Is it possible to get student loans for more than cost of attendance?

I am going to attend a community college and I called the financial aide office to see what the "total cost of attendance" is and she said it is only about $12.000 per year for someone going full time because they do not offer room and board. that would only leave less than $7000 after tuition and books. Is it true that student loans are limited to this amount?

If I am able to get scholorships will this be included in that amount or would I still be able to borrow the $12000 (minus pell grant) and have scholorship money on top of that?

I wanted to get loans to cover most of my income (15,000) so I could concentrate on nursing school without neglecting my young children.

Also, the lady at the financial aid office seemed confused when I asked her what the "total cost of attendance" was. Could this figure be wrong? Or is this a normal amount? She also did not know That I am an independent head of household.

It is possible to get student loans that exceed cost of attendance (COA) but not recommended as you'll have to repay more than you needed to borrow to attend a school. In your example, the cost of attendance at a community college is about right. You can ask your financial aid officer for a cost of living adjustment if you can document that the school's COA is not sufficient to meet your expenses while enrolled, but be aware that borrowing more means repaying more with interest. You can also borrow private student loans that are not certified by the school's financial aid office, but again, we strongly encourage you to borrow only what you need and not a dollar more.

When it comes to scholarships, they are deducted from your need analysis. If a school judges that you have full need, meaning that you don't pay anything out of pocket, a scholarship will offset that. Scholarships essentially count as income, so your ability to borrow up to COA would be reduced. For example, if you have a $12,000 COA and $3,500 is in Pell Grants, your borrowing ability would be $8,500. If you got a $1,000 scholarship, chances are the school would reduce either your student loan borrowing ability to $7,500 or reduce your Pell Grant to $2,500, depending on the school's policies for handling scholarships.

Whenever you speak to the financial aid office about changes in your student budget, your best bet is to bring as much documentation as possible about your current financial circumstances so that any requests you make can be backed up with paperwork that demonstrates your needs.

Best wishes,

Christopher S. Penn
Financial aid expert and managing editor, FAFSA Online
http://www.FAFSAonline.com