<p>I'm working out college expenses with my parents currently. Aside from the general tuition, board, meals, textbook, etc., how much spending money is reasonable for them to provide me per year / how much should I be earning by myself?</p>
<p>Actually, the college expects every student to contribute a certain small percentage of total cost to his or her own education. See this link:
Student</a> Contribution Guidelines.<br>
Depending upon income, Dartmouth reasonably expects that a student be vested in his own education at least to the extent of $2,500 from summer earnings. If your parents are planning on covering tuition, room, board and textbooks, they are pretty much taking care of everything but travel and incidentals, and that $2,500 would typically be more than adequate to cover those expenses.</p>
<p>I spend about 500-600 bucks a term and that is enough to live pretty lavishly. Unless you like to eat out a lot, there isn't really anything else to spend your money on in Hanover. If you join a frat, or (have some bad habits) then it would cost more.</p>
<p>make sure to buy your books cheaply online or from friends</p>
<p>ohmadre,</p>
<p>so you're saying i need to raise 2.5k the summer after my senior year of hs??</p>
<p>Yes, which can be done by obtaining a summer job, working OT on that summer job or working 2 jobs if necessary.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that if you don't have your student contribution, Dartmouth is not going to amend your FA package (as this is the money that you use for personal expenses, startup costs, etc).</p>
<p>BibBoy, Dartmouth will never know who pays them what portion of the total family contribution- your parents can pay it all if they want - but students are expected to be willing to contribute at least that much, and its not unreasonable. Since you say your parents are covering virtually everything else, if you pay for all of your spending $ (at rate of $500-600 per term), you get off paying less than the expected student contribution. </p>
<p>Your family will make their own decisions about how to cover the various costs - I was just saying that Dartmouth, in fact all colleges, feel its reasonable for students to make contributions to their own education in that amount.</p>
<p>Just a little bit of an FYI,</p>
<p>Dartmouth's new financial aid initative eliminated the earnings expectation for leave terms. So, you aren't expected to contribute anything :)</p>
<p>That is a real benefit. That relates only to the term you take off in substitution for the sophomore summer term spent on campus, not all summer breaks.</p>
<p>What happens though if you can't make the student contribution because of the local economy or some other barrier that prevents you from raising the funds?</p>
<p>EDIT- Wait, Dartmouth's web site said that the student contribution is based on last year's earnings. Is that correct?</p>
<p>Actually, after some further investigation.............</p>
<p>My previous assumption is incorrect, no matter what your income is, you HAVE to contribute $2,500. However, I have a new concern in regards to financial aid. My local economy is not very friendly and the new financial aid initiative doesn't package loans for people under $75,000. However, the financial aid guide says that you can request loans in your package. I am assuming that you can use loans to cover the student contribution portion of your aid, correct?</p>
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Dartmouth's new financial aid initative eliminated the earnings expectation for leave terms. So, you aren't expected to contribute anything
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<p>Not true. While Dartmouth new FA initiative covers tuition, the student contribution is not applied toward tuition, so the student contribution is going away.</p>
<p>From the FAQ's </p>
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<p>Students will receive one “free” leave-term (typically the summer between the junior and senior years) for which the annual leave-term earnings (summer earnings) expectation will be waived. </p>
<p>It is great that my family won’t have to pay tuition, but what about all the other costs of attendance? How are they covered if I’m receiving financial aid?</p>
<p>After subtracting your** family contribution** and the employment component of your award from the cost of education, the remainder of your demonstrated need will be provided in scholarship funds.</p>
<p>[color=blue]Your family contibution would include both you and your parents and this is where the $2500 would come in. [/bolor]</p>
<p>Does this mean that I will never take a loan at Dartmouth?</p>
<p>We will not package loans in your original financial aid award. Should you have need for loan funds to cover additional expenses, such as a computer purchase or the portion of your health fee that is not covered by scholarship, or to help meet your family contribution, loan funds will continue to be available.</p>
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<p>Yes, you can get loans to cover your student contribution, but why would you want to as you may end up needing the loans to cover other items like your health insurance, a computer, etc. </p>
<p>I would suggest that if you have a part time job, see if you can add on more hours (over the course of the summer, if you got a job making $250/wk that would cover your student contribution. So even in a bad economy, if you got a full time summer job making minimum wage, you would be able to cover your student contribution,</p>
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BibBoy, Dartmouth will never know who pays them what portion of the total family contribution- your parents can pay it all if they want - but students are expected to be willing to contribute at least that much, and its not unreasonable. Since you say your parents are covering virtually everything else, if you pay for all of your spending $ (at rate of $500-600 per term), you get off paying less than the expected student contribution.</p>
<p>Your family will make their own decisions about how to cover the various costs - I was just saying that Dartmouth, in fact all colleges, feel its reasonable for students to make contributions to their own education in that amount.
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<p>I am currently working a minimum wage job, looks like I better start putting in more hours! I thought that the student contribution only applied after I matriculated; was not aware until this point that I needed $2,500 by the fall.</p>
<p>Regarding my financial situation: My parents are covering their portion of the contribution for ~2 years, and then I will have to take out a loan. Fam income bracket at the 100-150k so I'm receiving grants (as of now) totaling about 1/3 of my expenses.</p>
<p>I guess my original question was more along the lines of 'contributions aside, how much free spending money should I be packing per month/term/year/etc. But damn I'm glad someone brought this up b/c I would be in for a real ****ty surprise come fall when all the "free spending" money I've been saving up gets sucked up into tuition.</p>
<p>Also std contribution up to $2,720 now.. at least for me</p>
<p>Big,</p>
<p>Part of you $2720 does include spending $$. </p>
<p>As ssnair305 ,mentioned, unless you are in a frat, where you are paying dues each quarter, between your the portion of your student contribution and even working ~ 10/hrs a week in employment work study, you will be fine. One of the great things about even going to dinner in town is not expensive.</p>
<p>Don't worry. Even if you get a job on or off-campus, it will definitely supply you with spending $$.</p>
<p>I know in our situation, D spends very little $. She worked over the summer and saved $$. She has a on-campus job, which along with her savings, she uses for books, sorority dues, dinner with friends, etc. I rarely send $$ because she said she is good. She just got back from spring break with the friends that she paid for herself.</p>
<p>Okay, I'm kinda confused.</p>
<p>How much will Dartmouth bill us for when they send the bill? I mean, as far as the student contribution goes. I'm really concerned about not being able to come up with the student contribution and having to take out a loan (if possible) to cover it.</p>
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One of the great things about even going to dinner in town is not expensive.
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<p>Hmm...Everything was very expensive IMO. Although that is coming from someone in the south where cost of living is very very low compared to the northeast.</p>
<p>Ok, my apologies. I really confused everyone with my statements. </p>
<p>My understanding was that Bigboy originally wanted to know how much spending money his parents should provide for him as opposed to how much he should provide. I had intended to reply that since, according to what he stated, his parents were covering pretty much everything else, maybe he should just be prepared to cover spending $ out of his own earnings. </p>
<p>I said this because the college anticipates that each student should be able, and thus willing, to contribute about $2500/year toward their own education from earnings during the summer, on campus job, whatever. If a given family does not want the student to have to pay anything out of their own earnings, that is just fine. </p>
<p>The college neither knows nor cares where the money above and beyond financial aid comes from. Every family will have to work out for itself how it will come up with the family contribution portion.</p>
<p>The college will actually send out a financial aid summary and it will show a line item for student contribution and a line item for parent contribution and if you get financial aid to any degree, line items for that as well. But that does not mean the parents can't cover the student portion.</p>
<p>This summary is not the same thing as the bill. The quarterly bill will show what you are getting in financial aid, and what the difference your family has to come with is. Your parents can pay any or all of that amount. They can pay any or all of travel expense,books and spending $. The college, as I said, neither knows know cares how a family makes those decisions. They will never send the student a direct bill for $2,500 or any other amount (except in the few cases where a student is not a dependent). They only suggest that it is reasonable that, out of the sum total cost of attending Dartmouth for one year: tuition, room, board, fees, books, travel, extra expenses included, a student might/should be willing to come up with about $2500.</p>
<p>BUT, as for how much spending $ you need on campus, regardless of who pays, seems as if $500-600/term is absolutely a generous estimate - more than my D ever spends per term on average.</p>
<p>So don't panic - students will not be sent a bill for $2500. On the other hand, families might want to take a look at that figure as a guideline for what is reasonable to ask that their student contribute - some families will ask their student to contribute much more.</p>
<p>However, here in lies another question. Earning $2500 in a summer is certainly possible, if one abandons all hope of possibly doing some extra volunteer work or whatever and works full time. I was looking to volunteer at a law office over the summer but unfortunately, that dream is out the window now because of Dartmouth's requirements. My family could not afford $2500 so I can't ask. I also can't work part time because of NC's minimum wage being $6.15 an hour. That won't put me anywhere NEAR the required amount. </p>
<p>How would I go about asking financial aid to give me a Perkins or Stafford for $2500 just to be on the safe side? I am really scared that I won't be able to attend Dartmouth because of this requirement.</p>
<p>You can't find a job that pays more than minimun wage? There are plenty of jobs in my area that pay higher, you just have to look for them. If you don't mind me asking, what part of NC do you live in?</p>
<p>I live roughly 35 minutes south of Fayetteville. The local economy is pretty bad with factories leaving and such and I don't even know WHERE to begin looking for the non-fast food and retail jobs that many other teenagers get. I would assume though that any decent paying job is probably taken by a displaced factory worker. I'm working on finding something but I do want a backup plan just in case I can't find a job or if I find one and can't earn enough money. </p>
<p>What area are you from? Any job details would be helpful but if you're TOO far away, it's a bit irrelevant :P</p>