Is there a Free & for sale group for OU only?
Yes. An OU email is necessary to access the group.
@whenhen, I keep landing on Univ. of Ohio’s Free and For sale group when searching for this on FB - Could you please give directions to the Oklahoma one?
@tikimom CC doesn’t let me post links to Facebook groups, although if your daughter goes to the Groups at OU, she should see it. There are other non OU Facebook groups for selling items including Norman Area Yard Sale, and Norman Area Garage Sale. Of course there’s also Craigslist OKC.
We need a dorm fridge! I will check this out. Thanks, @whenen!
Is there a space in Boren’s dorm room to allow a mini fridge? The virtual tour does not show a fridge in the room.
Yes. When I lived in Cate (same setup as Boren) I had a mini fridge, microwave, and coffee maker in my room.
D said that the dehumidifier helped and she would recommend one for the towers. She also said that when it was humid, they were emptying it once a day. It sounds as if when the heat or a/c were running a lot, it wasn’t such a problem and they didn’t need it.
I think I offered to check on whether a doorstop was needed for the dorm room. The answer is no. The door (Walker Tower) would stay open without a stop.
We plan to sell D’s dorm comforter and sheets. Any suggestions for a safe way to approach that? I’m concerned about the safety of Craigslist.
The standard advice is to meet up with the buyer next to or in a police parking lot.
Have any of you or your daughters ever taken part in the Women in Engineering’s “Welcome Weekend”? Daughter signed up for it; just waiting on word.
@ohmmom, thank you so much for remembering my Walker doorstop question! So thoughtful of you!
@HeliMom74, you are welcome. I now have all the questions about Traditions apartments that we had about the dorm. One new experience after another at this phase of life. 8-|
@HeliMom74, my D’s roommate is an engineering major. She participated in the welcome weekend and greatly enjoyed it. She was a NMF from waaaaay out of state who knew no one. This gave her a chance to meet people right away and it was then very easy to become active in the department and the Women in Engineering organization throughout the rest of the school year. I also understand that she “got a lot of free stuff” during the weekend, which has to be a good thing for any college student, right? 
How great to know! It looks really neat. I am hoping they let the girls know before the date in July mentioned as the official “notify by” date!
Just chiming in with our experience for the current semester (DS is an oos National Merit freshman):
*Total course fees are about $3500 - this includes 4 engineering school credits, 4 fine arts credits, and 7 arts/sciences credits , plus one course-specific charge.
*This semester’s books tallied ~$450. He has made purchases from Chegg, ZyBooks, Quia Corp, Codelab, and the OU bookstore. I believe a good chunk of the cost is coming from subscription/online materials access for German and Computer Programming.
@cmb1828 how much are your out of pocket expenses after the NM scholarship?
Our DS is also an OOS freshman. Fees for his 8 engineering credits, 7 arts & science credits, and 1 fine arts credit total 3550 for first semester plus $130 in extra course-specific charges.
Total remainingcost for us the first semester for tuition, fees, room and board after the $2000 one-time technology fee is $902 (with 12 meals per week dining plan). Second semester should be approximately $2902 depending on differences in fees with different classes.
@3scoutsmom Assuming the full $2k tech stipend is applied to the current semester, we are looking at $1k net now, and about $3k for 2nd semester (will depend on the specific course fees). He has the 10 meal/ week + 450 points plan. FWIW, this net figure is before adding travel home and before subtracting a minimal Pell grant and $1k outside scholarships - it is based solely on the NM package and direct cost + books.
I’m still trying to figure if we are better off applying the tech fee & NM stipend now, or banking it and paying the difference from the 529. We are right on the border for Pell, and I’m not yet clear is the asset change rules will affect next year’s calculations.
In the long run, my best projections are that his net cost undergrand at OU will be slightly less than at UW Madison ( I insisted he secure a spot at an in state school where his tuition was covered, his choice which. He did not want to stay in state.), a good bit more than living at home & going to the most local UW, and better than 50% less than his 1st choice neighboring flagship. In my mind, the biggest bonuses are that 5th year tuition waiver he plans to use to complete an accelerated BS/MS, and that so far he is loving his experience.
CMB, my s2 would love to go to Madison but there is no way he could afford OOS there. We couldn’t afford to live in-state there. OU has a pretty good thing going. S1 really enjoyed his Freshman year. The NM thing really helps them build friendships and connections in a large university.
A look at in-state NMS costs/what she got for first-semester for my freshman Engineering student (with the exception of books, all of this was charged to her Bursar account):
Freshman meal plan (it’s the same price for all freshmen)
Fee to live in Walker Tower
$195 for student season tickets to football (clearly optional)
$250 for Camp Crimson (also optional)
The gazillion other Academic Excellence fees, Engineering fees, CAS, Chemistry fees (she is taking Chemistry 1315, Calc II, the Intro to Engineering class, one other Honors class, and a UCOL class).
Books: we got off ridiculously luck on this one, so husband and I paid for them on our own.
She chose not to get a parking pass.
She had $1,000 in an outside scholarship. She applied this scholarship in full to Fall semester, as well as her $2,000 one-time technology stipend from NMS (she already has a good laptop).
After all was said and done, she ended up $604 in the black for the Fall semester.
Just FYI for any other NMS parents out there looking to get a handle on what Fall semester costs look like.