College Board vs Actual Costs at Northeastern?

<p>On College Board, it says:
Tuition and Fees: $36,792
Room and Board: $12,760
Books and Supplies: $1,000
Estimated Personal Expenses: $900
Transportation Expense: $900
These are averages. But how much does Northeastern cost (not including scholarships) for you?</p>

<p>I live off-campus. I pay $800/month for rent + a little for utilities/internet/cable. I pay around $300/month for food and alcohol (turning 21 made me broke. I also don’t have a meal plan). Books usually cost somewhere from $150-$300 per semester.</p>

<p>“Personal Expenses” will just depend on your lifestyle. I go out to bars, I go out to eat regularly with friends, I like to shop, I go to concerts, etc. I spend a lot of excess money. But you can live off of very little if you want to.</p>

<p>I have worked part-time throughout college (and often just sit around on the internet, hence me posting here…). While on co-op I cover most of my rent plus all of living expenses on my own. During classes, my savings plus part-time job easily covers everything except rent.</p>

<p>While on, I paid between 10k (freshman year) to 15k (second year) for housing, because it was enhanced. I’m off now but I pay 1300. It’s a lot, but I live without roommates and it’s worth it to me. Food is about 200. Dining out is my weakness.</p>

<p>I agree with Emily. When I’m in classes, I have a part-time job on campus and it covers all of my food, etc except for my rent (parents do that). But I work about 15 to 20 hours. On coop, it WOULD could everything plus a tiny bit more to put towards savings, but I’m fortunate that I don’t need to (again, parents pay rent).</p>

<p>Thanks! Coop would cover everything for just during coop or for the following semester as well? Also, neuchimie, you said you paid for advanced housing - this was completely by personal choice, right? Do you know if IV costs the same as other dorms?</p>

<p>During my son’s first coop (he’s a middler now, second coop this summer); he paid all of his rent and saved some. During this semester (Spring 2011); he’s in classes and he pays half his rent from coop savings and we pay the other half. Tuition we do via tuition pay (<a href=“http://www.salliemae.com%5B/url%5D”>www.salliemae.com</a>) along with his scholarship (14k/year).</p>

<p>IV is “enhanced”. It means its more expensive than the normal freshman ones (standard or economy). Most upperclassmen dorms are enhanced as well. </p>

<p>It was by choice, I guess, but I wanted to live in the honors LLC so I didn’t have much choice about it being enhanced or not.</p>

<p>My co-op money (if I paid my rent) would cover everything plus save a tiny bit but only for the time I was on co-op. I’d run out kind of fast (probably within two or three months- which keep in mind includes summer) if I tried to use that money after co-op. It’s pretty widely accepted that you shouldn’t plan on paying off school just with co-ops. It would barely make a dent in tuition, not to mention rent.</p>

<p>My parents do that tuition monthly pay thing (above), have a 10k parent plus loan, and help me with rent. I live off of part-time jobs, scholarship and stafford loans.</p>

<p>Yeah, my co-op savings wouldn’t be able to cover me while in classes. A few months, maybe, if I lived on a tight budget. But it does depend on your situation-- I never chose to take higher paying co-ops (I chose lower paying but really good opportunity co-ops), I always bought books at the beginning of semester (there goes $300!) and I eat out/go to bars too frequently!</p>

<p>I think neuchimie and my situation is pretty standard, most of my friends also budget their co-op money the way we do. I have friends who don’t need to work part-time because their parents give them spending money (especially the first year or two), but as I’ve gotten older it seems like those students are more of a minority. Many of my friends work part-time for spending money while in classes, and pay all or most of their rent + spending while on co-op. </p>

<p>I think it’s fairly safe to expect co-op to cover all of spending + some or all of rent while on co-op. Then back in classes, you have nice savings to live off of, but you’ll most likely need SOME income from either parents or a part-time job while in classes.</p>

<p>The difference between regular and enhanced housing is 3k?? That’s a lot of money.
I have a full tuition scholarship but still pay my room and board, so these “slight” variances seem to make a very large impression on the overall cost of the school.
Also, neuchimie said food was around 2k/yr? Is this just for the meal plan, and then you spend a lot more on top of that?
Are these costs going up significantly over the years?
Thanks.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/reslife/info_pages/rates.html[/url]”>http://www.northeastern.edu/reslife/info_pages/rates.html&lt;/a&gt;
Difference between IV double (semi-private suite style) and standard double is $1,000/semester.
Difference between enhanced double and standard double is just over $1,000/semester.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/financialaid/studentaccounts/fees.html[/url]”>Tuition and Fees - Fee Descriptions | Student Financial Services;
The 15 meals per week is $2,775/semester. If you drop down to 10 meals per week, it’s $2,410/semester.</p>

<p>Uh… food… hmm… Well I haven’t been on a meal plan since freshman year, and I have no idea how much that cost. I just sort of guess how much food costs me based on the amount I spend at shaws plus the absurd amounts I spend at take out places.</p>

<p>Enhanced is 3k more because it’s 1k per semester. So if you live on campus for an entire year (one semester of class, 6 months of coop, and two more months of class) then thats 3k more.</p>