D is finishing her first year at OU and has had a very good year. We are happy with OU. In looking back, one of the most difficult things to figure out was the fees. In fact, I decided life was too short and gave up trying to make an accurate projection.There are a variety of mandatory fees and course, program and tech fees based on the classes that the student is taking that semester. The total of all the fees is not available until after the semester begins. I thought I would share D’s total fees for each semester in case it would be helpful to students/parents planning to attend OU to have an actual example. D’s fees totaled $3,108 for fall semester (17 hours) and $3,076.25 (15 hours). D is an in-state student and did not take any classes that have higher fees (e.g., journalism or engineering). Textbook costs have been in the ballpark of $600 per semester. I hope this helps those trying to project upcoming first year expenses.
That is tremendously helpful, thank you! Did your daughter purchase her books on campus or online or someplace else?
@ohmmom, is your daughter a NMS? I cannot remember. I’m trying to get a handle on what to expect to be left over cost-wise in the NM package. The estimate is $3k, but I know that is generic.
Thanks for sharing the info. The estimated fees on my son’s FA for the academic year based on 15 hours per semester are $5147. I wonder why there is such a difference. @ohmmom, is your D in Honors college?
@HeliMom74 , D comparisoned shopped and bought her books from multiple sources. When available, Amazon often had the best price. We have Amazon Prime so the 2 day shipping was a bonus (I’m not receiving any benefits for the Amazon plug). At least one book had to be ordered from the publisher and one could only be found at Radcliff’s. First semester book shopping was challenging; second semester was simpler. I think that was just luck of the draw.
Yes, D is a NMS and in-state. With all the first-year perks ($5K NM stipend, $2k technology stipend and dorm room) in addition to tuition and the other stipends, D had a little change left over. Scholarships covered room, board, tuition, fees, books, and a new laptop (which it was time for). That does not include transportation, clothing, off-campus meals, dorm bedding and accessories, and general spending money. D is frugal but not austere so altogether I would say the additional living expenses were probably around $2K (not counting car and medical insurance and other expenses independent of being off at college). We only live about an hour drive from OU so we did not have travel expenses or postage for mailing all the things that I personally delivered. I could envision a student spending a little less but also a lot more. In addition to the $2k travel abroad NMS stipend, D also has additional study abroad funding. Fortunately, OU allows them to stack all the scholarships.
I’m happy to answer questions. We’re very happy with OU. Are you in-state and is your kid male or female?
@sunnydayfun, OU has fees that vary depending on the classes that they take. Some classes are more expensive than others so fees can vary each semester depending on the classes taken. I suspect that OU may over-estimate rather than under-estimate expenses. D’s expenses have been less than we expected, but the NMS scholarship is smaller after the first year.
D is in the honors college. I’m not aware of additional fees for the honors college. D is taking her second honors class and has enjoyed both. She’s happy with her honors college decision.
@ohmmom, thank you for the information. My daughter is in-state, and will most likely be living on the NMS floor in Walker (I liked Boren). She is looking at Chemical Engineering, and those classes seem to be fee-heavy.
Has your daughter found it worthwhile to have her car with her on campus? We’re about 40 minutes north of Norman, so I’m not sure if my daughter would really need hers.
@HeliMom74, D is on Walker 10. I liked Boren, too. I wouldn’t turn down having someone clean the bathroom every day! I’m not sure whether D would make a different choice after living in the towers, but I know she is excited about living in an apartment in the fall (own bedroom, only 2 to the bathroom, a living room, kitchen and washer/dryer in the apartment now sounds like heaven). D is IAS and I would expect that CE will be more expensive. I think D’s fees are at the lower end.
D did not take a car to school. Parking is limited and they really don’t need one. Many of D’s friends have cars on campus and they usually go places in a group. If none of the first-years students had cars, the lifestyle would be a little different. We plan that D will take a car in the fall. She will be in an on-campus apartment so a car will be a luxury and not a necessity.
Any veteran-parent tips you can offer for enrollment day (May 28 for her) or move-in? I know I will laugh at myself in a year when I am more familiar with all of this, but right now everything seems so daunting. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer all of my questions. Thank you.
Oh-and! Did your daughter need a dehumidifier for Walker? I’m hearing that a lot.
Thanks for the thread @ohmmom I was expecting the fees to take most of the $5500 in the scholarship, but from your post, it is going to be well over $6000 for our kids in engineering. I suppose the $5147 estimate in his ozone FA listing is based on the basic or average program fees since they most likely don’t know intended major.
And I have the same question about the dehumidifier.
@STEMFamily, have you researched the laptop requirements for the engineering kids? I know it will vary slightly by discipline, but the 1 GB HDD seems to be a common listing. Daughter’s current laptop has everything but that, so we are considering folding the one-time $2k technology award in to help cover the fees. Every engineering laptop spec list I saw seemed to warn against using Macs due to compatibility issues.
Here are the requirements listed in the ChemE department:
Minimum i3 3rd Gen Processor or better
8GB RAM
500GB Hard Drive
1 GB Video Card
802.11g/n Wireless
(2) USB 2.0 Ports
Windows 7 or later (64 bit)
Office 2013
3 Year Warranty with accidental coverage (recommended, not required)
Optical Drive (DVD) is optional, not required
@HeliMom74, I understand. I decided to post because I found it all very daunting this time last year. Everyone’s experiences will be different, but I’m happy to share my experiences. As for enrollment day, D and I attended a session that was limited to some group; I can’t remember whether it was related to type of scholarship or Honors College, something like that. It went very smoothly. There were only about 12 students enrolling that morning. We had an information session, then the students met with advisors while parents’ had another information session. I don’t know whether the number of students was restricted or just not many signed up for that day. D received plenty of individual attention. I don’t remember the information they actually gave us parents, but I recall thinking it was helpful and reassuring. So far, I have been very impressed with the academic advising that D has received and the priority registration is a great perk.
Move-in experience: It was not as bad as I expected, but it is a lot of people moving in to a very small place with a lot of stuff. I would recommend: 1) get there early - we had an early move in time (based on last name), but a lot of people ignored their move-in time slot and no one is checking that. 2) Don’t try to find a “faster” way to drive to the dorm. All the roads are blocked except the ones that you are directed to travel on. This advice is from personal experience and I ended up further back in the line of traffic. 3) We had to get in a couple of lines (after we had parked) to accomplish check-in tasks before going to the dorm room. Check-in stations were set up outside. Pay careful attention to where you need to go and in what order. That was the most confusing part to me. But that may just be me 4) Have a couple of extra people to help carry things to the dorm room, if you can. 5) If you live reasonably close to OU, consider taking the minimum stuff for the week and take extra stuff (additional clothing, decorative items,etc) down the next weekend or so. 6) Pack as much as you can in small or medium-sized moving boxes. Boxes stack nicely on carts or handtrucks and are easier to maneuver than large suitcases. That’s a tip a friend gave me and I’m glad we did that. 7) Take a lot of patience and don’t plan anything else for that day.
There is a move-in service that is around $200. Information is on the OU website. We did not use that. There are also some student organizations offering free help (and they have carts). We totally lucked out and were approached by three friendly and helpful students who helped us get everything up in one trip. There were not many of these helpers so I would not plan on having that available. We were just very lucky.
Regarding a dehumidifier: Yes, I would plan to get one. With four students showering in a bathroom with no windows and only doors in to the two dorm rooms, it does get very humid, especially when the temperatures are moderate and the heat and air conditioning are not running much. In shopping for a dehumidifier, I found that they tended to be too large for the space/expensive or small and of questionable value. I think the dehumidifier helped but did not get rave reviews.
@Helimom I haven’t done any research yet an laptops so thanks for posting that.
@ohmmom Thanks for the reply about the dehumidifiers. I did do some research on those and was surprised to find that the ones I looked at all required emptying the reservoir twice a day (I guess that is if they are running at full capacity). I wonder how 2-4 freshman are going to remember to do that? It certainly won’t be effective if it never runs because the automatic shutoff is at “OFF” due to a full tank. 
I’ve been talking to some grads of daughter’s high school, who are in their first years at OU, regarding the dehumidifiers. The consensus is: the dehumidifiers definitely make things more comfortable. One girl said to run them for a full 24 hours before hanging anything on the walls; without the 24 hours, everything on the walls will fall down.
Another guy complained everything (especially his sheets) felt damp without running the dehumidifier. Two kids said they just ran an oscillating fan (which was a universal must-have) and the fan kept things comfortable.
S1 got an additional $2500 because he is an Engineering major. That more than covers the fee differences (note, they do change the program from time to time so your results may vary)
It sounds like there is a fairly healthy textbook sale/exchange program among the students. He was going to sell his OChem books to other student he knew who were taking it next year. Like most colleges, the intial purchases are often quite expensive. Selling back to bookstores is often not worth the pittance you get.
Another good option for NMS is that they will do what they can to help you find books or whatever. Very helpful program in our experience.
If anyone is in Norman this summer, now is the ideal time to buy used electronics. The second hand stores, especially Goodwill, are loaded with stuff college students don’t need or couldn’t store over the summer. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a large amount of perfectly fine dehumidifiers and other items in those stores. There are also OU specific Facebook groups where students sell thing. One example is “Free & For Sale”. I’ve bought everything from a complete knife set to a lamp from people on the group.