An important component of calculating a student’s award package is the Cost of Attendance. The Cost of Attendance is the estimate of the total amount it should cost to come to Virginia Tech for one academic year. It is the student’s budget for the academic year, based off of actual costs of tuition, fees, and estimates for room, board, books, personal, and travel expenses. Estimates are determined by using survey information gathered from a random sample of students, which is updated every two years. The Cost of Attendance, itself, is updated yearly to reflect the current year’s tuition and fees.
We use the Cost of Attendance as a very close estimate to the total amount of expense to come to Virginia Tech. It is NOT the amount of money a student owes the University.
Our office takes an individual student’s Expected Family Contribution and subtracts it from the Cost of Attendance in order to calculate Financial Need. The Financial Need is what we build a student’s Award Package around.
Virginia Tech establishes an estimated cost of attendance (COA) each academic year. The COA is based on survey information collected from a random sample of our student population. Individual costs may vary. The COA is based, in part, on the following cost factors:
Students who feel the estimated cost of attendance does not reflect their actual expenses for the academic year may submit a Financial Aid Cost of Attendance Appeal to our office for consideration of the higher expenses.
Prior to submitting an appeal, please review the COA figures available in the financial aid award notification (on the Hokie SPA) to determine if an appeal is necessary.
Deadlines:
Please allow two weeks for processing (four weeks during peak processing periods of June - August). It is important to remember that approval of an appeal does not guarantee receipt of additional aid.