<p>I am living off-campus and am paying to rent a room in someone's house during the school year and am considering purchasing a flexible meal plan at the University, since I won't have kitchen or cooking access where I am moving to. I'll have a small refrigerator and that's all.</p>
<p>A friend of mine who works in FinAid says that if you aren't living on campus, an on-campus meal plan is not an allowable educational expense for Financial Aid.</p>
<p>I'm confused about this.</p>
<p>If you mean for calculating how much FA you are eligible for, it depends completely on the school. FA is based on the school’s COA (Cost of Attendance). The COA usually includes average amounts ford tuition and fees, room and board, books, travel, and miscellaneous/personal expenses. </p>
<p>Some schools have the same COA whether you live on or off campus. In that case your FA would be exactly the same whether you live on or off campus (my daughter’s school had just the one COA - she lived on campus one year and off campus the remainder and got the same FA in both scenarios).</p>
<p>Other schools have a different COA for students living off campus. Some even have 3 COAs - On campus, off campus with parents, off campus not with parents. In these cases FA may be less for living off campus. You would need to check with your own school for their policies.</p>
<p>If you are referring to the taxability of scholarships/grants, scholarship/grant money used to pay for room and board (whether on or off campus) is taxable income.</p>
<p>No, she was saying that you can’t use funds received from Financial Aid (Pell, Federal Loans) for meal plans, if you aren’t living on campus.</p>
<p>You can use them for whatever expenses you desire. Meal plans, grocery store, whatever. Any excess funds left after expenses billed direct from the school should be refunded to you to spend as you see fit (rent, food etc). If you have a meal plan, that would be billed direct from the school so should be payed directly out of your FA before the balance is refunded to you.</p>
<p>If you are concerned about this, I would suggest asking someone in the know in your FA department how the payments/refunds etc will work. I have certainly never heard of anyone not being able to use their FA to pay for a meal plan just because they live off campus.</p>
<p>I was contemplating this very thing today. My son has scholarships and a grant that more than cover the cost of his tuition - about $500 excess each semester, which he would like to use toward his off-campus housing or books. Is it standard procedure for a university to issue a check to the student?</p>
<p>Is it possible the school does not allow students to pay for a meal plan if they don’t live on campus? That’s a different question than whether it’s an allowable charge for FA.</p>
<p>Michmom - that has been our experience. You would need to check with the school in question to be sure.</p>
<p>Erin’s dad - that is possible I guess, though schools rarely seem to pass up the opportunity to squeeze an extra $ out of students.</p>
<p>Just an update here on my son’s excess financial aid. In today’s mail he received a check from the University of Michigan FAO. Classes haven’t even started, and, in fact, today is the due date for the fall tuition payment. We can now use this money to pay for his housing rent, which will be paid when we drop him off tomorrow. Maybe this is typical, but I’m pleasantly surprised at the speed of this disbursement.</p>