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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The loans are financial aid, but not part of the Cost of Attendance because you don't cough up the money until after attendance is done. [/quote]
When I read this (re-) interpretation of COA to exclude financed costs (which I assume is not a slight of hand on the part of the helpful poster, but probably the official way of speech) it's difficult to not get annoyed. Usually, tricky and misleading interpretations of commonly understood terms like cost are the hallmark of a sleazy business.

On the flipside, do subsidized loans have prepayment penalties?  If not, there doesn't seem to be any reason to not take them. You can always invest the money until interest becomes due. If you've saved, that is.[/quote]

This is the poster's way of talking.  Cost of attendance includes pretty much every thing students need: tuition, fees, room&board, books and supplies, transportation, and misc living expenses.  There's a standardized formula for how these are figured.  Some expenses are billed by the college, some are the discretion of students and thus are averages.  This cost of attendance is helpful for families to figure out what college really costs, to establish what loans can be used for etc.  Loans do not reduce what colleges list as the cost of attendance, but they reduce the cash you have to come up with in the moment of attendance.

Yes, subsidized loans are a great deal with no prepayment penalty.  They have a slight origination cost (and there's a push to get rid of this actually) and there are limits on how much you are awarded --$3500 first year undergraduate, goes up slightly each year, and you have to financially qualify.  There's no reason not to take these and bank it for future potential expenses and pay back before the 6 month grace period post graduation before you pay any interest at all.   [/quote]

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