Can you add the cost of college books to a student loan?

Paying for College
1

<p>Can you add the cost of college books to a student loan?</p>

2

<p>No. You can’t add them because books are already included in the COA on which your loans and any other financial aid are based. Same as
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3

<p>I get asked this type of question on a daily basis. Aid is awarded based on a budget called the Cost of Attendance. You MAY be awarded aid up to the COA, but that doesn’t mean you WILL be. If your books, for whatever reason, cost more than the average cost included in the COA, you can always submit a request to have your budget increased to include the true cost of the books. But as we tell our students … we can approve you for a million dollar budget increase, but if you have received all the aid available to you, it doesn’t mean a thing.</p>

<p>If your COA is $12,000 and you want to increase your budget by $1000 you might be approved for a COA of $13,000. But if you are a dependent undergraduate freshman, you might only be eligible for Stafford loans … and those only total $5500 (of which only 3500 may be sub) for the year. So the budget increase only allows you to borrow more Parent PLUS or private loan. Even if you get significant need based aid, you probably won’t see any difference if your COA is increased … let’s say you get Pell=5350, SEOG=500, institutional grant=1250, sub loan=3500, unsub loan=1400. You would get to increase your unsub loan by the final $600 unsub eligibility, and the rest would have to be a private loan. You’re not going to get more grants. If you have an EFC that low, keeping the unsub loans & private loans to a minimum is a really good idea.</p>