<p>The answer to your question is, “Yes, it can, but does not have to and may not.” Here is the way it usually work:</p>
<p>Each college has what is called a Cost Of Attendance (COA) which is an official estimate that is submitted to a number of agencies including the federal government. The COA is comprised of the tuition and fees as well as other fixed costs plus average room, board, books, travel, and other expenses. Colleges differ as to how many COAs they submit and how they calculate them, but what they have down there is used as a maximum as to how much financial aid the federal goverment and often states who have aid programs will give. Your parents, for example, can borrow the full cost of your college through PLUS, which is the federal Parent Loan prgram, and that full cost is determined by that official COA. School usually have their own aid limits also tied to their own COAs. Most college will not permit awards of financial aid over the COA with few exceptions, and they cannot make exception when it comes to the federal or state monies. </p>
<p>Room and board are included in those COA figures, and for those colleges where most kids do live on campus freshman year, the numbers are pretty accurate, in that they use the average meal plan and room assignment available and freshmen are usually pretty limited in choice. There is almost always a commuter COA too,that is lower as it does not include the room and board but adds in expenses typical for a commuting student. In most cases, your financial aid packages will have these numbers as the maximum you can get from a school. Usually, any merit aid is used to reduce any financial aid one gets, since the need is then reduced and the scholarship is put towards that COA ceiling figure.</p>
<p>Though the PELL grant is a exception that the federal governent makes in terms of getting funds over the COA numbers, most schools have policies that integrate that into their aid calculations. PELL is fedreal money available up to $5600 for those who are at poverty level…</p>
<p>Reading statistics that colleges release is a tricky proposition. For instance, it can look pretty good to see that a school meets 96% of need. But that statement does not tell how that figure is calculated. does it meet the need of 96% of the students apply for aid and are qualified? How many of those students whose aid may be fully met are those with just a little bit of aid? How much of that aid is met by self help?</p>