Paging @Mwfan1921 and @kelsmom!
D attends a school that meets 100% of demonstrated need. Her first 2 years required the meal plan with unlimited swipes. Next year, she will live in an on campus apartment with a kitchen. There are different meal plans depending on how many swipes she wants per week, but her experience so far makes her think the answer is none. I know the school would have the absolute answer but we want to start thinking about what this means. Will we still pay our EFC to the school for housing and tuition and then also be paying for groceries on top of that? Or do they calculate using some kind of food âallowanceâ and reduce our payment by that amount so we have money for groceries?
Thanks in advance 
I just helped a family with this question - for their daughterâs meets full needs school - IF you move off campus (as housing is offered all 4 years) the cost of housing is subtracted from their financial need, as they are now considered a commuter. There is no $ offered and it is presumed housing is now free - ha!
*** Just realized you said ON CAMPUS appt - so donât think my answer is helpful - sorry 
They had financial need of $20,500 per school year and it would now be adjusted to a very small number once housing and full meal plan taken out by the school as a cost - final number still pending from school.
The studentâs aid would still be calculated using the a smaller meal plan, but not for outside meals. They were told by the financial aid office that this had been communicated to students on aid and yet it is still a common misunderstanding that the money will transfer to services off campus.
I am sure it is campus dependent and the financial aid office and website at your childâs school would be the best resource.
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I agree there can be varying policies, so best to check with the school.
For example, here is how NU handles things; they still do include room and board in total COA (and FA package) even if the student lives off campus. Then, when the student pays the direct expenses (tuition and fees) to the school, they can ask to be ârefundedâ the remaining FA to pay for rent and food.
Living off campus does not affect your financial aid eligibility. Financial aid is based on the standard cost of attendance at Northwestern, which includes the same estimated room and board costs for all students living either in University housing, Greek housing, or an off-campus apartment in Evanston or the immediately surrounding area.
When you are living off campus, Northwestern will invoice you for tuition and fees, but there will be no room and board charges on your student account, so the amount you pay to the University will be less than if you lived on campus. This does necessarily not mean that you will pay less overall: while you will pay less directly to Northwestern, you will have other non-University living expenses, such as rent, utilities, and groceries.
Your financial aid will continue to credit to your account each quarter. If the amount of aid you receive is greater than tuition and fees, you will have a credit balance, and you may request a refund at the beginning of each quarter to use toward your non-billed expenses.
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The specific college may have different assumed living expenses for different living situations, which it would then use to calculate need-based financial aid.
Actual cost of off-campus living can vary a lot, so some students may have off-campus living expenses substantially lower than the collegeâs estimate, while others may have off-campus living expenses substantially higher.
Ask the college directly if it is not clear on its financial aid web pages.
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Itâs school dependent, but all of them will take into account the cost of meals. The most generous among them likely assume their student will incur the same cost of their full meal plans. I know some colleges did just that during the pandemic when students stayed home attending classes remotely (they even assumed students would still have to pay for their rooms at the same rate as the dorms on campus, so the students could, theoretically, live away from home).
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Itâs true that every school sets its own policies. Typically, there are COAs for on campus, off campus and living at home with parents; the on & off campus budgets are sometimes the same. Since your childâs apartment is on campus, I am assuming the COA for that situation is on campus - they arenât going to have different on campus budgets for different living situations. Itâs all one COA for on campus housing.
My D was at a school that meets need. She received aid that exceeded tuition, and she got a refund that we used to pay for her off campus living expenses.
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My daughterâs school didnât include any amounts paid to others (landlord, grocery stores) in the FA it gave. It knew those costs existed, but would not write the student a check to pay others.
Daughter had scholarships that would have paid for everything if she lived in the dorms all 4 years. When she chose to move off campus, that was great with the school but they wouldnât pay for it. She did still have the meal plan because it was included in her athletic scholarship (she did have to pay taxes on it) so she could use it for swipes in the cafeteria or use it at the deli/sub shop/pizza place on campus. Also, there was a grocery store on campus and she could buy things there (even tp, cleaning stuff, paper products). Also, her rental was very close to campus (her backyard shared a fence with the freshmen dorms), so going to the cafeteria and the other eating places on campus was no farther than when she lived in the dorm. She also used a lot of the swipes for her boyfriend (that was allowed) or other friends.
The school would not pay her rent, utilities, or for her health insurance. She could use student loans for that if needed.
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I suspect that this school offered institutional grants or scholarships for dorm living, but it didnât offer them for off campus living (and perhaps this was specific for athletes). If they allowed students to borrow to cover off campus costs, then the costs were included in the financial aid package (that is, they are included in the COA). They just werenât covered by targeted institutional aid. My S had a scholarship that was specifically for dorm costs, and he would have lost that if he lived off campus - but he would have had a COA that covered living expenses. He could have borrowed to cover those costs.
That all makes sense, also highlights a potential difference between schools that donât meet full need and those that do (although some meet full need schools do still package loans).
Thank for all of your replies. I have sent an email to the schoolâs FA office and will let you know the outcome. I was just trying to brace myself 
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Not true. Different housing options have different costs. Very often the cost for apartments is different than that for others types of housing on campus.
Whether the school includes the food part is school dependent. Most schools, in my experience, have board (food) as a separate line item and you choose. If you choose no meal plan, your cost to the college would be $0.
However, the college probably had a COA for this situation as food would be required, right? SoâŠas notedâŠcontact this college to see how they handle this.
Outside of who bears the cost - my daughter moved into an (on-campus) suite with kitchen in Sophomore year, and subsequently into off-campus apartments (to have a more predictable Covid-rules situation). However, she always found it super helpful to have a reduced meal-plan so that should grab a quick bite between classes, or while heading to the library. Other times, she realized she was working late on something and didnât want to interrupt to go home and cook. Or, she rolled out of bed late and grabbing a quick bagel and coffee on the way to class reduced the morning stress.
She cooked/pre-cooked most of the time, and overall spent less than with the full meal plan, even including shopping and eating out at restaurants with friends occasionally - but having the option of a daily swipe was very desirable.
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The college may charge different amounts for different rooms/living situations. But the COA used to package aid is almost certainly a single COA for on campus. When I refer to COA in this situation, itâs not the actual cost to the student - itâs the COA used when packaging financial aid. I suppose some schools may have multiple on campus COAs based on each possible living situation, but I am not aware of any (if they exist, they are few & far between due to the complexity inherent in doing so).
Example:
For âResidentâ students, the Room & Board figure is the total of the housing cost (single or multiple occupancy, but NOT a âStudent Apartmentâ), plus the âPlatinumâ (= full) meal plan. For âCommuterâ students (off campus living), the amount is essentially a meal plan covering two meals per business day.
âCalculating the Cost of Attendance & Grant Aid - The Financial Aid Budgetâ
Studentsâ financial aid packages are based on total educational costs incurred during the academic year. The Financial Aid Office will use the following budgets for students in 2021-2022 to determine the eligibility of each applicant. These budgets are called the cost of attendance.
|
Resident |
Commuter |
| Tuition and Fees |
$60,087 |
$60,087 |
| Room and Board |
$18,486 |
$1,800 |
| Books/Supplies |
$1,150 |
$1,150 |
| Miscellaneous |
$1,370 |
$1,370 |
| Total Basic Budget |
$81,093 |
$64,407 |
| Barnard also gives each student an allowance toward travel to and from the College. For resident students who live outside of New York City, we determine an allowance individually. For commuting students who require one fare each way for subway/bus, we allow $900. For those who commute by train or by bus other than New York City subway/bus, we allow an amount to equal eight monthly commutation tickets plus one round-trip subway fare each day. |
|
|
Here is the reply copied from their email:
âThank you for your email. When the Financial Aid Office calculates financial aid awards, we know that students need food and housing during the academic year, so we allow for those costs regardless of where students choose to live. In other words, a studentâs financial aid (and student loans, if the student borrows) can go towards on or off-campus housing and groceries.
When Student Accounts assesses a studentâs billable charges, if the student lives off-campus and doesnât have an on-campus meal plan, they wonât have any charges from XXXXX on their bill for housing or food. If a studentâs total financial aid exceeds their total charges, they will be entitled to a refund that can be used to pay for their groceries and/or off-campus rent. If the total aid doesnât exceed their charges, they would be making payments to a landlord for their rent, if living off-campus; along with paying for their groceries out-of-pocket, rather than making those payments to XXXXX for housing and meals.â
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The school just had a policy that none of its grants/scholarship/FA could âleaveâ the campus. Thatâs why insurance was never covered because it was paid to an outside insurer. Bright Futures even allows the school to decide how to use BF money, and this school decided it could only be used for tuition. The resident grant could also only be used for tuition (thatâs by the state law that set up the resident grant). There were 5 items on her bill - tuition, 2 student fees, the meal plan, and insurance - and I kid you not, there were dozens of postings on the bill as to which grant or scholarship was used to pay for those 5 things. And then there was this game they played with posting, backing it off, reposting the same amount from the same grant. Rinse and repeat. I never understood that at all.
One year there was a FA officer that really did the best for my daughter and applied everything in the order that was most beneficial to daughter - BF and Resident grant first for tuition (and believe me, there was a lot more tuition that needed to be paid!), then used the school scholarships, the athletic grants for fees and mealsâŠand that year she got the most refunded to her from a Pell grant and SEOG and another FL grant. The next year there was a new FA person who applied the SEOG first, so daughter didnât get as much of the grants to take home (and pay for rent). I argued but the FA person said no, âthatâs how is always is.â Maybe, but thatâs NOT how it was the year before.
The school wouldnât have given her the money for the meal plan to eat off campus. We even offered to take a less inclusive and less expensive plan ($600 rather than $1800!) but no, her meal plan grant was for $1800 and thatâs the plan she had to take. Oh well, she spent $1800 on her friends, cleaning supplies, groceries, take out mealsâŠ
This seems to be how Penn does it (see table below from their web site). They have three categories of COA used for calculating EFC. They definitely consider off-campus housing and dining as part of the COA, but this sounds like itâs highly school-specific.
|
Living On Campus |
Living Off Campus |
Living With Family |
| Tuition |
$54,652* |
$54,652* |
$54,652* |
| Fees |
$7,058* |
$7,058* |
$7,058* |
| Housing |
$11,358* |
$9,632 |
$0 |
| Dining |
$5,946* |
$4,870 |
$1,948 |
| Books and Supplies |
$1,358 |
$1,358 |
$1,358 |
| Transportation |
$922 |
$984 |
$1,566 |
| Personal Expenses |
$2,004 |
$2,004 |
$2,004 |
| Total Budget |
$83,298 |
$80,558 |
$68,586 |
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This is typical - one for on campus, one for off campus and one for living with parents. Off campus housing and food allowances are typically part of COA, but they vary based on living situation.
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This parent said their kid was living in an ON campus apartment. Not off campus.
â Next year, she will live in an on campus apartment with a kitchenâ