<p>I am math-challenged and totally confused by many of the college's websites. I just spent fifteen minutes trying to grok CCM's costs for out-of-state students. I had grabbed numbers off of Unigo but their numbers for state schools in-state numbers. Anticipating similar confusion with Indiana, Michigan, Penn State. Can anybody point me toward a reliable compendium of info (hint hint spreadsheet lovers.)</p>
<p>Try this… <a href=“https://financialaid”>https://financialaid</a> DOT uc DOT edu/fees/costs15 DOT html</p>
<p>Believe it or not, my eyes glaze over on that page - various fees, room and board not there, non-resident surcharge, college-specific fees, part time full time per credit aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!
Some figures are per term. Others are for the year. It hurts my brain. Picture me whimpering in submission. I thought schools were now required to have the total COA accessible in one place as one number. No?</p>
<p>Is there a cost calculator? I think that’s what they have to have… Takes about 10 min. I figured the CCM cost for out of state (loosely) at around $37k. </p>
<p>Bless your heart. Loosely is good enough for me.</p>
<p>While it’s great to seek out ballpark figures, you’ll ultimately want to see where they are admitted and compare the specific financial aid offers. I know with our non-MT S, who applied RD (MT D was admitted ED), we had some huge surprises when the final offers rolled in. Schools we assumed would be most expensive ended up being cheaper than in-state schools, and privates ended up less costly than publics, plus a few schools were willing to meet other school’s offers. In the end, what started as his most expensive school became his most affordable. This is truly a case where it ain’t over 'til it’s over.</p>
<p>I was actually just explaining this to my kid. The numbers won’t be the numbers until they’re the numbers. But I cannot suppress my urge to sort and compare.</p>
<p>Exactly, @vocal1046 … 
but you have to start somewhere. </p>
<p>I think it is totally reasonable to compare total and/or direct costs as a starting point. Of course everyone will get their own package but a sorted list by costs is useful. There are threads on here with that info for 2014.</p>
<p>College Express website is good for an overview of numbers. They don’t have all of the specifics for each school itemized, but they have in-state costs, out-of-state costs (including room and board). What is nice is you can compare up to 5 schools at once. There is a lot of information in a compact format. </p>
<p>Here is a thread with a list (surprise surprise) of the cost of colleges based on the financial aid award received. Not all schools are represented, but it’s definitely a starting point.</p>
<p><a href=“Sticker shock! Cost of attendance from financial award letters. - #256 by alwaysamom - Musical Theater Major - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1631040-sticker-shock-cost-of-attendance-from-financial-award-letters-p18.html</a></p>
<p>Also things like books, travel and personal expenses I basically took out of the equation when we were comparing. Depending on how far away you are from the school will depend on the travel, plus I really just wanted to compare tuition, fees, room and board. The biggest gap I noticed in room and board was dorm rooms ranged from about 8K-20K at NYU. There seems to be a couple thousand gap between rooms/meals at most schools and the problem is with BFA kids they commit so much later than most of the other kids you don’t necessarily get the pick of your dorm. When my D was deciding between her school she was already on the waiting list for a dorm room at one University because they were all taken.</p>
<p>You don’t get to pick your dorm, or your roommate, freshman year at NYU (though you can indicate dorm preferences) </p>
<p>Not that it has any relevance to the subject of this thread, but unless something has changed at NYU @toowonderful, you can indeed pick (or at lest request) your freshman year roommates if you want to. My daughter put together a group of 4 (she didn’t know any of them) that she found I guess through Facebook or some other matching tool that I think NYU has. They all requested each other and were indeed assigned together… but not in the lower cost dorm (it’s not air-conditioned) that they had requested. I know there were other deliberate roommate selections as well. </p>
<p>Also, @GSOMTMom, that list from the link above is not based on financial aid award received. I think it’s just a list of the direct costs (tuition, room and board) or total costs (tuition, room and board, and fees but not books, travel etc…) There is no “netting out” financial aid nor merit aid as that would vary by individual. And I agree with broadway95 above. I also ignored books, travel, personal expenses etc. too. Book are books. Chances are it won’t vary much by school in a way that should make or break the decision. Travel you can keep in the back of your mind if you want to but it’s really a function of can you drive there or not. For us on the west coast, it’s actually much cheaper to fly into a place like NYC than it would be to fly to many places much closer but in less of a major hub. But then you get into the expense of summer storage in a place like NYC vs. San Marco, TX and you get back to square one again. So I’d focus on the big ticket items as @broadway95 suggests above.</p>
<p>@vocal1046, I pulled preliminary numbers off of the financial aid tab in Naviance. Don’t know if you have access to that or not. They were not necessarily accurate but in terms of “is it bigger than a breadbox” or not estimate, it was fine.</p>
<p>@halflokum- D was not given any opportunities to choose a roommate, just a general questionnaire about smoking/cleanliness/study habits etc… She did get an email all about how NYU feels that randomization- getting to know people from other majors/parts of country etc is important. She lives with 3 other girls, none of them are from same school, let alone same major. It may be a new thing, there was also an aspect that said beginning in 2014 housing would be “gender blind” for upper classmen, meaning men and women could request to live together (once you are allowed to request) She was given opportunity to “rank” 6 dorms in order of preference, and of course there are the “special communities” you can apply for.</p>
<p>I’m going to change the subject here a bit, but it pertains to the title of the post-- Parents-- REALLY be aware of how much you can afford to pay for college. Last year, we let S apply to (almost) any schools he wanted too, not really taking into consideration the total 4-year tuition cost. (… there were a few we immediately took off the list because of price tag…) Our philosophy at the time was: Apply to lots of schools because we know it’s SO hard to get into ANY. When April came around, there was 1 school he was accepted to, excited about (until he visited it, but that could be another thread…). But, after hubby and I crunched the numbers, we told him we really couldn’t comfortably afford it, without having to make huge sacrifices, and him taking out large loans. (He had other school options, thank goodness.)</p>
<p>Thinking back, that was really lousy of us…to let him apply to a school – and get accepted!-- only to tell him – sorry, but we’re not going to be able to swing that, financially. Granted, I think we were hoping that there might be scholarship money attached to any offers… and there was for this 1 school, but it really didn’t even make a dent.</p>
<p>So…I’m just putting that out there… You really have to know how much your family can afford and is willing to sacrifice. It might be really painful for the child, come acceptance time, to say… “sorry!” after all of their hard work. </p>
<p>@toowonderful, sounds like things have indeed changed and in fact, I see it right on their website now that you cannot make roommate requests. Go figure. A good reason for me to admit that I don’t know anything about being a freshman at NYU now and leave it to those of you who do. BTW, last year, one of my daughter’s roommates was indeed male and the request to live together had to be made by all 4 of them in the 2 bedroom apartment for that set up to be approved. It worked out just fine. I’m all for gender blind if it make sense to the players involved.</p>
<p>@halflokum - if you found it one the website you are a better navigator than I am (which we both know to be true, as I have asked you to help me find things a million times!) 
D and her friends are making preliminary plans for next year already- and there may indeed be a mixed gender group, so we may be heading down that path too!</p>
<p>@SU88BFA don’t beat yourself up too much. We had to do the same thing to our D. it stunk… We didn’t know enough about the OOS tuition/scholarships when she applied/auditioned. </p>
<p>I don’t know, I think a dose of reality is OK for kids to get at this brink-of-adulthood age. I mean, if you can afford the application fees and can swing the auditions, why NOT apply to a dream school, because as others have said, you never know. But if that big scholarship doesn’t happen, this will not be the first disappointment these kids will face in this business. Keep moving forward…as long as there is a safety that you can afford. Learning to live responsibly within our means is something we all have to learn.</p>