Do you get a refund check if you're a broke 1L? Forum

jdhopeful11 · Post by **jdhopeful11** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:42 pm

Is it common for law students to be granted enough aid to receive refund checks?

dood · Post by **dood** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:50 pm

jdhopeful11 · Post by **jdhopeful11** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:51 pm

dood wrote:yes. most of my friends at gw are eagerly waiting for our "welfare" checks.

That's good to know. What are the typical payouts?

Post by **romothesavior** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:51 pm

jdhopeful11 wrote:Is it common for law students to be granted enough aid to receive refund checks?

Yeah, why wouldn't you? A refund check is just whatever is left over in loans for COL after they pay your tuition and mandatory fees.

The payout is:

Loans taken out - mandatory fees - tuition = Refund check

edit: Unless we're talking about something else maybe? I'm really confused by this question. Seems obvious enough (at least to me anyways).

dood · Post by **dood** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:54 pm

jdhopeful11 · Post by **jdhopeful11** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:55 pm

romothesavior wrote:
jdhopeful11 wrote:Is it common for law students to be granted enough aid to receive refund checks?
Yeah, why wouldn't you? A refund check is just whatever is left over in loans for COL after they pay your tuition and mandatory fees.

The payout is:

Loans taken out - mandatory fees - tuition = Refund check

edit: Unless we're talking about something else maybe? I'm really confused by this question. Seems obvious enough (at least to me anyways).

I understand that. I am just wondering if the payout is usually something small like a couple grand (which wouldn't cover my semester expenses) or something more appropriate like 5-6 grand. This is assuming I'd be living on campus.

jdhopeful11 · Post by **jdhopeful11** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:56 pm

dood wrote:take your total cost of attendance subtract tuition and dorm fees (if any)

example (not sure about exact figures):

gw total cost of attendance: $70K
tuition: $40K
if ur living in the 1st year dorm: $20K

so u get either $10K back or $30K back if u are finding housing on ur own. usually by the semester so you would get $5K back in fall and another $5K in spring. note: it is good to have a credit card to buy books, health insurance, food, etc before u get the check.

Why do you need health insurance? You live in DC, I'm sure there's places to go that will treat you on taxpayers' dime.

dood · Post by **dood** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:59 pm

dood · Post by **dood** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 10:02 pm

Post by **romothesavior** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 10:04 pm

I'm HORRIBLE at math and at managing my money, but this wasn't hard to figure out, even for a dunce like me.

Take your semester COA (cost of attendance). Subtract tuition. Subtract fees (many schools have mandatory orientation, Student Bar Association, and health insurance fees). Voila! What you have left is your cost of living. That is usually what your refund check will be, unless you have scholarships or savings and thus do not accept the full check.

Your COA depends on how much you are paying for rent (hint: if you're in DC, it will be a shit ton), what your lifestyle will be, etc. The amount of loans you take out will be dependent on how much you have in savings, scholarships, etc. The size of the refund check is completely dependent on you, and it is really easy to figure out how big it will be.

jdhopeful11 · Post by **jdhopeful11** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 10:14 pm

dood wrote:
jdhopeful11 wrote:
dood wrote:take your total cost of attendance subtract tuition and dorm fees (if any)

example (not sure about exact figures):

gw total cost of attendance: $70K
tuition: $40K
if ur living in the 1st year dorm: $20K

so u get either $10K back or $30K back if u are finding housing on ur own. usually by the semester so you would get $5K back in fall and another $5K in spring. note: it is good to have a credit card to buy books, health insurance, food, etc before u get the check.

Why do you need health insurance? You live in DC, I'm sure there's places to go that will treat you on taxpayers' dime.
that is correct. but i have diabetes and also must see a shrink. if u've ever had really good insurance and good doctors u never want to go back to the bad ones. i.e. my doctor wrote a prescription wrong so i went back and had him rewrite it within a 30 min. the pharmacists was like "whoa that was fast" to which i replied "yeah b/c i pay him $240/hr" so he does what i tell him to.

Ha yea I saw an indian shrink in DC for a few months and he constantly fudged up my scripts. But yea if I were to live in DC for ls I would definitely want to spend some cash and enjoy my life to an extent. Who knows - maybe buy a pound of crack?

2ofspades · Post by **2ofspades** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 11:48 pm

Whoa there...

jdhopeful11 · Post by **jdhopeful11** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:33 am

crack-a-lack. crack.

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