<p>So i'm contemplating commuting next semester. My parents are just concerned about the money. The cost of commuting would certainly be cheaper than paying for this overpriced dorm room as I have calculated, however my parents are concerned about my financial aid. I emailed the financial aid office and they said my grant would certainly be reduced, but they couldn't tell me how much, and they dont want to until I make a decision. The most info they gave me was: "the difference in Cost of Attendance for Commuter versus Resident (for the year) is $7,350, for one semester that would be $3,675 less". Is there any way I could estimate how much aid I would lose?</p>
<p>Well if your COA goes down, for a rough estimate I’d just subtract however much your COA goes down. For me, that plus gas, insurance, and a parking pass it actually ended up costing more.</p>
<p>^ Bus? Bus is free, though I don’t know where you live so I don’t know if they go near you. If you’re in Ann Arbor or Ypsi the buses should be just fine.</p>
<p>Anyway, I would take a proportion of everything they’re offering (loans and grants) and check that against the cost of going. For instance, if they offer you 20K in loans+grants a year (say it’s 100% of the COA), 10K loans, 10K grants, and now your COA is 60% of what it was before, say you lose 4K in grants, and save 4K in loans. Use that to determine.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to take into account implicit costs, like losing the possibilities for friendships dorming brings, or the fact you won’t be on-site for extra-curriculars and stuff.</p>
<p>Just something I learned in econ I thought I’d share.</p>
<p>Aero, I feel like the implicit costs of moving home are negative.</p>
<p>^Really? Unless you’re completely unsociable, you should probably rethink that.</p>
<p>The big thing to keep in mind though is the time spent commuting. How much is that extra time spent studying worth to you? How much could you make if you were working during that time?</p>
<p>Qwerty-- My parents live about 30 minutes away in the ply-canton area with no public transportation available whatsoever, and the cost of living in Ann Arbor is obscene. So it was dorms and cafeteria food for me. Plus that was really what I wanted in the end anyway, commuting sucked the first two years. 
I LOVE taking the buses here, I wish they had them everywhere and I don’t understand why people complain about having to take them. People who grew up with access to public transportation are so lucky.</p>
<p>There’s no use trying to talk the OP out of it, he’s been wanting to go home since he moved in. So let’s please not turn that into another one of those threads, there’s been at least two. >.<</p>