About Financial Aid Cost of Attendance Templates
Cost of attendance (COA) defines a student's expected expenses associated with attending an institution. Federal financial aid uses cost of attendance in conjunction with information about the student to determine a student's eligibility for federal aid.
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About financial aid cost of attendance templates
To award students financial aid, your institution must develop a cost of attendance (budget) in line with regulations from the U.S. Department of Education outlined in the Federal Student Aid Handbook. A student’s cost of attendance (COA) goes beyond your institution’s tuition and fees and could include books, transportation, housing and child care. Depending on your institution, you may have one cost of attendance for all students or, more likely, different costs of attendance depending on a student’s enrollment load, whether they live on campus, tuition rates or other factors.
Campus Cafe uses a student’s cost of attendance when determining a student’s eligibility for federal financial aid. As such, you must set cost of attendance templates up prior to awarding federal aid.
Prerequisites
For students to receive a cost of attendance, they must have a degree/program row
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Without a row, Campus Cafe won’t ever generate a cost of attendance
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regardless of any configuration.
For all semesters part of the federal aid year, you must set a full-time (FT) credit threshold and half-time (HT) credit threshold when configuring semesters.
Campus Cafe provides updated Pell and subsidized and unsubsidized (Stafford) loan schedules. We notify customers when the new year’s schedules are available for use.
Required permissions
Module | Number | Description |
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System Admin | 113 | Create custom rule names |
System Admin | 293 | Configure cost of attendance |
Student Financials | 1144 | Create cost of attendance template |
Video tutorial
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Prerequisites & Methodology
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The number of credits defining student half time and full-time enrollment must be established on the semester dates maintenance for all semesters that are part of the award year (Admin > Semester Dates Maintenance)
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Methodology
Campus Cafe determines eligibility for federal awards based on federal rules, the student’s Student Aid Index (SAI) and your institution’s cost of attendance.
Student references
Campus Cafe looks to student data in its calculations.
The Part Time Code on the student's degree detail screen will use this code to determine determines eligibility for aid and for selecting the corresponding Pell schedule.
If the cost of attendance is tied to major, the system Campus Cafe refers to Major 1 (and only Major 1) on the student's current degree rowCampus Cafe supplies updated Pell and Subsidized and Unsubsidized (Stafford) loan schedules.
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Federal award calculations
Pell Grants are packaged by based on the student's EFC.Student Aid Index (SAI)
Subsidized Loans are packaged based on remaining Need.need
Unsubsidized Loans are based on overall remaining Cost cost of Attendance attendance and are not dependent don’t depend on the remaining need constraint of the Subsidized subsidized loans.Calculations:
Campus Cafe calculations
Total
NEEDNeed = Total COA minus
EFCStudent Aid Index (SAI)
Remaining
NEEDNeed = Total COA minus
EFCSAI minus Pell minus
SubSubsidized Loans
Remaining COA =
TotalTotal COA minus Pell minus
Sub
Configuration
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Subsidized Loans
Custom named rules
When you establish a cost of attendance, you can tell Campus Cafe which elements of a student’s record to consider. If set to consider it, Campus Cafe considers a student’s major, degree start date, ISIR grade level, part-time code and/or degree site when calculating their cost of attendance.
If you need to consider a different factor, you can create custom named rules and then attach them to a cost of attendance. For example, all your nursing students are in the “nursing” major. However, you want a different cost of attendance for those participating in your online nursing program vs your on-campus program. To accommodate this, you create a custom named rule for the online cohort.
If enabled, the rule must be applied on the student's packaging page and works in conjunction with any other enabled rules. You must also set custom control FA_COA_KEY (Menu>Admin>Custom Control Maintenance).
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ProgramId
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Sequence Number
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Parameter Number
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Description
, Sequence 6 to N (see configure cost of attendance rules).
You can choose to use only custom named rules without any other rules.
Create named rule
Go to Admin > STParm.
In Parameter Code enter FCPKCR.
In Parameter Value enter a short description for the rule. For example, Online Nursing.
Click Add.
In Description and Long Description enter text to describe the rule.
Click Save.
Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.
Configure cost of attendance rules
Before setting up your first cost of attendance template, you need to tell Campus Cafe what traits about a student to consider. For example, you may tell Campus Cafe that a student’s cost of attendance varies by site because you have multiple campuses and the cost to attend each differs. Or you may charge different tuition for different majors so you tell Campus Cafe to consider a student’s major when calculating cost of attendance.
Go to Admin > Custom Control.
In Search enter FA_COA_KEY
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.
Click the pencil.
Adjust each Parameter Value to align with your institution’s business practices. Refer to below chart.
Click Save.
Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.
Student Trait | Sequence Number | Parameter Number | Description |
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Major | 1 | 1 | Commonly used: Set to N to indicate that the cost of attendance means the COA is dependent on a student's major. |
FA_COA_KEY | 1 | 2 | Set to N to indicate that the cost of attendance means the COA within an award year can vary depending on the student's degree start date. |
FA_COA_KEY | 1 | 3 | Set to N to indicate that the cost of attendance is dependent means the COA depends on the student's grade level as indicated on the student's ISIR. |
Part-time code | 1 | 4 | Most Commonly Very commonly used: Set to N to indicate the cost of attendance means the COA depends on enrollment load (full time, three-quarter time, half time or less than half time) as indicated on the student's current degree detail screen. |
FA_COA_KEY | 1 | 5 | Commonly Used:used Set to N to indicate that the cost of attendance varies by student N means the COA depends on the student’s degree site. |
FA_COA_KEY | 1 | 6 | Set to N to indicate that the cost of attendance means the COA varies by a Custom Named COA Rule. |
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Important To apply configuration changes, refresh the cache by navigating to Admin > Refresh Data Cache |
Create Custom Named COA Rule for FA_COA_Key Parameter 6
In addition to Cost of Attendance rules based on the parameters listed above, institutions can establish a custom named COA rule for specific cohorts or types of students. If enabled, the rule itself must be applied on the student's packaging page and works in conjunction with any other rules that are enabled.
Institutions can also have the Custom Named rule enabled without any of the other configurations enabled if applicable.
Navigate to Admin > STParm Maintenance
In the Parameter Code box enter "FCPKCR"
In the Parameter Value box type a short description (code) for the rule
Click Add; a new screen appears
In the Description box enter text that identifies the rule
In the Long Description box enter more detailed text that describes the rule
Click Save
Refresh the cache by navigating to Admin > Refresh Data Cache > reload data; then log back in.
Set Cost of Attendance
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Establish cost of attendance
Once you’ve told Campus Cafe which student traits to consider when assigning a cost of attendance, you must define the expenses comprising the cost of attendance. You must create a cost of attendance for each discrete cost of attendance. For example, if your COA is different for nursing majors and journalism majors, you’ll need to create two COAs - one for nursing and one for journalism.
Because costs can change from year to year - for example, you increase tuition - you must create a cost of attendance for each federal aid year you plan to award aid.
As an alternative to creating a cost of attendance for a year, you can copy it from a previous year and then make any necessary adjustments.
Go to Financials > F/A Cost of Attendance.
Click New Code
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In Award Year
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select the federal financial aid award year.
Choose which students the COA applies to. You’ll only see student traits such as major or start date if you told Campus Cafe they applied to your institution.
Major Code:
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Select the major the COA applies to. Leave blank to apply this COA to any major without a specified cost of attendance.
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For students with multiple majors,
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Major 1
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on the student’s currently active degree detail page
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determines the COA.
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Start Date: If the cost of attendance changes within the award year, enter the date the cost of attendance is effective. The cost of attendance will apply to students with a degree start date equal to or later than this date provided the date falls within the award year.
End Date: If the cost of attendance changes within the award year, enter the date the cost of attendance is no longer effective.
Grade Level:
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Select the grade level corresponding to the grade level
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on the student's ISIR.
Part Time Code:
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Select the enrollment load (full time, three-quarter time, half time or less than half time) for which the
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COA applies; this is associated with the PT-Code on the student's degree detail screen.
Student Site:
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Select the the student site for which the
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COA applies on the student's degree detail screen.
Named COA Rule:
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Select the custom named rule. Students with this custom named rule assigned during packaging receive this COA.
Enter the cost of each expense comprising the cost of attendance. Your institution defines the cost of each item. The Federal Student Aid Handbook offers guidance on what to include in each allowance.
Tuition In State:
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Your institution’s tuition for state residents. If you don’t differentiate between in-state and out-of-state tuition, enter your tuition here and in tuition out state.
Tuition Out State:
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Your institution’s tuition for non-state residents. If you don’t differentiate between in-state and out-of-state tuition, enter your tuition here and in tuition in state.
Housing On Campus: The
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cost of living in institutional housing.
Housing Off Campus: The
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cost of living in private housing.
Housing With Parents: The
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cost of a student incurs living with parents.
Transportation On Campus: The
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cost of transportation for transportation between school, residence, and place of work for students living in institutional housing.
Transportation Off Campus: The
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cost of transportation for transportation between school, residence, and place of work for students living in private housing.
Transportation With Parents: The
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cost of transportation for transportation between school, residence, and place of work for students living with parents.
Misc On Campus:
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This allowance for students living on campus may be included in the COA only for students who are enrolled on at least a half-time basis. Miscellaneous personal expenses may include costs incurred by a student for a prior learning assessment (for example, an exam or a portfolio evaluation)
Misc Off Campus:
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This allowance for students living in private housing may be included in the COA only for students who are enrolled on at least a half-time basis. Miscellaneous personal expenses may include costs incurred by a student for a prior learning assessment (for example, an exam or a portfolio evaluation)
Misc With Parents:
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This allowance for students living with parents may be included in the COA only for students who are enrolled on at least a half-time basis. Miscellaneous personal expenses may include costs incurred by a student for a prior learning assessment (for example, an exam or a portfolio evaluation)
Books Equipment: The cost of books, materials and equipment the student needs during the study period.
Fees: The dollar amount for this expense as defined by the institution
Fees Out State: The dollar amount for this expense as defined by the institution
Estimated Loan Fees:
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Fees incurred by a student for taking federal loans.
Click Create
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Repeat steps 2-3 for each discrete cost of attendance
Copy COA Setup to New Year
To copy your COA setup to a new year
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Click "Copy Mode"
Select the current "Award Year"
Select new "Award Year"
Click Copy.
Copy cost of attendance from another year
Because costs can change from year to year - for example, you increase tuition - you must create a cost of attendance for each federal aid year you plan to award aid. To save you time, Campus Cafe lets you copy costs of attendance from one year to another.
Go to Financials > F/A Cost of Attendance.
Click Copy Mode.
In Copy From Award Year select the year with the costs of attendance you wish to duplicate.
In Copy To Award Year select the year the costs of attendance will be created.
Click Copy.