholarships.com\nhttp://www.scholarships101.com\nhttp://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp\nhttp://services.princetonreview.com/default.asp?RUN=%2Fcollege%2Ffinance%2Fscholar%2FscholInterview%2Easp&RCN=auth&RDN=7&ALD=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eprincetonreview%2Ecom\nhttp://www.collegeanswer.com/paying/content/pay_free_money.jsp\n\nYou will probably need to cull funding from a number of sources as scholarships (small and large) are very competitive. Please be wary of scholarship scams, not the least of which is the claim that that there are "tons of unclaimed scholarships" just floating around out there. For information on this myth (and other scams), try reading these pages: \n\nhttp://www.finaid.org/scholarships/unclaimedaid.phtml\nhttp://www.finaid.org/scholarships/protecting.phtml\nhttp://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/ouchalrt.htm
196333
You speak to the financial advisor of that school.  You can apply for loans and grants.  They will assist you with all you need to know in paying for school.
320699
Why don't you want to use the FAFSA?  Even if you don't want federal or state aid (for which the FAFSA is required), most schools and many scholarship organizations require it as proof of your financial need.  Generally, families who don't file the FAFSA (when they are otherwise eligible) get placed in the category of "low-need family" (i.e. we regard them as not needing as much aid, even if this is not the case, simply because they have not chosen to prove otherwise).  If you haven't tried filing the FAFSA before and don't know what your EFC would be, try a simplified version of the formula here:  http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml  Note: Part of the EFC calculation relates to the age of the oldest parent, so if you are relatively older parents, the amount of money reserved for your "income/asset protection allowance" might be higher than you think (in layman's terms, your EFC might be lowered because you are a ittle older than most applicants' parents).\n\nDeadlines for Financial Aid vary by school.  Some schools operate on a "first-come, first-served" basis when it comes to their institutional funding.  It never hurts to ask, though.  \n\nThere are thousands (if not millions) of scholarships out there at any given time and many of them accept appplications on a rolling basis.  try searching any of the many online scholarship databases until you see one (several, ideally) you like and apply:\n\n* http://www.fastweb.com/\n* http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp\n* http://www.scholarships101.com/\n* http://www.srnexpress.com/\n* http://www.scholarships.com/\n* http://services.princetonreview.com/default.asp?RUN=%2Fcollege%2Ffinance%2Fscholar%2FscholInterview%2Easp&RCN=auth&RDN=7&ALD=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eprincetonreview%2Ecom\n* http://www.finaid.org/scholarships\n* http://www.collegeanswer.com/paying/content/pay_free_money.jsp\n\nNote: I've known a handful of families who elect not to file the FAFSA because of non-Financial Aid-related beliefs (one who, for example, was conscientious objector and didn't want his son to be required to register for the Selective Service, which the FAFSA does require).  If this is your situation and you are interested in need-based institutional funding, talk to the school to let them know why you won't be filing.
255418
well first off I'm guessing you both are over the age of 25 years old so when you are doing fasfa and you are approved for a pell grant trust me the gov will pay for you to go to school because you are 25 and older so with the rebate check and some type of check they give you because of the age it will add up and that check is monthly oh when you do your fasfa check yes for loans but do not accept the loan
426237
Possibly, but not much.  When applying for financial aid, you must fill out a form called a FAFSA, which is a federal form that takes into account the amount of money you have, that your parents/guardian have (if you are a dependent), and your income levels.\n\nThe feds then send that information to colleges that you are interested in applying to.  They also provide you with that information in case you decide on other colleges between when you fill out the FAFSA and when you fill out your applications.\n\nThe money that you have in a CD would be counted, but it would be counted if you simply held it in cash, too.  The only difference-maker would be the interest.
159998
Well, did you look into any state specific scholarships? I applied for four in my state. Banks, and local institutions might have scholarships avaliable in your town, too. I'm planning on applying to a few fastweb.com scholarships as well... Not to sound obvious, but did you check when you were supposed to hear back from the organization? Did you turn them in on time? If yes, then there is nothing wrong with calling and say "Hi, I applied for your scholarship ____ number of days/months ago, and was wondering when I should be hearing about that." As long as you don't call obsessively, there's no harm in asking.  Also, if you don't get enough of your financial need met, when the school year starts you can ask the school if there were any unaccepted scholarships/funds/grants that you would be eligible for or to apply for. Make sure you call your school about that $35K sum. Did you file the FAFSA? Is that your EFC? If it is, make sure to ask your school what their policy is on applying scholarships toward the EFC. And lastly, usually the school has scholarship, grant and loan information on their website in the financial aid section. Hope this helps, and good luck!
524560
Fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid ) online at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Make sure that you include the school you wish to attend on your FAFSA--you can list up to 6 schools.\n\nWait about 2-3 weeks from the time you submit it and then contact the school you wish to attend to find out if they need any other information to complete your financial aid file.\n\nIf you plan to start in the Spring semester in January, complete your FAFSA right away! If you're going to wait till next school year starts in August 2007, the FAFSA for that year becomes available January 1.\n\nTo fill out a FAFSA now, you'll need your 2005 income information (federal tax return, if filed) and for the FAFSA in January, you'll need your 2006 income information.\n\nFor any additional questions, contact your school's financial aid office. The people there are trained to answer your questions.
661444
Your loan agency (the government, or a private institution) will distribute the money to your college, usually about 4 weeks after your semester has begun (for a full length semester).\n\nThe school will then use the money to pay off any outstanding debts you have (for classes, for registration, for tech fees, etc.).\n\nMoney that is left over, will be given to you in the form of a check, about 2 weeks after that. \n\nYou then have the option of either returning it to your loan agency (so you won't owe more later, and so you don't reach your loan limit before you have finished your degree)...\nOr cashing it and sending part of the money back to the loan agency (same reasons as above, plus building up a good line of credit, showing you pay your debts)...\nOr cashing it and either spending or saving it.\n\nI suggest using what you need for books, then sending the rest back to the loan agency, or depositing it into a bank account that will give you interest. Keep this money separate from the rest of your spending cash or it will soon dissapear, and remember, you always pay interest so you always end up having to pay back more than you borrowed (which is why I returned the checks, uncashed, to the government, my first two semesters in college).\n\nBy the time you get to your last 1.5 years, try saving all the money...because 6 months after graduation, you have to start making large payments to the loan agency, and if you don't have a good job, you won't have the money on hand...so save their money and pay them back with it!
656482
You should be able to talk to your financial aid rep at school and look for additional funding. I am just finishing school and I was able to do many things like that to help pay for textbooks, etc. The school by law is supposed to return any unused financial aid to you unless you tell them you don't want it returned to you so I have never had trouble getting enough to cover all necessary expenses.
236352
No, but I read hundreds every year.\n\nOf all the appeals your Financial Aid Office will receive, they are most likely to approve the ones that fall into one of the following categories:\n\n* job/income loss\n* medical expenses not covered by insurance\n* loss of primary home\n\nYou may, of course, submit an appeal for any reason (it's always worth a try), but here are a few things to keep in mind:\n\n* If you are appealing based on your cost of living, don't expect much flexibility: the EFC formula has already "sheltered" a certain amount of your disposable income to allow you to cover the "bare necessities" (this is known as the "asset/income protection allowance"). Quite simply, your FA office isn't supposed to include many more costs than the ones already allowed for.  Regulations have made it clear that we are not supposed to consider expenses such as credit card costs, utility bills, tithing, etc. A good rule of thumb: if not everyone needs it, it probably can't be considered a "necessity" for you.\n\n* Any appeal that you write should offer *new* information to the Financial Aid Office.  Remember that the FAO has already looked at your FAFSA results and know what your income/assets were for the previous tax year.  If nothing has changed, then you will probably need to appeal based on something else.  If there HAVE been changes (mid-year job loss, death of a parent, the birth of a child/sibling, etc), then definitely let the FAO know.\n\n* Watch the tone of your letter. Obviously, in any interview and with any application, it is important to set yourself apart from other applicants -- but don't make assumptions or judgements about other students (like "My friend makes a lot more money than I do and you gave him more Financial Aid!").  Know enough to know that there are things you don't know (about other students and about the process).\n\nObviously, the procedures for appealing scholarship decisions vary by school. Some scholarships are based on merit/academic performance while others are based on financial need. Before you write your appeal, make sure that you know the selection criteria for the scholarship for which you are applying, and focus on those areas.
110677
Very, very few colleges or universities include the costs of textbooks in their tuition. Your bill that you will get from the college includes the tuition cost (pay the professor, operating costs, etc.), room and board (the minimum double oocupancy 20x20 room and a meal plan consisting of 100% fat and starch in a barely edible form) and miscellaneous charges for activities fees and such. Books are almost always extra, as each professor chooses what texts he wants to use. Of course they will pick the most expensive books. That is why they are mentioning financial aid. You can get any number of grants or loans to cover these costs. That is, if you qualify for financial aid. You literally have to be from a family that is barely above poverty level in order to get the small amount they offer you. When you finish the course and prepare to sell your books back to the bookstore, you will be told that ither they are not buying back (teacher will not use book next year) or that you will receive a gracious amount equal to 10% of the original cost. Come back the next semester and you will find that your $100 book, which you sold back and got $15, is now being sold for $75.\n\nBiggest scam in the history of higher education....\n\nYour best bet is to talk to someone at the college in the admissions department and have them give you a better estimate of expected costs.