That's what I thought, too. That you'd be able to borrow up to the general cost of attendance. But the way my letter is worded, they subtracted the expected contribution from their estimated CoA and said that's my limit for "financial aid eligibility." They then split up that eligibility total between Direct loans and "alternative loan program," which would be the PLUS loans. The totals still only add up to what they consider my eligibility. I haven't had a chance to read the big, long document they have online and will be contacting financial aid directly for clarification, but based on what the letter says, I'm only eligible for (CoA - EFC) in federal loans. It doesn't seem right, though, and I'm wondering if that's just their estimate of what I'll need. The way everything is phrased in the letter would suggest otherwise. I guess what shocked me the most was how high the EFC is. On the extensive application, I indicated that we're maintaining separate residences and that my piddling $16k in income from this year won't be there since I won't be working full-time, among all the other details, and yet the EFC is still half my husband's salary. It just doesn't make sense.
