Students with federal financial aid may experience an adjustment in their aid package as a result of new funding (i.e. fellowship) which was not assessed in their initial semester aid package.

When the student incurs an additional educational expense (housing, books, tuition, research, travel, etc.) and receives a fellowship to cover the expense, the department can request that the Office of Financial Aid (OFA) review the student's budget and possibly increase their Cost of Attendance to offset any possible reduction in aid. There is no guarantee that the student's Cost of Attendance will be increased.

Please note: OFA will only consider a Cost of Attendance adjustment request when the student experiences additional educational expenses.

The Graduate School has created this COA template for departmental use to explain the nature of the request. Please be very detailed about the nature of the expenses. Please complete the template and send it to the Office of Financial Aid at ofagrad@msu.edu.

A Cost of Attendance adjustment template is only applicable to students who have loans. There is no need to submit the form if the student does not have loans. Departments are allowed, and encouraged, to ask recipients of fellowship funding if they receive federal or private loan funding.