During this first week of school, the Financial Aid Office will disburse about $20 to $25 million to Cal State Long Beach students in the form of loans, grants and scholarships according to Gloria Kapp, admissions and financial aid director.

Kapp said this is a conservative estimate in terms of what she saw on the disbursements.

She said a usual estimated pay out for CSULB is $70 million for the year.

"Things are looking very good," Kapp said, "Financial aid was able to get the award letters out much sooner this year."

Changes have been made this semester in the way the Business Office disburses checks.

They have changed their system of disbursing checks to parts of the alphabet on different days.

This semester, all students can pick up their checks through Thursday, the three days formally categorized by alpahabet. And then, as usual, all students can pick up their checks during normal business hours after Thursday.

The change in the system came when the disbursement office started mailing disbursement checks.

"Since they started mailing checks," Kapp said, "the amount of window disbursements has been small."

Kapp said that the line was long Tuesday morning but should be manageable by today.

Kapp recommended that students check a list at the disbursements window to see if their check is available before they wait in line.