My experience was a positive one for the most part. I was very good at communicating with my financial aid counselor so that I knew what to do. I would highly recommend going to your financial aid counselor whenever you have questions and at the same time asking a lot of questions yourself. During the first year of college, the financial aid counselors are very good and alerting students about their upcoming payments and other vital financial aid information. After the first year is over though, they are no longer babying you giving you updates about your finances, so you have to be assertive and make the effort to contact them or else you might miss something that was important.