All financial aid except work-study and other campus jobs is credited to the student's account in the Business Office, reducing the net amount of each semester bill.
Usually half of the total annual amount of Wooster, federal, and state aid is applied to each semester's charge, but some private scholarship awards are credited to one semester or the other and not split between them.
Outside scholarships are credited to the student's account only when the Business Office receives them.
Take loan fees into account when calculating the net proceeds of each loan.
If the student is eligible for a subsidized federal student loan [it would be included in his or her financial aid award notice] these loans are always the first loans a family should obtain, because of the federal government interest subsidy while the student is in school and because repayment is deferred until the student completes her or his education.

2. Determine how the family will pay for additional out-of-pocket expenses: travel to and from campus, purchasing books and course supplies, the student's personal living expenses throughout the year, etc.

We expect that books and necessary living expenses might total $1400-$1500 for the year, but each student's personal experience will be different.
A student's summer earnings and term-time campus employment might cover many of these out-of-pocket costs.
Student employees are paid biweekly by EFT to their bank accounts. Because of the time required to set up a new student employee's record, the first work-study earnings will probably not be paid until the latter part of September. Thus students should not count on work-study earnings to pay for the textbooks required for their courses at the start of the fall semester.
When all of the credits—aid and family payments—applied to each term bill exceed our charge, the student may request a refund of the credit balance to help cover out-of-pocket expenses. The refund may be applied to the student’s COW card.

3. Once the family has estimates of the costs it will likely incur, it is time to distribute or allocate them. Each family will reach a different balance:

How much will the student contribute from her or his earnings?
How much will parents contribute from current income, perhaps through the 10 month payment plan?
How much will the family finance through unsubsidized educational loans, perhaps the federal parental (PLUS) loan or the private student Key Alternative Loan? Some families decide that a home equity line of credit is the preferable loan for them.

4. If you decide to apply for any educational loan--federal or private--you should initiate the loan application no later than early July. This will allow time for the first loan proceeds to be credited to the student's business office account by the fall semester bill due date in early August.

5. If you decide to use the 10 month payment plan, offered through Key Education Resources, be sure to enroll in the plan before July 31. Call 1-800-KEY-LEND or visit the Key Bank loan page.

6. Keep in mind the federal education tax credits--Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning--which may reduce a family's federal income tax liability for the tax year in which you make payments toward your child's tuition expenses. For more information about these tax credits, visit the Federal educational tax credits link on our financial aid page: http://www.wooster.edu/financialaid/.