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<p>And they’re eating whatever they please - not what’s on sale this week. The only way those government numbers for thrifty work is if people pay full price for every scrap of food that goes in their mouths. And that’s not so thrifty.</p>
<p>Those COA figures often come into play as maximums for receiving awards and aid, but are not what are given out by the university itself. For some kids, it’s expensive commuting because there is no public transportation available to the school, and no one in the family can give the student a ride, and the student doesn’t know anyone to car pool with. In such situations, even a low cost community college is going to be a major expense, if a car, insurance, maintenance, gasoline is taken into account. I had mentioned before that my hair dresser was really having a hard time, as she had two kids in community college and when they could not car pool, do to the one moving on to a 4 year school, still commuting, It meant yet another car, and that was even after a lot of issues with the one car and two students, as they both worked and went to school. </p>
<p>My son has friends commuting to NYC for college, and with public transportation, it still costs them $400 a month as they have to drive to the train station, pay for parking there, monthly train pass, and monthly NYC mass transit pass. They likely do not pack food for the day either which means they may often eat out (yeah, I know they do) and that’s another $5-20 a day easily. Packing meals from home seems to be a lost art these days.</p>
<p>I suspect some of the numbers run high so that the kids can get as much PELL and state money as possible each year, since it’s often a “use 'em or loose 'em” situation there. For PELL, for example, if your COA is not such to use the entire award, you don’t get to take it later. It’s given out by term, not by dollar amount used. So for those who are low income and qualify for that kind of aid, there is incentive to give as much leeway to get the max aid they can get. Here in NY getting fin aid from the state schools themselves for anything other than tuition and fees is not guaranteed and not likely, so what the COA isn’t going to matter for them. They tend guarantee to meet the tuition fees cost fully, but not the other expenses. If the student can get money not from the school coffers for that, good for them. How CA schools do this in terms of aid, I don’t know.</p>
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<p>Now that makes sense! It’s odd that they split the numbers as they did though. I don’t think I would’ve questioned an additional thousand dollars in transportation. But $4500 for room and board with parents just jumped off the page as ridiculous.</p>
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<p>I was not claiming otherwise. However, the room, board, and transportation costs of a commuter student are not $0, even though people seem to think of it as such, and parents seem to more willingly subsidize such costs (which are typically spread around other parts of the household budget, rather than being an obvious line item associated with the student) more than any other college-related costs.</p>
<p>The other thing is, while most people here are discussing frugal food budgets and such, what about the numerous parent posters with household incomes “too high to receive financial aid” ($230,000+) but struggle to find the money to afford colleges that their students “deserve” based on academic achievements? It is likely that their households are not as frugal as discussed here (not necessarily just with food, but perhaps with other household budget items). Remember, the average person in the US is not particularly frugal in spending habits.</p>
<p>Costs for eating out and party for commuters are not considered here.</p>
<p>I lived off campus but I spent a lot of money to eat on campus and to eat off campus with my friends during my college time.</p>
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<p>No, but the reason commuting is so attractive is that it CAN BE extremely cheap. Particularly if it needs to be. Meanwhile, paying the college for room and board is always going to be expensive.</p>
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<p>Wow! </p>
<p>We’re currently trying to crunch the numbers to be able to afford for my daughter to live in the dorms. We live about 45 minutes away from the nearest school she is considering so it’s technically feasible for her to commute. However, she doesn’t have a driver’s license yet, nor a car. So we will have to come up with a chunk of money to get that car, and then of course the added expense of gas/insurance/maintenance. I’m thinking it will be in the $100-200 range for monthly insurance. I think an older car, say costing in the $5k range, will probably need considerable maintenance from time to time. If we add all this together, then the cost of dorms vs. commuting becomes quite a bit closer in price, for that first year at least. Non-commuting freshman are not allowed to have a car on campus at this particular school so she won’t be the only one without a car if she lives in the dorms.</p>
<p>"Costs for eating out and party for commuters are not considered here.</p>
<p>I lived off campus but I spent a lot of money to eat on campus and to eat off campus with my friends during my college time."</p>
<p>but those are luxury choices, not necessities. Those on frugal budgets, those who are working their way thru college (which many commuters are doing), or those who have other financial obligations wouldn’t think of doing those things.</p>
<p>"I’m thinking it will be in the $100-200 range for monthly insurance. I think an older car, say costing in the $5k range, will probably need considerable maintenance from time to time. If we add all this together, then the cost of dorms vs. commuting becomes quite a bit closer in price, for that first year at least. "</p>
<p>Yes, but hopefully that car will last more than one year. We found a cheap used car when we needed a 4th car. Only cost us 3200…this was about 4 years ago. Still runs fine and only needed new tires and oil changes. I realize that such purchases are lucky, but IF YOU HAVE THE luxury of time to find such a cheap reliable car, then it can work. It never seems to work when you have to quickly find a cheap reliable used car.</p>
<p>If I needed to find another cheap reliable car for a female student, I’d probably look at used Suzuki Renos. They were cheap as new, likely cheaper as used…and quite reliable.</p>
<p>yup…just looked on Autotrader…a 2008 with 35,000 miles …under $6k.
<a href=“Autotrader - page unavailable”>Autotrader - page unavailable;
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<p>Yes, but it is a Suzuki Reno – a small car with the handling of an SUV, fuel thirst of a larger car, poor crash protection, and minimal dealer network (harder to get parts and such). But in the same area for $6,000 or less there are a 2007 Ford Focus, 2007 Ford Fusion, 2007 Hyundai Sonata, 2005 Mazda 6, 2006 Mazda 5, 2003 Honda Accord, and 2007 Mazda 3, which are generally considered much better cars than a Suzuki Reno.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Fine, too. </p>
<p>Don’t know where you’re getting the “fuel thirst of a large car”. It’s a 4 cylinder. and, many small cars arent’ going to have the crash protection of a large car, but it does have: Dual front impact airbags and Dual front side impact airbags.</p>
<p>I agree that a Ford Focus or some of the others would work well. The point was really that there are some cheap reliable cars out there…but you can’t often find them if you have a tight time frame to find them. If you can be patient and look over a couple of months, something can be found.</p>
<p>So if a reliable car can be had for $6k that can last thru the college years and even beyond, it can make commuting more affordable if the commute isn’t for too much of a distance.</p>
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<p>The 2008 Suzuki Reno was near the bottom of its class of 2008 small cars in both EPA fuel economy (19/28; see <a href=“http://www.fueleconomy.gov”>http://www.fueleconomy.gov</a> ) and IIHS crash test performance (acceptable front, poor side; see <a href=“http://www.iihs.org”>http://www.iihs.org</a> ). Reviews indicate that its handling (which affects crash avoidance) was not very good. There are not a lot of reasons to choose that model over almost any other comparably priced used car, assuming good condition.</p>
<p>Ok…that’s fine. If there are cheaper used options with low mileage, higher fuel economy, then super. I was just using that as an example of what’s out there.</p>
<p>My sons bought Subaru Imprezas for about $12k total a piece. A 3-4 year car loan would have run about $300 a month, depending on time period and interest rate and with most but not all financed. Add insurance, maintenance, gasoline, parking. For their cars, neither of them had a much in repair incidences. Basically, one can commute and have a nice car at the end of the period of time, My college grad is has a paid off car that seems to be doing fine and hopes to keep it for at least another 3 years unless his wages really take off. </p>
<p>IMO for about half of the room and board at a collegeis what it costs for a kid to commute. The cost of feeding more mouth and other costs are more able to be absorbed than the money one would have to pay out. We went over the numbers for my son who got a full tuition award to a local school. He’d likely get a part time job around here, and have his car–he paid cash for his, and with summer earnings, free room and board here at the house, he would have been in very good shape financially. A lot of his peers did this and are loving it. They are enjoying NYC in high steppin’ style that a lot of their classmates who are paying full freight and room/board at some private NYC colleges like NYU, Fordham, Pace cannot. My friend whose son is at NYU and living there, is constantly harping on him about the money because it does hurt when one has to pay those costs, and it’s difficult when the temptations are there and you can’t afford them. My son straddles the middle going to a school that we can afford with some margin, but he doesn’t have the discretionary income that those kids have that are commuters locally, AND whose parents are fairly well to do. It’s not something you truly understand until you live it. My son can’t take his car to college–can’t afford to do so and only can afford to keep it because we use it as our second car in exchange for paying the costs while son is at college. Win-win for him and us,but yes, officially DH and I have only one car, and a junker at that while we have all these tuition payments. </p>
<p>I know that eating out and social things are discretionary costs and luxuries, but when you raised your kids in those luxuries and he’s around others that are continuing to live that way, it’s really a struggle to give them a reality check. The old parent-child confrontations start. The benefit of having my son away, is that he has his bank account, his budget and no parent around. It’s all his world and he can start afresh. If he had gone to school here and could barely afford it, the dichotomy and contrast of how we live and how he is supposed to live would be difficult to reconcile. It 's an added stress, believe me, as I see it around here, especially around here.</p>
<p>Definitely from a purely financial point of view, buying dd a car and having her commute will be cheaper in the long run. However, that means she is spending a minimum of 1.5 hours driving to school and back every day, and she will be a brand new driver, she doesn’t even have her permit yet. So this makes me really nervous. I think it would be different if the school was a lot closer or there was any public transportation available. </p>
<p>^^^
Get her tush to the DMV and have her get her permit. And have her start driving a LOT while you’re with her. </p>
<p>but, you’re right, in her case, she’s going to be a distance away, so living on campus for the first year may be necessary.</p>
<p>But she should have at least a permit.</p>
<p>Be prepared for a high car insurance bill for a new driver doing high mileage.</p>
<p>Here is a list of teen driving safety programs for new teen drivers:
<a href=“Teen driving school directory: Where to find car control clinics in your area”>Teen driving school directory: Where to find car control clinics in your area;
<p>I did the on campus/ off campus thing in ug and now commute. </p>
<p>It is way, way cheaper to commute in my case. To the tune of several thousand dollars a year. That is including cost of car and maintenance.</p>
<p>Yes,the hour commute each way sucks but not enough to go another 20k or so in debt.</p>