COA, EFC, and Financial Need
Student Financial Planning automatically calculates the student Cost of Attendance (COA) and uses with the student's Expected Family Contribution (EFC) to determine the student's financial need.
What Student Financial Planning Does Automatically
SFP automatically does the following things:
Determines which COA Configuration to Use
The application correctly determines which institutionally-configured Cost of Attendance (COA) to use to award a student based on the student’s attributes.
If the student is in a Non-Term program, the application uses the COA configuration according to the award year associated with the loan period. If the student is in a Term program, the application uses the COA configuration that matches the student's program Type, program ID, Term Number, and Modality.
Calculates the Total COA
The application calculates a student's Total COA using the defined configuration and the academic year length. The Total COA is then used for Federal Student Aid (FSA) eligibility and awarding purposes. The application creates a sum of all configured and non-configured COA components to determine the Total COA for each academic year. The application uses standard rounding rules when the calculated Total COA isn't a whole number.
Standard Rounding Rules: Round up if the decimal is .50 or higher; round down if it is less than .50.
The application calculates and displays the Total COA for each academic year in the student's program.
Term Program: The application calculates the Total COA for each academic year in the student's Term program. The application calculates the Total COA for each Term that the student attends separately and sums the COAs for all of the terms in the academic year to determine the Total COA. The application must use the Military Costs and Budget Costs when calculating the student's budget and provide a breakdown of the COA per term for the academic year. A Summer Term COA is added to any Academic Year in which the summer term is associated.
Non-Term Program: The application calculates the Total COA for the full Academic Year.
Total COA Equation: Sum of all COA Components equals Total COA Attendance.
COA Component Equation: Sum of all COA Items equals COA Component.
- Budget Costs - With Parent.
- Budget Costs - Off Campus.
- Budget Costs - On Campus.
Calculates Direct Costs
The application calculates a student's direct costs based on received invoiced charges to determine if there is a shortfall in the student's package. The application completes a summation of Actual and Projected student, program and course level charges per academic year. The application only uses Actual charges in order to calculate the Student's Direct Cost.
Actual: An invoiced charge.
Projected: A non-invoiced, projected charge.
Calculates Actual COA
The application calculates and displays the student's Actual COA based on all Actual charges and uses the standard rounding rules. The application applies the Actual COA on an academic year basis.
The application calculates and displays the Actual COA as an alternative to the Total COA value
Term Program: The application calculates the Actual COA for each academic year in the student's Term program. The application creates a sum of all configured and non-configured COA components to determine Total COA for the academic year. The application must use the Military Costs and Budget Costs when calculating the student's budget and provide a breakdown of the COA per term for the entire academic year.
Non-Term Program: For non-term programs, the application calculates the Actual COA for the full Academic Year.
Actual COA Equation: Direct Costs plus the Budget Costs equal the Actual COA.
Budget Costs are :
- Budget Costs - Off Campus.
- Budget Costs - With Parents.
- Budget Costs - On Campus.
- Military Costs, if Basic Allowance for Housing is indicated.
- Loan Fees; if configured to add Actual Loan Fees.
The application uses Budget Costs unless you configure one of these enhanced components. The application determines which to use based on the FasStudentInitiationEvent message:
- Budget Costs - With Parent.
- Budget Costs - Off Campus.
- Budget Costs - On Campus.
Calculates Pell COA for Non-Term programs
The application calculates a prorated Total COA for students that are enrolled in programs either greater than or less than the US Department of Education’s (ED) standard academic year definition of 24 credits or 30 weeks. The application prorates the Total COA up when a student is attending less than an academic year or prorates down for students who are attending for periods greater than an academic year.
Prorated COA Equation for Non-Term Programs
Prorated COA: Lesser Value of Equation 1 or 2 times the Total COA equals the Prorated COA.
The application uses standard rounding rules when the calculation does not result in a whole number.
Equation 1
Credit Hours in Academic Year Definition divided by Credit Hours Awarded.
Equation 2
Weeks in Academic Year Definition divided by Weeks Provided.
Calculates COA for Students with Less Than Half-Time Enrollment
The application calculates the COA (Total or Actual) for a student with an enrollment status of Less than Half-Time based on the Less than Half-Time COA configuration. This excludes COA items not permitted for students enrolled Less than Half-Time. The application treats the Total or Actual COA for a student with Less than Half-time enrollment status as it would treat any other Total or Actual COA for a student.
Calculating the Pell Term COA
The application calculates the Pell Term COA on a per Term basis using the Pell award year determined for that term. The application calculates the Pell Term COA using the enrollment status determined in the term. For example, if the students' enrollment status was less-than-half-time for the term, the application will use less than half-time configured budget items to calculate the COA.
The Pell Term COA calculation uses costs for a full academic year (9 months), and the application calculates the Full-Time Full-Year COA using Actual COA components.
Calculates Campus-Based COA
When a student withdraws, the application calculates the Campus-Based COA so that campus-based funds can be re-calculated correctly using only costs associated with courses or time that the student attended the payment period. The application calculates the Campus-Based COA for a student when Campus-Based re-calculation criteria are Met and uses the student's Cost of Attendance for the withdrawn payment period or term. The application calculates the number of attended months in the withdrawn payment period or term and completes the Campus-Based COA calculation before the R2T4 calculation occurs for a Withdrawn student.
Campus-Based COA Component Equations
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To calculate Tuition costs, the application sums the net charges for courses in which the student had been invoiced up to the point of withdrawal.
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- For the final courses, the application adds back any MEM-DROP adjustments made for those courses.
- For all courses included in the tuition cost calculation, the application adds back any SIS other resource adjustments associated with those courses.
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To calculate Budget costs, the application sums all configured budget components by the number of attended months within the payment period.
- The application will add Loan Fees charged to the student for the Academic Year in which the withdrawal occurred.
The application uses standard rounding rules when the calculation does not result in a whole number.
Updates the COA
The application updates the student’s COA (Total/Actual) when repackaging a student or Loan Fees have been added. To update the COA, the application calculates the correct values for each applicable fee component; for example, Total Subsidized/Unsubsidized Loan Fee, Total PLUS Loan Fee, and so on.
Obtains the Official EFC
The application uses the Primary EFC field from the active ISIR to package the student. If there isn't an ISIR for the current award year, the application uses the Primary EFC from a previous ISIR to estimate a package for the student. If a Valid ISIR does not exist, the application does not return a value for the EFC.
If applicable, the application captures the Primary Alternate Month EFC from the official ISIR.
Displays the EFC Used in Calculations
The primary EFC is displayed in the UI; Student Summary, ISIR and in the FSA Data Information section of the packaging page.
The Primary EFC is displayed unless the Primary Alternate Month EFC Amount is used to determine the fund amount within the student's package for the academic year.
Determines which EFC to Use
During the packaging process, the application uses the EFC from the Valid ISIR. The nine-month EFC is used when awarding Pell and Teach grants. The primary or adjusted EFC based on a shortened Academic Year, if applicable, is used to award Title IV Loans, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant (IASG).
Determines the Student's Financial Need
The application calculates the student's financial need using the student's COA, EFC, and any higher priority funds in accordance with ED guidelines so that the appropriate fund types and amounts are used to package the student's need-based Federal Student Aid.
Financial Need Calculation
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If higher priority funds are Projected or Awarded, then COA mnus EFC minus the Sum of all higher priority funds equals Financial Need.
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If higher priority funds aren't Projected or Awarded,
COA - EFC = Financial Needthen COA mnus EFC equals Financial Need.
Configurable Attributes
Configure Full Time, Full Year Student
The institution can configure what it takes to be a Full Time, Full Year Student, per program type as a minimum.
Configure COA Items
An institution can configure categories and components to make up the COA. The application accurately calculates the student’s COA and determine the Federal Student Aid (FSA) award amounts.
The COA is defined for groups of students that share common attributes, such as program and Location. The total amount is an average for a period of enrolment. The application use the COA applicable to a defined group of students, such as students enrolled in a particular program and/or taking classes at a specific location.
The institution can define rules for when each applicable COA item and amount would apply to the student; for example, students enrolled in an online graduate program will have a Tuition rate of $500 per credit.
The institution can define components for each COA item. These are configured components such as tuition and fees, Loan Fees, Budget Costs, and Military Costs. Within each component, the institution can configure applicable COA items; for example, Room and Board under the Budget Costs component, and a formula that the application uses to determine the amounts. Configurations are per institution, per award year.
Configure COA Applicability, Components, and Items
The institution can configure the COA
Term Program
- per school
- per effective date
Non-Term Program
- per school
- per award year
- per effective date
The institution can configure the COA for a set group of students composed of COA Components and their corresponding COA Items.
Example Program Type: Bachelors, Modality: Ground.
Cost of Attendance Components
| Component | Description |
| 1 | Tuition and Fees |
| 2 | Loan Fees |
| 3 | Budget Costs |
| 4 | Budget Costs - With Parent |
| 5 | Budget Costs - Off Campus |
| 6 | Budget Costs - On Campus |
| 7 | Military Costs |
The institution can also configure the COA for students enrolled Less than Half-Time.
Required Role Permissions
The user must have a role with this General Permission through Roles Management to view COA information:
- Student
See Set General Permissions Matrix for additional information.