The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

How have people delt with a housing payment on their e-bill? My housing/semesters tuition are wrapped up in the same payment system - as I would assume most on campus people's housing is.

kbl2017 wrote:How have people delt with a housing payment on their e-bill? My housing/semesters tuition are wrapped up in the same payment system - as I would assume most on campus people's housing is.

I paid for everything SMART didn't actually cover and included a little extra in the payment to be safe since SMART pays out really slow...

kbl2017 wrote:How have people delt with a housing payment on their e-bill? My housing/semesters tuition are wrapped up in the same payment system - as I would assume most on campus people's housing is.

I paid whatever SMART was not going to cover. My first year I actually talked with my financial aid office and they gave me an email with the exact amount I was responsible for so I had it in writing. In subsequent semesters, I've just paid what I was supposed to and called it done.

Guest123 wrote:I paid for everything SMART didn't actually cover and included a little extra in the payment to be safe since SMART pays out really slow...

According to my school SMART doesn't actually pay slow, they always pay on time, its just that the school bills SMART later in the semester than they bill normal students (For my school SMART is billed after the add drop date, whereas everyone else gets bills starting in July). Does your school give you back that extra you pay, or do you lose it?

How did you guys cover that your first semester before SMART has paid out any stipend? I'm going straight from undergrad so I don't really have any savings that could cover an entire semester of housing. I think that I would barely have enough with the first August payment. (no credit cards since I wouldn't be able to pay it off in full in the month)

Does your school not do payment plans or allow delayed payments? My school doesn't even expect tuition to be paid for us until the end of the semester and housing is split up into different payments.

kbl2017 wrote:How did you guys cover that your first semester before SMART has paid out any stipend? I'm going straight from undergrad so I don't really have any savings that could cover an entire semester of housing. I think that I would barely have enough with the first August payment. (no credit cards since I wouldn't be able to pay it off in full in the month)

I had savings from a summer internship I was able to use. If it is through the school, you might be able to discuss a later payment date. They might let you pay what you can now, and then the rest in a month or two.

If the August stipend won't be enough to cover it, and you can't arrange a later payment date, then you'll have to borrow the money. SMART scholars are allowed both private and federal student loans, so I would borrow the couple thousand, and then pay it back a month later when you have both the August and the September stipend. Depending on your interest rates and housing cost it should only cost a couple hundred dollars extra in interest, which stinks, but is better than being homeless.