One frequently heard word that you will hear during the financial aid process is Cost of Attendance or COA. This is the amount that the school says it will cost to attend that school for the school year. Each school comes up with their own COA and the federal government does not have anything to do with it.

The school might have different costs of attendance for students that live on campus and off campus and possibly full and part time. The school must put tuition, books, fee, and other mandatory items in the cost of attendance, but they can optionally put things like allowances for transportation, child care, and anything else that is deemed necessary. 

For example, your local community college might have a Cost of attendance set at $10,000 for the year, when it would really just cost $5,000 to attend that school for the year. The higher the COA, the better for the student as your financial aid award is based on the COA the school publishes, not the actual COA.