Cowboy25 wrote:Does anyone have an idea of when we should expect to receive our loans? I have already applied for everything I could and signed the promissory note but have not heard anything about the money actually changing hands. I think I read that the first bill will go out the 9th so it would make sense that we should receive some money rather soon?
Yeah a bill goes out on the 9th but it is for tuition. So if your loans/grants and paperwork are all in order you will be ok on the bill because Harvard will recognize that you have money coming. If your loans/grants total more than tuition then the surplus cannot legally be given to you until 10 days prior to the first day of class.
I think finaid is making some changes wrt how surplus money is distributed; when I spoke to them they said they were revising their apparently previous policy of giving out one lump sum on or around the first day of class. Instead they are giving out an amount proportional to your total loans/grant package on or around Aug. 23rd, and then the rest on Sept. 1st. For me the former amount is almost $2500 and I am doing loans and grants for everything. They said this money is to help with moving expenses and with finding a place to live. The rest of the money will apparently be distributed on either the first day of class or the day before.
ETA: I called to complain about the financial aid distribution because according to the Harvard Students thread the money has previously been distributed at a non-predictable time, sometimes even several days after the first day of class. I'm married and coming straight out of undergrad so my wife and I don't really have the 10k or so in savings that is needed to move to Cambridge, especially since we have to be there on 08/25 for orientation and double-especially if no money was released before that point. So I called finaid and asked what they expected someone in my position to do and that is when they told me the bit about releasing some of the money prior to the first day of class.
If there has been one thing I have really disliked about the process so far it has been that the school just kind of assumes that, even if you are going loans/grants, you have access to whatever amount of cash you need via parents or family or whatever. One of the finaid ladies was pretty incredulous that I was moving in late August; she recommended that I seriously consider moving to Cambridge by 08/01 at the latest because most students will already be there by then. As if serious consideration was the only determinant. She then proceeded to completely fail to understand why it would be problematic for me to receive my student aid after the first day of class (not to mention orientation). Maybe I'll just sleep in my car for a bit or whatever. /rant
