Contra Costa County Bar Association Scholarship

By kottoboni | Posted on

The Contra Costa County Bar Association’s Women’s Section offers The Honorable Patricia Herron and The Honorable Ellen James Scholarship to deserving law students with demonstrated leadership potential, academic success, and a commitment to women’s issues.  The scholarship ranges from $1,000 to $10,000, depending on the number of deserving candidates.  Applicants must be residents of Contra Costa County or intend to practice law in Contra Costa County after graduation.

Applications must be received by September 28.  Visit the our scholarships page for additional information and the application.

Refund Check Pick-up Location

By cgester | Posted on

If your Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) request was not processed in time for your Fall 2011 refund or you chose not to enroll in the EFT option, your refund will be disbursed by paper check.  You should receive an email from the Billing and Payments Cashiers office at 192 University Hall when the check is ready for you to pick up.  Their hours are 9-noon and 1:00-3:00, Monday – Friday.

Drop-in hours at Boalt on Tuesday/Wednesday

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Financial Aid drop-in hours at Boalt:

Dates: Tuesday August 23 and Wednesday August 24, 9am to 4pm

Locations: Rooms 305 and 311-A

How to know if you are a registered student

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Q; How do I know if I am a registered student?

A: This information can easily be obtained through bearfacts.berkeley.edu. Upon logging into the student section, open the Personal Profile tab of the Personal section. Your registration status will be listed as part of your profile.

If you aren’t registered, check the Payment Summary tab in the CARS section to ensure that 20% of your fees are paid and check the Class Schedule tab in the Registration section to ensure that you are enrolled in at least 6 units.

Why is my loan payment amount less than I accepted?

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Q: Why is my loan payment amount less than the amount I accepted?

A: The Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized and Grad PLUS loans require a fee. This information is explained in the Entrance Counseling required of all new borrowers and can also be found on our Loans page. The loan fee amount is deducted from the loan before the loan is sent to a student’s CARS billing account. For example, if you accept $10,000 in Grad PLUS for the fall semester you should expect to receive $9,750 to pay to your CARS account.

Fall Portion of Loan Accept Amount: $10,000
Loan Fee: $250 (2.5%)
Amount Paid to CARS: $9,750

Please be aware of this difference when budgeting for your expenses.

If you owe anything to the campus in your CARS account, your financial aid will go toward paying that amount before a refund is generated.

BearFacts e-Bill and Quick Statement

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The campus “e-bill” feature is a once-a-month snapshot of your billing account. Unfortunately, this year the snapshot was taken too early to reflect the payment of financial aid awards. See the Quick Statement in BearFacts for your real-time CARS balance.


	


	

			


							

	

		
Accepting Your Educational Loans

			

		
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Students who intend to accept all or part of their educational loans should do so ASAP.  For many students relying on their financial aid for a refund, loans are the principal source of the refund amount. If you wait to accept your loans later this month, the amount refunded to you from your loans will be delayed.




    

  • Only half of the amount you accept will pay toward your Fall fees. The other half will pay in Spring. This is a federal regulation which applies to all federal funds including educational loans.
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  • You do not need to accept all of your loans now. If you choose not to accept the full amount, you will have the opportunity to accept the remaining amount later this academic year.
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Accept your loans through myfinaid.berkeley.edu. If you are an entering student (or haven’t borrowed from Berkeley Law before), don’t forget to complete your Master Promissory Notes and Entrance Counseling as outlined on our Loans page.

	


	

			


														

	

		
Tuition offsets will be posted to MyFinAid records this week

			

		
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The law school’s Financial Aid staff is currently in the process of posting awards (tuition offsets)  in the amount of $1,068 to the records of all JD students who will be enrolled this fall. If you do not see the award on your MyFinAid record, please be patient as this is a manual process which we expect to complete by August 5 or early in the following week at the latest.

	


	

			


							

	

		
Refund Emails Sent in Error

			

		
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We have been told that Billing & Payment Services (BPS) made an error and sent e-mail to students telling them that their financial aid refunds are now available.  If you received the message, please disregard it.  Fall 2011 financial aid refunds are scheduled to be disbursed on August 18.