MALE STUDENT: If you're applying for financial aid, apply for scholarships versus just going straight through FAFSA. Because I didn't do that. But next year I'll be hopefully getting scholarships.

FEMALE STUDENT 1: Most of all, start early.

FEMALE STUDENT 2: Yeah.

FEMALE STUDENT 1: Start early, because if you try to wait till the last minute, you just left with OK, this all I have to do. But if you start at an early age doing scholarships and trying different things, because college adds up. It is not cheap. And regardless of how much money you think you're not spending now, four years when you get out of college, six months after you graduate, they're sending you a bill.

So most people don't know that, so they just spend their refund check. Like, this is my money, it's not your money.

FEMALE STUDENT 2: And I think, too, when applying for any type of financial assistance, you may receive lots of offers. Just because you receive lots of offers doesn't mean you have to accept all the offer. Consider the courses you're taking, the ones you may take next semester, and try to cover those with a little extra. Because like she was saying, you have to pay all that back.

FEMALE STUDENT 1: All of it.

FEMALE STUDENT 2: So don't think of it as pocket money. It's school money.

MALE STUDENT: A refund check basically is-- say you only need $1,000 to cover your tuition, but the loan offers you $2,000, and you take the full amount. They're going to give you $1,000 back. So that's basically what it is. You've got overage in your loans.

FEMALE STUDENT 3: I've always been an amazing money management kind of person. I can manage my money easily. Like I told you earlier, I'm like a grandma with my checkbook. Everything I spend, there's a checkbook. Checkbook, where are you? Write it down, done.

But with this, I had no control over this. So that my refund check was supposed to be $2,500, supposedly. And they sent me too much. They sent me what they were supposed to charge me.

So I spent a couple hundred, paid a couple bills, gave my mom some money to help her pay bills. Then I got a notice in the mail about three weeks later. You owe $2,700. I'm like, oh, my god, no I don't. What are you talking about?

So I go to the bursar's office and they tell me, oh, you're supposed to get $400. That was supposed to be your refund check. Really? Nice! So do I get that $400? No, you have to pay it back.

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