This is from Chicago Booth

Total Cost of Attendance from Brochure that CAN be financed with loans or Aid Summary of Direct vs Indirect

Breakout of DIRECT Tuition Costs - CAN be financed with loans or financial Aid

Breakout of INDIRECT Costs of attendance - also, CAN be financed with loans or financial Aid

This is what you're asking about. These are estimates for Anciliary MBA expenses..i.e. REAL expenses... that by law cannot be covered by financial aid. Additional Out-of-Pocket

"Cost of Attendance" is a technical term as governed by the department of education. The brochure amounts are a good faith estimate that serve as the upper boundary for the amount of financial aid that lenders are allowed to lend to you. Thats why their brochures include tuition and the indirect costs of books, room/board, personal, etc etc... Lenders can lend you up to that specific amount listed for your school as "cost of attendance".

some schools do a better job of this than others. I've heard that UVA is pretty stingy with their estimates, so the students that are financing their education with loans are kinda starved for cash flow.

if you can find part time work to supplement your financial aid, i would expect most of that cash to pay down short term debt incurred from travel, food, and other anciliary costs.

it REALLY helps if you have some extra cash saved up. You can borrow against the value of your 401K but that only makes sense if you think the return on your 401k portfolio will be lower than the available interest rates on debt you will get. Loans from 401(k)s that are used for education expenses must be repaid within five years,and any portion of the loan that is not repaid is considered a withdrawal and taxes and fees may apply. If you have an IRA, you can withdraw principal from it penalty-free for books, tuition, supplies, room and board and for postsecondary education