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Soul, did you do the entrance counseling?

Yup, did that 5 or 6 days ago.

My roommate got his loans approved before he did the entrance interview, so I don't think those are related.

Hmm... I'd call the office on Monday maybe. It's a busy time, I'm sure yours are in the mix. What lender did you use?

I used Access Group. I do think they have all my materials (I hand delivered the loan app and the MPN), and I haven't gotten any emails from them telling me that I'm missing anything.

One interesting thing is that it seems like they've emailed people who haven't filled out the Grant Data form/bio sketch; I haven't done that yet, but haven't been contacted. I hope I'm still in their system, lol.

00TREX00 wrote:

M, I´m on 108th as well, probably the same building. I´m also a little bugged by it, but at least we are right on the park.

I wonder how safe that area is at night... since we'll probably be walking back from the library late at night, alone, at least fairly often during finals prep.
Also, will we need to bring our casebooks to class? (or, will we actually need to bring our casebooks back to our apts?). Hauling heavy books 20 blocks each day would not be fun.

The area is quite safe.

108th --> 116th is all of 8 minutes' walking. (I live on 115th, so maybe I have no right to speak on this topic, but I really find it hard to sympathize with people who complain about an eight-minute commute, whether or not it is with heavy books. The hard part is getting all your books into a backpack; whether the subsequent walk is going to be 2 minutes or 8 minutes is really not going to make much of a difference.)

You do generally want your books in class. Professors ask for details from cases, and you'll want your book in front of you to follow the discussion. Whether or not you want to carry your books home and back every day depends on your habits and routine. Some of my classmates only study in the library, and they keep their books in their locker in the school. Others like to study at home, and so they deal with schlepping the books back and forth. What you do is up to you.

I have just called the financial aid office and was told that the certification process is taking a while--they just have so many to do. Once they have given our lenders the certification on our loans, then they will send emails with information on completing the entrance interview, and any grant recipients will be instructed to complete the online grant form. She confirmed that their office has, indeed, received the master promissory notes from my bank for all of my loans (gradplus and stafford--you had to complete a promissory note for each of these). As long as you are sure your bank has sent the master promissory notes to columbia, which you had to sign yourself, then everything should be good. You can always call the office if you are concerned about not having received certification yet, just to make sure they have received everything necessary to the process. I am only writing this all out in a post because I, for one, thought columbia's financial aid instructions were extremely vague from the beginning, including everything from choosing a lender to how to inform columbia of your lender, to master promissory notes, to receiving certification. My bank and I both originally thought that some piece of paper I had sent back to Columbia, and on which I noted my lender, was the stafford master promissory note. Only after some calling did we realize that I hadn't yet done this one! Ok, well that's all...i hope this helps someone. only a few more short weeks of summer left...

Thanks for the post, sdob. I guess it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who still hasn't gotten his loans approved.

Luckily my loans have been approved, but I totally agree about the disorganized nature of the process. A master checklist of everything that a typical 0L needs to take care of after enrolling (financial aid, health services, dean's cert and transcript, etc.) would be nice, and pretty easy to put together if you see the process happen year after year...

caits wrote:Luckily my loans have been approved, but I totally agree about the disorganized nature of the process. A master checklist of everything that a typical 0L needs to take care of after enrolling (financial aid, health services, dean's cert and transcript, etc.) would be nice, and pretty easy to put together if you see the process happen year after year...

the admitted student binder should be much more thorough. Ive gone through that thing about 5 times in the last month and half and its provided my with very little guidance. Theres so many things I never realized I had to do, particularly with regards to financial aid.

...

You moved into your Columbia housing already? How is it?

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I don't know if anyone noticed, but our ID pictures are now up on Lawnet.

How long does it typically take the Financial Aid office to respond to emails? I emailed them on Monday to ask about my loan certification status and still haven't heard back.

Soulofheaven8 wrote:How long does it typically take the Financial Aid office to respond to emails? I emailed them on Monday to ask about my loan certification status and still haven't heard back.

I think they are swamped right now. I wrote last Thursday and got a response yesterday.

Just over 2 weeks left! Hope everyone's prep is going smoothly. I'm moving in the 8th, is anyone there already? I'm heading to the beach for the next week to prepare myself for NYC in August with no AC (at least to start)...

Next week is my "back to school" shopping week. This summer has felt rather long and boring, so I'm definitely excited/relieved to finally get started. So which pre-Orientation events do you guys plan on going to? I assume everyone is going to the Staten Island Yankees game?

The financial aid office must not like me very much...loans still not certified and my email to them went unanswered.

I want to do the scavenger hunt, I'm a dork like that. And I'll be at the baseball game wearing my Sox hat

...I'll wear my Joba Chamberlain shirt to balance things out.

I may have to come in my Tampa Bay Rays cap just to show both of you who runs the AL East this year.

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I think it's monthly everywhere except in Lenfest.

Does anyone know what size the beds are in Lenfest studios? I could swear the website used to say that they all had queens except for the 06 rooms, but now it says that they all have fulls... ?

TREX, some UAH housing are paid by semester (like mine), but most are monthly. It's in the e-mail where they offered you housing.