<p>I'm trying to get a PLUS loan for the year and I'm wondering whether or not work study is subtracted from the cost of attendance with the loans and scholarships/grants. </p>
<p>For an example (if that wasn't clear), the COA is 17K. Work Study was $750, Scholarship was $3000, and federal loans were $3250. Do I subtract 6250 from 17000 (no work study) or 7000 from 17000 (including work study)?</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure the answer is contingent upon whether you accepted or declined the work study portion of the aid award.</p>
<p>You can only borrow up to the COA with the PLUS. By accepting (and therefore assuming) the work study money it is a factor in reducing the amount of aid versus COA.</p>
<p>Assuming the student accepted the work study, subtract that form the COA -- the maximum PLUS loan would be $10K in your example.</p>
<p>Do you really need to borrow the maximum? I find it has worked well for me to take a PLUS loan for about half the EFC and pay the other half from current income. I realize that all situations are different, but keep in mind that you pay a loan origination fee and far more in interest down the line, pluse those payments on the PLUS loans will cumulate over time. That is, for every $8K you borrow, you end up with $100 in monthly payments. </p>
<p>So I tried to look at the maximum I was comfortable with taking on in monthly payments and then I divided that figure by 4 to figure the maximum tolerance I had for borrowing for the first year. </p>
<p>The point is, even though I have taken PLUS loans, I never used them to finance 100% of my contribution. You should also keep in mind that part of the COA are estimated costs for incidental expenses, not out of pocket costs -- in my case I also saved parent-money by agreeing with my kids that they were responsible for all incidentals and out-of-pocket costs -so my parental contribution is only the balance owned for tuition and room costs. I'd help my kids out if they ran into trouble, but so far it hasn't been a problem -- the lack of money from home was always good motivation for them to earn extra along the way.</p>
<p>Thanks calmom,</p>
<p>Dad is out of a job again so we have no income - we need the loan. If there was a way around it, we wouldn't be doing it, but I don't want to take money out of my parent's retirement/savings to pay for my college. We did it the other way last year - half loan and half savings, but we want to do all loan this year. We figure that if we have money left over at the end that we can just use it to pay off the loan.</p>