<p>My son applied for a Grad plus loan to pay for grad school at UPenn(cost of attendance). The amount approved by UPenn seems to come up short of our calculations as to the cost of the year. When they make this calculation do they include books and food as well as housing and tuition?. My son emailed them with this question but they did not give an answer. What they said was nothing about addressing a shortage( we think this is even short of the cost of just the tuition and housing as well) see below</p>
<p>Your loan funds will posted to your bill.</p>
<p>If the loans create an overpayment on your bill, there will be a refund for you. You can address the refund issue at Student Financial Services/Main Office at <a href="mailto:sfsmail@exchange.upenn.edu">sfsmail@exchange.upenn.edu</a> or 215 898-1988. </p>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>You should be able to find the cost of attendance budget on the UPenn website - they can allow him to borrow an unsubsidized loan of $20,500 and a Grad PLUS in the amount of Cost of Attendance - unsub loan - any other resources he has.</p>
<p>Maybe your son is being given two different loans…one: unsub direct loan…two: grad plus loan (for the balance)???</p>
<p>That’s what I am thinking. I just had a student who was confused about this the other day. He wanted to take out more Grad PLUS, but for whatever reason he was going to turn down the unsub loan (meaning he didn’t read the excellent explanation I included with the loan request form!).</p>
<p>^
Yes, graduate cost of attendance figures include tuition, mandatory fees, health insurance, food, housing, transportation, books and supplies and incidental expenses. But the calculation is done for 9 months, not 12. I thought that Columbia’s cost of attendance was low until I realized that it was a 9-month calculation, and then it made more sense.</p>
<p>So maybe that’s the issue - your calculations are for 12 months (because you still need to pay rent and eat during the summer) but the university’s are for 9 months (I guess assuming that a summer job or magic will feed and house you then).</p>
<p>Could also be the unsub vs. Grad PLUS thing - graduate students can borrow up to $20,500 in unsubsidized Direct loans, and then up to the cost of attendance in Grad PLUS loans.</p>
<p>He is getting unsub direct loan and the Grad Plus loan. Together they seem to be a 4-5K thousand less that what we calculated to be for the total cost of just housing and tuition.</p>
<p>Housing 10 Months @ 1,600= 16,000
7 Units @ 5,500= 38.500
COA=54,500</p>
<p>Loan packages= about 50,000</p>
<p>It seems to be short and we are not even talking about food and books( which we can handle for him)</p>
<p>I just don’t know how they came up with there calculation on the direct plus(29,010) and we are concerned if it actually is higher do they adjust the Direct Plus? He asked and they gave the answer above.</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>wont he have at least 14 units per year? 7-9 per semester?</p>
<p>housing estimate isnt based on any apt that you might find. the school is probably estimating about 800 a month for housing, and maybe 3-5k for food.</p>
<p>what school charges 5500 per unit? for many grad programs taking 9 credits per semester, 18 credits per year, would be $99k per year…JUST for tuition!</p>
<p>since you are saying UNITS, is this a UC??</p>
<p>What is the school’s graduate COA? That is the number the aid office uses when determining the loans. You might have housing costs of $1600 a month, but the COA budget may use a lower amount per month in making the calculations. In that case, he most likely will not be given a higher budget. Generally, budget increases aren’t made for higher-than-estimated housing costs (although you can always ask if they do).</p>
<p>ok…this is UPenn, and they call three traditional credits, one unit, that is why the per unit cost is soooo high.</p>
<p>the engg grad school coa is </p>
<p>Tuition/Fees $36,600
(6 x 5,544)+2,592+744
Room/Board $16,310
Books/Supplies $1,980
Miscellaneous $6,625
TOTAL $61,515</p>
<p>If the school is using a lower number of units in your COA (they use average units), and if your program requires more units, you can request a budget adjustment based on the higher number of units required. Where I used to work, we could increase the tuition component of the COA for nursing students and other disciplines that required more credits per semester than the average program.</p>
<p>He has actually signed to live in UPenn Housing that costs 1600 per month(furnished apartment), that is where the housing costs came from. He is in the medical physics grad program and takes 7 Units during the year.</p>
<p>so we calculated 16,000 for housing
38,808 for the 7 units
54,808 total</p>
<p>they are giving 49,510</p>
<p>For a difference of 5,298 which does not take into account food or books.</p>
<p>Are they allowing less than 1,600 for housing a month?</p>
<p>I think your son needs to call financial aid and have an officer there discuss the package directly to him. We can guess all day about the reasons. Are there other limits to these loans, like what a student borrows during UG years? </p>
<p><<<
Are they allowing less than 1,600 for housing a month?
<<<</p>
<p>Yes…they are only allowing about 1600 a month for both room and board.</p>