Volume 3

Academic Calendars, Cost of Attendance, and Packaging


Introduction

This volume of the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Handbook discusses the academic calendar, payment period, and disbursement requirements for awarding aid under the Title IV student financial aid programs, determining a student’s cost of attendance, and packaging Title IV aid.

Throughout this volume of the Handbook, the words "we," "our," and "us" refer to the United States Department of Education (the Department). The word "you" refers to the primary audience of the Handbook, school financial aid administrators. In other volumes of the Handbook we use "institution," "school," and "college" interchangeably, unless a more specific meaning is provided. In this volume we consistently use the term "school." "Federal student aid,” "FSA funds," and “Title IV aid” are synonymous terms for the financial aid offered by the Department. “HEA” refers to the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended.

We appreciate any comments that you have on this volume as well as the other volumes of the FSA Handbook. We revise the text based on questions and feedback from the financial aid community, so please reach out to us about how to improve the Handbook through the “Contact Customer Support” feature in our Partner Connect’s Help Center clicking on “FSA Handbook” under the Topic section.

COVID-19 guidance and waivers

The Department of Education recognizes that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created many unique challenges for postsecondary institutions. The Department has provided a variety of special guidance and regulatory flexibilities due to the President’s declaration of the COVID-19 national emergency on March 13, 2020. In addition, Congress has passed legislation offering relief from certain statutory requirements related to the Title IV, HEA programs.

For COVID-19 related guidance, including waivers and exemptions of normally applicable Title IV rules, please see the following webpages:

Changes for 2023-2024

General changes throughout Volume 3

For 2023-2024, the title of Volume 3 has been changed from “Calculating Awards and Packaging” to “Academic Calendars, Cost of Attendance, and Packaging,” and the number of chapters has been reduced from seven to three. Volume 3 now consists of previous Chapter 1 (Academic Years, Academic Calendars, Payment Periods, and Disbursements), previous Chapter 2 (Cost of Attendance (Budget)), and previous Chapter 7 (Packaging Aid), with previous Chapter 7 redesignated as Chapter 3.

Previous chapters 3 (Calculating Pell and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant Awards), 4 (Calculating TEACH Grants), 5 (Direct Loan Periods and Amounts), and 6 (Awarding Campus-Based Aid) have been removed from Volume 3 and the content of those chapters has been placed in other volumes of the FSA Handbook. For more detail on the reorganization of the FSA Handbook for 2023-2024, see Electronic Announcement GENERAL-23-03.

For greater clarity, we have made minor edits to text throughout Volume 3, revised section headings, eliminated duplicative content, and reorganized content so that related topics are grouped together. We have also established a standard format for examples and numbered the examples sequentially within Volume 3, so that any example can be easily referenced by its number. In addition, we have simplified the examples by eliminating the use of fictitious school and student names.

We discuss substantive changes to the content of individual chapters below.

Chapter 1 changes

  • We have expanded the discussion of subscription-based academic calendars to clarify that (1) subscription-based programs with substantially equal nonstandard terms that are not at least nine weeks in length must use Borrower-Based Academic Year 3 to monitor Direct Loan annual loan limit progression, and (2) programs with nonstandard terms that are not substantially equal cannot be offered in a subscription-based calendar.

  • In the discussion under “Inclusion of clinical work in a standard term,” we have expanded the list of programs in medicine to include dentistry.

  • We have removed a number of sections from Chapter 1. Some sections have been removed because they repeat information that is already covered in other volumes of the FSA Handbook. In other cases, the deleted sections cover topics that are more appropriately placed in other FSA Handbook volumes. The table below shows the sections that have been removed from Volume 3, Chapter 1 and indicates where the content of these sections can be found in the 2023-2024 FSA Handbook.

Sections Removed from Volume 3, Chapter 1

Location for 2023-2024

Interim disbursements to students selected for verification

Application and Verification Guide

  • Retaking Coursework in Term Programs

  • Retaking coursework school policy and operations

  • Repeating after program completion

Volume 1

Clock-Hour to Credit Hour Conversion Formula

Volume 2

  • Prior year charges allowance

  • Basic rules for early disbursements

  • Exceptions to early disbursement rules

  • Retroactive disbursements for completed payment periods

  • Prohibition on delaying disbursement

  • Timing of FSA Grant and Loan Disbursements

  • Timing of grant disbursements within a payment period

  • Early disbursement and advance credit to account

Volume 4

Uneven disbursements of FSEOG Single-Term FSEOG Awards

Volume 6

  • Pell or TEACH Grant disbursements covered within a single term

  • Timely Pell Grant and Iraq and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant reporting

  • Timing of correspondence program disbursements for Pell Grants and TEACH Grants

Volume 7 and Volume 9

  • Direct Loan disbursements when the loan period is a single payment period

  • Exception to multiple Direct Loan disbursement requirement for study abroad programs

  • When a student fails to begin attendance or attends less than half time after receiving a Direct Loan disbursement

  • Direct Loan Disbursements for Completed Payment Periods

Volume 8

Chapter 2 changes

  • The discussion of cost of attendance components has been significantly revised to reflect changes made by the FAFSA Simplification Act.

  • The current section titled “COA for intersessions and modules” has been removed and the content of that section incorporated under “Periods of non-attendance.”

  • The current section titled “Costs for Periods Other Than Nine Months” has been retitled “Campus-Based, TEACH Grant, and Direct Loan programs: costs based on actual period of enrollment.”

  • The current section titled “Costs for periods other than nine months example” has been removed. The second paragraph of the current section has been incorporated in the retitled “Campus-Based, TEACH Grant, and Direct Loan programs: costs based on actual period of enrollment” section (see above), and the content of the third paragraph of the current section (which is specific to Pell Grants) will be included in new Volume 7.

  • The following sections have been removed from Volume 3, Chapter 2, and the information covered in these sections will be incorporated in new Volume 7:

    • Pell Grant cost of attendance for a consortium program

    • Pell Grant cost of attendance for a co-op program

    • Pell Grant Cost Example 1: Prorating total costs by lesser of two fractions

    • Pell Grant Cost Example 2: Prorating academic costs and living expenses separately

    • Pell Grant Cost Example 3: Prorating costs for a non-term program longer than an academic year

    • Pell Grant awards and COA with mixed enrollment status

    • Adjusting costs for Pell Grants

Chapter 3 (previously Chapter 7) changes

In the section titled “Considering grants and subsidized loans first,” we have clarified that schools must determine a dependent undergraduate student’s eligibility for Direct Subsidized Loan funds before originating a Direct Unsubsidized Loan, and have added a reminder that a parent borrower may not receive a Direct PLUS Loan for an amount that exceeds the student’s cost of attendance, minus other financial aid that the student receives. There are otherwise no substantive changes to the content of Chapter 3, but we have significantly reorganized the chapter so that sections covering related topics are grouped together.

Last Modified: 05/22/2023 • Published: 03/28/2021