nogutsnoglory wrote:
Hi All,
Round 3 admit here.. I will be accepting and making my deposit soon
A few questions I was hoping someone deeper in the process could answer:
1) I see there is a Facebook page for admits -- are most people using that for roommate finding or is there other / better source?
2) Background check -- how long does that take? I've done ones for employment that took a day. I don't foresee any issues but would like to know the results ASAP since I'll be declining other school's offers. Also, are recommenders contacted.. should I give them a heads up?
3) Student loans -- I'll need to fund a portion of costs with loans. Does the school walk you through anything or once you accept you just start making your own arrangements? I've never done anything with student loans before.. can I start applying for federal loans before I even accept a school offer?
Thanks,
Congrats to you and all of the other admits here!
To answer your questions:
1) Some people have been using the facebook page. Others found roommates at DJ. FYI, there's also a https://gmatclub.com/chat group that a lot of people are on. I think
Rigils may be the admin, but check the admit thread. I'm sure there's a lot of people still looking for roommates.
2) From my understanding the background check can take up to a few weeks. I don't know why you would hold off declining other offers before getting the results back because they'll likely ask for background checks as well and if there's anything wrong there will likely be problems there as well. Anyways, it sounds like you have nothing to worry about and I wouldn't worry. It's just another thing to do before starting.
3) I just found all the information I needed for loans here:
https://www.johnson.cornell.edu/New-Students/Two-Year-MBA/Financial-Planning. If you are looking for federal aid, you need to complete a FAFSA and the Johnson financial aid application form. I'd do that soon because I think the financial aid office has a deadline coming up in June. There's also alternative loan opportunities for MBA's now including CommonBond, SoFi, and M7 financial. Check them out. They actually have some decent interest rates compared to the ones offered by the Direct PLUS program. And yes you can start the FAFSA before accepting the offer, and start loan applications at some of the alternative lenders however they do ask for school verification before they finalize. It's probably a good idea to accept before starting the loan process.
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