Does fafsa just cover tuition?

Parents Forum
1

<p>Or does it also cover room and board?</p>

<p>Can you get aid for 2 year schools?</p>

2

<p>It also covers room and board - that's why the form asks whether the student will live on campus.</p>

<p>Actually, though, FAFSA merely sets the EFC - it is the college that determines what the total costs are - the colleges will also throw in an allowance for incidental expenses, books, and travel. </p>

<p>So if the EFC is $10,000 and the college calculates costs as $25K and meets 100% need, it means you would get grants, loans & work study totalling $15K. If the college says its costs are $30K, then on the same EFC you would have financial aid totalling $20K.</p>

<p>There is some wiggle room --some colleges seem to be more generous than others in providing for these incidental expenses. I could compare one colllege to another and see that they would include rather disparate amounts for books - for example, one college might say $1500 and another would say $2200 -- but I figured that my son would probably end up paying the same amount for books wherever he went. </p>

<p>So for my own purposes of comparison of awards, I took out all of the "soft" (variable) expenses and only looked at the firm numbers.</p>

3

<p>calmom, is there some calculator out there on the internet where I can get a general idea if a person qualifies?</p>

4

<p><a href="http://www.finaid.org/calculators/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.finaid.org/calculators/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Google works pretty well, too:
<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=financial+aid+calculators%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.google.com/search?q=financial+aid+calculators&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>(but not in China)</p>

5

<p>calmom, thanks.</p>

6

<p>Many colleges, like U</a> Chicago, give a fairly good rundown of their financial aid for different levels, so you might want to check the financial aid websites.</p>

7

<p>I believe that FAFSA covers the cost of attendance at colleges, including tuition, room, board and other expenses (books, travel). However, keep in mind that any finaid award that is NOT for tuition is considered taxable income for the student.</p>