<p>I am stilll working out my potential next four year budget to figure whether Penn is worth it. I'll skip the details of my personal situation. I just want to know about dollars I can shave off the expected family contribution.</p>
<p>Regarding Meal Plans:
I understand the freshman meal plans are all the same cost and are required, but in later years some of the optional plans are significantly cheaper (like 50% even). If I took a cheaper meal plan in my later three years, would the plan cover my stomach (without the need for extraneous pop-parts and pasta)? </p>
<p>Regarding Housing:
Are any of the houses significantly cheaper? If so, at what personal cost?</p>
<p>Regarding jobs:
If I were looking to earn $2-3,000 a SCHOOLyear on top of work-study, where could I go and how physically/mentally/emotionally taxing would it be to work for this much money?</p>
<p>ALSO, and I find this VERY important, if financial aid saw that I was spending less than the "estimated family contribution", would they shave a few dollars off my package the following years?</p>
<p>Thank You.</p>
<p>Re:Meal Plans. Unless you eat a ton at every meal, you can easily get by without a meal plan. Dinners come out to about $15 a meal-even if you use up your meals-on most meal plans; which is very expensive. If you are fine cooking a few nights, eating cereal instead of a $9 brunch, etc, you can chop off some money that way.</p>
<p>historically, sansom place has had the lowest rent for on-campus housing</p>
<p>but if you want to save the money, go off campus</p>
<p>Where exactly do you look up costs for housing? I made a long, honest attempt at finding this information on the Penn Housing website but could not find it.</p>
<p>ALSO, do cheaper dorms equal cheaper quality of life and…how can I say this with sensitivity…trashier people?</p>
<p>Finally, can anyone else confirm that the cheapest meal plans are still EVERYTHING YOU NEED to eat from day to day?</p>
<p>i dropped meal plan after barely using mine sophomore year</p>
<p>you can definitely eat for less when off the meal plans</p>
<p>there is no “trashy” dorm, everyone’s approximately the same in all the college houses</p>
<p>this is the rent schedule for freshmen:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/housing/assets/pdf/rent/frent1011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/housing/assets/pdf/rent/frent1011.pdf</a></p>
<p>and this is the rent schedule for everyone else (soph - senior):</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/housing/assets/pdf/rent/ugrent1011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/housing/assets/pdf/rent/ugrent1011.pdf</a></p>
<p>If Samson Place is really that cheap, what is “cut”?</p>
<p>Is it just all those “study of infectious entrepeneurship” services?</p>
<p>Samson is a lot of grad students and generally less social than the other dorms. It is nice however if you’re an engineer (or have a lot of classes on that end of campus) as it’s closer than any of the high rises/most off campus houses.</p>
<p>In terms of jobs, my friend works for some catering company in Center City and apparently it pays pretty well (don’t know if it’s $2000-3000/school year well)</p>
<p>Thank you so far. It’s been very helpful. And personally, I wouldn’t mind sacrificing all the residence perks to go cheap at Samson. Heck, I’d be too busy to enjoy them since I’d be working to pay for the costlier dorm.</p>
<p>But this other point IS SO IMPORTANT to me right now. I will just copy and paste it exactly as I said it in my original post:</p>
<p>ALSO, and I find this VERY important, if financial aid saw that I was spending less than the “estimated family contribution”, would they shave a few dollars off my package the following years?</p>