Cost of attendance

Cost of attendance is the school’s official student budget for one academic year of the MBA: tuition and fees plus a living allowance (housing, food, books, transport, health insurance) and sometimes a travel line. Aid offices use it as the ceiling for Grad PLUS loans and as the starting point for need calculations.

It is not sticker tuition. It is also not opportunity cost. Those are separate columns.

How it is measured

Every US school that originates federal loans publishes a COA. Two-year programs list it per year; add year two, then subtract grants. Living allowances vary by city more than tuition marketing admits. A $80,000 tuition number in a city with $2,800 monthly rent is not the same product as $80,000 tuition in a city with $1,400 rent.

Scholarships reduce COA. They do not reduce opportunity cost. Employer tuition payments reduce COA if they land in the same year.

Example: tuition and fees $78,000, living allowance $32,000, health insurance $4,000, books $2,000. COA = $116,000 for year one. A $25,000 merit scholarship makes net COA $91,000. Two years at that net, ignoring a tuition increase, is $182,000 cash outlay before loans accrue interest. Add $200,000 of forgone pay and you are in MBA ROI territory, not in “the program costs $78,000” territory.

How it differs

Sticker tuition is one line inside COA. Net price is COA minus grants. Opportunity cost sits outside the aid office’s form. FT “value for money” mixes cost and later salary at the school level and will not match your lease.

Common errors

Comparing programs on tuition alone. Using last year’s COA after a 7% tuition increase. Treating a living allowance as optional because you plan to “live cheap” and then discovering the aid office will not let you borrow above COA for a nicer apartment.