To apply for Financial Aid, you must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and specify RISD’s school code: 003409.

If you are applying as a freshman or transfer student (undergraduate) you also need to file the CSS Profile Application, specifying RISD’s school code: 3726.

For more information, see Apply for Aid

The cost of education is made up of direct costs (tuition, fees and housing/dining, depending on individual choices) and indirect costs (personal and travel expenses, books and supplies). As such, the Cost of Education is meant to serve as an estimated cost to attend RISD. Individual costs may vary.

Estimated cost of education 2013–14  

You should not submit tax forms unless specifically requested to do so. Paperwork that is not required causes us to take time away from reviewing information that was requested.

Since you are allowed to borrow up to the cost of attendance less financial aid you should have an understanding of what this means. Cost of attendance, or COA, is our official estimate of a student's total cost to attend RISD in a particular year. A COA includes both direct costs (tuition and fees) and indirect costs (supplies, personal/travel expenses and living expenses if not living on campus).

For 2013-14 the cost of attendance for undergraduate students is $61,454; the cost of attendance for graduate students is $66,878.
 
To determine what you should borrow, take into consideration your own personal resources, then look at your invoice and your financial aid award to view your charges and the aid that has already been/will be credited to your account.
 
You should then estimate the expenses that are not listed on your invoice—the indirect costs mentioned above—and add this to whatever is unpaid on your invoice. This would be a fair estimate of what you may need to borrow to support your educational objectives this academic year.
 
Please note: If you do not identify a specific loan amount on the PLUS Request we will process a loan for the cost of attendance less your financial aid.

Federal and state financial aid laws state that a student cannot receive a financial aid amount greater than the cost of attendance minus any other aid and their "Expected Family Contribution." If you completed your FAFSA with estimated income information OR if your FAFSA was randomly picked for verification by the Department of Education, your award will not be final until we receive copies of both your and your parents' (if dependent under federal guidelines) federal tax returns and make any needed adjustments to the original data you reported.

Awards may also be reduced if we discover a significant difference between the income and asset information reported on your FAFSA and the information submitted on your federal tax returns. RISD is obligated to reduce your federal or state aid if outside aid or scholarships result in an over-award situation. For example, if a student receives a new scholarship mid-year, causing him/her to be over-awarded, then the aid package will need to be reduced to compensate for the scholarship. Had we known about this scholarship when the original financial aid package was calculated, the aid amount would have been lower in the original package. To adjust for an over-award, we normally reduce the Federal Stafford Loan OR Federal Work Study, before we would revise your remaining eligibility for grants.