Thelaw23 wrote:Did anybody hear ANYTHING back about the fed loans? I mean, we're starting in less than a month. I want to know how the whole system works/where the money is being reimbursed to and how it is timed.
If you take out federal loans (signed the MPN and submitted the paperwork to Financial Aid), then your loans will be distributed sometime in mid-August or early September. They will be first applied to your tuition, then the remainder will be direct deposited into your bank account (assuming you signed up for that, which I think almost everyone does)- you can sign up here:
http://sfs.columbia.edu/content/student ... nline-ssolThere will be a info session during orientation (I think the second or third day). Don't worry too much about timing- you don't actually have to pay your housing bill each month (I live in Law School housing and I didn't pay my rent until November and there were literally zero repercussions. Spring semester aid is distributed in mid-January.
And I might as well break the news to you now:
The good news: Columbia Law is amazing- it is super fun, the students are amazingly smart and interesting.
The bad news: The administration is terrible. I deferred a year, and Financial Aid told me that I didn't need to sign more MPNs. They told me in September (after the tuition deadline) that, actually, I would. Fortunately, they told me they would waive the late payment fee (since it was their fault). Housing, Financial Aid, and basically everything outside of Yadira and Joel (Student Services) is the most poorly-designed, inefficient bureaucracy ever. Get used to it.