<p>For my financial aid package it says that my COA is 12709 per semester. For someone who is a current student, what was your COA?</p>
<p>Are you trying to find out what reality is vs what they say reality is? Depending on the college you are accepted into, that number changes. Much higher tuition for McCombs vs. Liberal Arts. For most students the posted COA is actually higher than reality.</p>
<p>It depends a lot on you (and like collegeshopping said, your college’s tuition). For example, if you buy your books from the Co-op, you’ll spend anywhere from $400-$800 per semester (depending on your major, the classes you’ve enrolled in, your profs, etc). In my experience, I was lucky to make back $50 by selling them back. If you do a year-long rental from West Campus Books, however, it’s only $379 for the whole year and they deliver to/from your house for free.</p>
<p>Also, from the numbers I’ve seen on ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com, the private dorms in West Campus (Dobie, Castilian, Towers) are actually a bit cheaper than the university-owned dorms (and they will defer your bill until your financial aid comes in).</p>
<p>Beyond that, be smart about where you eat. Spending $7+ per meal at JCL goes a heck of a lot faster than $5 per meal at JCL.</p>