Cost of Attendance
This COA category includes a reasonable allowance for travel to school, work, or home, other course-related travel, and vehicle operating costs
What is Transportation?
This federal process determines how much Title IV aid a student earned when they withdraw from school.
What is R2T4?
This required process determines whether a student is making sufficient progress toward completing their degree or certificate.
What is Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)?
This process involves distributing limited financial aid resources to eligible students while staying compliant with federal rules and meeting the school’s goals.
What is awarding and packaging?
FSA defines this as a situation where a student’s aid package exceeds either their financial need or their total Cost of Attendance.
What is an over award?
This COA category includes the fees charged for processing federal student loans and is added to a student’s budget.
What are loan fees?
These activities—like submitting an assignment, taking an exam, or participating in a webinar—are used to determine the student’s last date of attendance.
What is academic engagement?
These two components—one measuring GPA and one measuring pace—must both be included in every school’s SAP policy.
What are the qualitative and quantitative standards?
According to federal rules, these funds must remain reasonably available to all eligible students throughout the aid year.
What are campus-based funds?
According to federal guidance, this federal grant is “never adjusted” when resolving over awards.
What is the Pell Grant?
In the student budget process, costs are grouped into these two broad types, one controlled by the school and one not.
What is Institutional and Noninstitutional?
R2T4 is only required when a Title IV-eligible student does this from all their courses.
What is fully withdraw?
Under SAP rules, this measurement requires students to successfully complete at least 67% of their attempted credit hours.
What is the quantitative (pace) standard?
These policies help ensure consistent packaging, notification, and handling of over awards and appeals.
What are financial aid policies and procedures?
Federal Work-Study earnings, scholarships, tuition waivers, and private grants all count as this category when determining over awards.
What is Other Financial Assistance (OFA)?
This standard COA component can never be included for students enrolled less than half-time.
What are Miscellaneous or Personal expenses?
If a student stops attending a modular program but successfully completes enough coursework to graduate, this calculation is not required.
What is an R2T4 calculation?
This part of SAP limits students to 150% of their program length in attempted hours.
What is the Maximum Time Frame?
In the proper order of awarding, this type of aid must always be awarded first before other forms of need-based aid.
What is the Federal Pell Grant (and SEOG)?
This type of over award occurs when need-based aid exceeds the student’s calculated financial need.
What is a need-based over award?
These are triggered when a student’s enrollment status changes or when they do not begin attendance in all the courses they were scheduled to take.
What are required COA recalculations?
This type of disbursement may occur if the student earned more Title IV aid than was actually disbursed before they withdrew.
What is a Post-Withdrawal Disbursement?
Students who fail SAP may go through this process—though schools aren’t required to offer it—to regain eligibility for Title IV aid.
What is a SAP petition (appeal)?
This formula is used in financial aid to determine how much need-based aid a student qualifies for.
What is COA – SAI = Financial Need?
This type of over award occurs when a student’s total aid from all sources is greater than their total Cost of Attendance—calculated using the formula COA minus OFA.
What is a Total Cost of Attendance Over Award?