Student Loan process 2007

I'll be arriving a week before the term starts--the university is doing what they call "Welcome Week", which looks like it's one huge orientation session.

Welcom week is also known as Fresher's Week and is also standard across all UK universities - welcoming new 'Freshers' (Freshmen in the US) as well as new international and postgrad students. Basically, it's a week of attending orientation-style information sessions (sorting out your accomodation, getting settled in the UK, learning how to use the Resnet and library etc.), joining societies, going on excursions and tours around the city and local area. It's also just a week of making friends and getting drunk (most new Freshers don't even remember what happened in Welcome Week)!!

You'll be welcomed to the university by a group of 'mentors' known as the International Welcoming Committee - made up of Exeter students who studied abroad this year (2006/07) - wearing brightly coloured T-shirts. I was one of the international welcoming mentors in September 2004 - I got 2 wear a bright pink T-shirt all week long!!

Just a little plug - you might be interested in joining the Erasmus and Study Abroad Society in Weclome Week. They organise social events and cultural trips during the year and it's a great way to meet new international students (I'm plugging the society because I helped co-found it in 2004 and was Vice-President of the society during my final year at Exeter ).

Also, don't worry about the timing of the loan distributions & your tuition payments.  Mine always came well after the tuition installments were 'due', but the school knows that you can only pay when your money comes through.  They're willing to work with you having not actually paid yet when you register, so long as you inform them that you're waiting for your loan to come through.  I never had a problem.

Also, don't worry about the timing of the loan distributions & your tuition payments.  Mine always came well after the tuition installments were 'due', but the school knows that you can only pay when your money comes through.  They're willing to work with you having not actually paid yet when you register, so long as you inform them that you're waiting for your loan to come through.  I never had a problem.

I think that will depend on the university.  One of the other American girls on my course did not have access to her student loan funds when registration day rolled around (she had put USD cheques into her British bank account, so they were waiting to clear.)  The university *did not* let her register, and while she was allowed to attend classes, she did not have a student ID or access to the library until she had paid her tuition deposit (which she did about 2 or 3 weeks later once the cheque had cleared.)  It was a really stressful time for her, but the uni had regulations and did not  make allowances.

Fair enough, I guess I had just gotten lucky.

Might have something to do with the fact that the cheques got paid directly to my uni, not through my bank acct, so they were always in control of that money.

Grrr. I applied for a small supplemental private loan from Sallie Mae last week to cover the gap between when I arrive in Exeter and when my first disbursement from my main student loans is ready, and everything looked fine--the web site said "approved" and all that.

Then last Tuesday I got a message saying they still needed proof of enrollment. Apparently the acceptance letter--which, by the way, contained all the information they were looking for and one of their phone representatives told me would be just fine--wasn't good enough.

They wanted a tuition bill or class schedule (neither of which I have, of course) or a letter from the school detailing all the information I'd already handed them. =P I talked to the student funding people on Wednesday and they said they'd put something together, but I haven't heard from them yet.

This is the one last tiny little hurdle...why does it have to be so complicated?

Through my student loan frustrations and woes I have learned one important lesson:

Nothing worth having is easy! 

It's like this irritating dance. We need this even thought it doesn't exist! We need that even though you already gave it to us! (like when my transcripts from one of my colleges were sent. Twice. And both times marked "unofficial" by the recipient college and the envelopes that would have proved they came from the school and WERE official were thrown away both times, thus me having no proof at all and wasting $5 per transcript... or the time I had to prove I was a resident of my state even though everything I have is registered here and I have made income and paid taxes several years... had to go to a dean to get that one fixed!). Just stick with it. It can be ridiculously frustrating at times, but it can be done. Hang in there!

My husband is going to go back to a university, vs. a technical college, this time around, and he's had to get a student loan. Between the two of us, that means we'll be skint for the next three years, because my work comes and goes, and I won't work for peanuts (nor does he expect me to). I'm hoping that once he gets his degree, he'll pursue getting a master's and/or PH.D. in the States. There's a lot of demand for ecological process and policy, which he'll be studying.

P.S. He's getting a loan, too, which was my longwinded way of saying so.