<p>The official COA gives you a starting point. That is the amount of money a student can get funded by financial aid. You can then add and subtract out things on a personal basis. If you buy your D’s clothes, for instance, she does not need much of a clothes allowance. If she has been buying her own clothes from outside jobs that she will no longer have, you may need to supplement, especially if her wardrobe is inadequate at the present time.</p>
<p>My son lives at a residential high school and never spends the $20/week we give him for spending money. I hope this frugality will continue through college! But I’ve been thinking $200 a month, and I see that figure mentioned several times above.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s school you don’t have to be on work study to get work on campus. There are also a lot of jobs off campus too.</p>
<p>Work-study jobs are federally subsidized and therefore tend to pay more and are easier to get for students who qualify for financial aid. However, I’ve never known a college not to make campus jobs available to students regardless of need.</p>
<p>It really depends on where your student ends up at school. Kids at schools like Georgetown, NYU, GW, BU often end up spending more than those who are in more outlying areas.</p>
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<p>Actually, I’m not sure I agree with these statements. They do NOT apply to ALL schools. DD has work study. W-S jobs at her school mostly pay minimum wage. There are some jobs which require special training or a higher skill level (e.g. work in admissions or lifeguards) that do pay more than the minimum. BUT regular desk jobs or the like pay minimum wage. </p>
<p>Students DO have to apply for work study jobs. Just because you are awarded W-S does not mean you are guaranteed a job. You have to look. Most schools have online applications for these jobs and subsequently interviews. My daughter found that the “plum jobs” tend to be taken quite early and are actually rather competitive to get. </p>
<p>Her school has a lot of on campus employment for students that is not W-S.</p>
<p>Just an anecdote…the job DD has this year is being paid for with W-S monies because she HAS W-S this year. BUT it is not funded entirely by W-S…Next years she will not qualify for W-S…and her school doesn’t award W-S for the summers. She gets paid the SAME hourly rate whether she is paid out of work study funds of not.</p>
<p>DS attended undergrad in Boston and spent an average of $25 a week on “discretionary spending”…sometimes he spent nothing and sometimes he spent $100. There were tons of things that had student discounts and some things were actually free. On campus activities at BU are plentiful and are either inexpensive or no cost to students.</p>
<p>Just a few things to consider–
For example, the meal plan we chose for my son next year is 12 meals/week and 300 points to be used elsewhere on or near campus. That’s not even 2 meals/day–also, check to see what weekend hours are for your campus. Some don’t serve meals on Sunday, or have extremely limited weekend hours.
Also, some volunteer work that my son has been involved in he plans to continue when he goes away to college, and will necessitate some (minimal) travel expenses and some meals off campus.
My son is fairly frugal but even with the money he makes and puts away we don’t want him to be unable to take advantage of what is available to him in DC–we want him to
pick and choose, surely, but we don’t want him to never get to choose either.</p>
<p>I gave both kids an allowance of $185/month when they were in college (they both graduated in 2007). Both kids also chose to get parttime work of about 5-10 hours/week. I also gave them the amount of the least expensive meal plan and they both chose to cook for themselves after freshman year. And I paid for books.</p>
<p>They were expected to pay for clothes, entertainment, supplies, dates, birth control (a not-inconsiderable expense), and whatever frivolity they wanted. My D also chose to donate to a children’s relief organization (she has done so for 7 years now).</p>
<p>I expected them to be self-supporting from the instant they graduated. This has worked, more or less. (My D is staying with us for a few months between leases right now.)</p>
<p>In retrospect, I would give them less money and expect them to spend it more carefully. Both of them are considerably more frugal now that they’re spending their own money than they ever were with our money.</p>
<p>thank you so much for all of your input. this is very helpful. It looks like with $3000 of his own money to cover 9 months until next summer, he will be able to cover all the expenses outside of books, tuitions, fees, etc that we are paying. He is not a big spender to begin with, and the only major expense that would have taxed him a great deal will be taken care of by the library: he spends 15-20 hours a week at Barnes & Noble reading economics/finance books - yeah… he is taking advantage of them, but given many thousands of dollars we spent buying books for him until he got a driver’s license and got completely independent with his comings and goings, I don’t feel so guilty :-)</p>
<p>again, thanks for enlightening this clueless parent!</p>
<p>We also give the kids as much as the least expensive meal plan, rent and utilities. For D (who has not had summer jobs), we also give her money for books & $100/month. For S, he has summer savings & also does research so earns some money during the school year. He’s never asked for more money & has managed to buy & resell books so it works out for him financially. Sometimes grandpa or auntie will also gift one or both of them with some $. So far, it has worked OK for the kids.</p>
<p>Oh yea, both are frugal with their funds. Over the summer, I also give D $100/month for spending money until her internship starts & she should be earning some $.</p>
<p>you child can be building a credit rating while at college if you trust them that is…
our son had a credit card in his name from our bank…the bill came to us…and he learned to pay his bill on time online himself…we didn’t pay it…he only screwed up once or twice re late payments in four years and then he had to figure it out… had to get that dealt with/penalty removed…we sent checks for his books which he charged on his own card…we could also see his charges online and only got ticked off with him here and there as he was a pretty middle class kid at Duke among many kids on financial aide and many very wealthy with zero limits on spending.
Most schools are an odd mix of the wealthy and the need based scholars and it is a good time in life to find your footing in “reality” with spending…that said, I would also want my son to go out once a week or to eat off campus within reason…</p>
<p>A couple thousand a year earned in summers will get you through…we seldom sent money for outside spending beyond his meal plan…gifts from other relatives paid his frat dues that were not covered by summer earnings…which we were not happy about…now that he has lost his job in the recession however, his frat bros are my new favorite people as they are all meeting with him to talk about job leads in a recession…</p>
<p>We buy all the clothes and toiletries for the year and the kids support their activities with on campus jobs. Summer employment earnings goes to their tuition bill. They buy their textbooks with jobs they pick up during the winter break.</p>
<p>My parents are sending $200/month, plus I’m going to work some. It’s not a horrible investment for them, since I got all my tuition, room, board, books, etc. paid for with scholarships.</p>
<p>The one thing I’m worried will eat a lot of my money is theater and opera tickets.</p>
<p>Just to expand upon the work-study comments- most schools are pretty careful to only award those they can guarantee (in other words, if they have 25 positions open, they will only make 25 awards), but there is sometimes a “Waiting List” in case someone drops out.There are a few, well known schools that have gotten in trouble with the Federal Govt. for promising what they can’t deliver.
Also, not all schools assign jobs the same way. The school my D will be attending, has a meeting during orientation and that is where the freshman are matched according to their abilities and preferences. Not all kids get the same amount of hours, and that can also impact who gets what.</p>
<p>Sishu, check with your campus about special student rates for tickets for theater & opera. Sometimes they offer amazing student deals. For example, my S saw Wicked for $15! The regular price is generally 10 or so times as high, so check. Dress rehearals of operas & theater are generally as good but MUCH cheaper & may be available to students.</p>
<p>are campus jobs only available as part of the work study program, or can he still get one if he wants it (he is not eligible for the W-S program)</p>
<p>Yalemom, Can you tell me anything about the laundry services at Yale? Are they worth it? </p>
<p>And about those cell phones–do you all just pay your kid’s bill no questions asked? I don’t mean to be nosy, but how many minutes on average do your kids burn per month? Are there any guidelines in place, do they know how many minutes they have and stay within budget?</p>
<p>hyeonjlee, it might vary by school, but I’m pretty sure at MOST schools, anyone can work on campus. My on-campus job didn’t even ask if we were work-study eligible until we were hired and started filling out the tax and payroll paperwork.</p>
<p>Re: cell phone…our kids are on our family plan so their lines are only $9.99 per month for the basic service. THEY pay for anything beyond that…things like unlimited texting for example…any internet downloads and ALL overages on anything. AND the deal is…we pay for the phone IF they use it to call us once a week (at least). If they don’t make the call…we send them the cell phone bill. We don’t think that’s too much to ask, and our kids have been very good about calling.</p>
<p>Stringkeymom -
My kids do their own laundry. The machines are operated by inserting ID cards which have had money loaded onto them. I can’t remember the price of the laundry service at Yale. I know we offered to pay for it, but my kids said that was ridiculous. As for the cell phone, we have a Verizon plan which includes unlimited texts - each additional phone is 9.99 per month. We get 700 primetime minutes (nights and weekends and holidays don’t count) total for everyone, but that’s more than enough. My younger son texts almost exclusively. I got the plan with unlimited texting once he went to college so he would continue to stay in touch with me and it definitely worked!</p>