<p>Neither of our boys worked during their first semesters. We wanted them to “get used” college life. But, we did quickly learn (the hard way) that even studious students have a lot of free time on their hands if they don’t have a little job of some sort. And, kids with too much free time often end up spending too much money…LOL (but not in kleibo’s DS’s case - yeah!) As I mentioned in an earlier post, DS1 was good with money for the first 2 months, but the second 2 months were BAD! He and his friends started really exploring the town, and my credit card started soaring. :(</p>
<p>We quickly realized that DS1 had “too much time on his hands,” even though he’s a super-studious kid. But college is not like high school. Maybe it’s because kids are in class for a shorter amount of time (then they were in HS), or maybe it’s because they no longer have sports practices or games, but it seems that many kids have a lot more free time. </p>
<p>So, the best solution was a small part time job. :)</p>
<p>Next semester, DS1 won’t have any classes on Tues & Thurs. This semester, both sons only had one 10am class on Fridays. And, believe me, few kids will get out of class at 11 am on a Friday and commence studying…LOL</p>
<p>I don’t recommend any student work too many hours at a part-time job. Just maybe 8 hours a week (two 4-hour shifts or something like that). That still leaves most kids plenty of study time and social time. DS1 works as a college tutor (employed by the university) and DS2 will begin doing the same in the spring. It’s a great job, DS1 works 2 afternoons a week, no nights or weekends! DS2 will do the same.</p>
<p>I agree with the above. Even the most demanding academic schedules leave time for an 8 hour a week job.<br>
Don’t forget that for some of us and our kids, we get more done when we are busy and less done when we have lots of free time.
Maybe all the freshmen would have fewer “pet peeves” if they were working .</p>
<p>Just anecdotal…both of my kids told us that they managed their time BETTER when they were working 10 hours a week or so. Plus…stingy parents, we didn’t give them any spending money. They HAD to get jobs or spend their summer earnings on discretionary things. Neither worked their freshman year first term. Both worked after that.</p>
I think DD is still adjusting and so I don’t want to put breaks on her. I’m planning to visit this weekend and I will try to find out more about her spending habits then. Her dorm room is costing around $4000 for 4 months.
So I’m not sure how $750 can cover both boarding and lodging outside.</p>
<p>To all those Proud Penn Parents out there - when I asked S1 what kind of arrangements his friends all had, he said (and I quote) “they just have credit cards that they use until their parents get mad” I have respectfully requested independent confirmation!</p>
<p>As one of the those “parents that got mad”… I can tell you this, once DS1 had to earn his own money (just working 8 hours a week), his monthly spending went from $500 down to about $100.</p>
<p>POIH-
I am confused. I looked at the MIT website, and it said room and mealplans <em>combined</em> can run about $10,000 for the year (YIKES!!) but if your daughter already lives in the dorm, she isn’t paying any monthly “rent”, and if she doesnt have a mealplan, your housing fee should be lower. What can she POSSIBLY need $175 a WEEK in spending money for? Meals and incidentals shouldn’t cost that much. I would imagine she’s spending most of her time in class-- not clothes shopping. </p>
<p>And the longer you wait, the HARDER it will be to convince your daughter that she can live on less than that monthly allowance. There was a thread some months back about a girl from CA going to school on the east coast, in NY I think. The father was pulling his hair out trying to curb her spending. It was a very interesting thread. I’ll look for it. I am not saying your daughter is spoiled, but I am saying she can live on a monthly allowance MUCH lower than the current one.</p>
<p>jym626: I’m not sure what data you have but I’m paying $4100 for her dorm room which includes $300 for the dinning subsidy. She gets 50% off if she dine in any of the dorm dinning hall. But you still need to pay for food. She is eating dinner 4/5 times a week in the dinning Hall as only dinner is served.
She still need to cover breakfast and lunches. She seems to be able to manage breakfast in the dorm itself and eat lunch on the campus. So if you even take a $15 a day for 3 meals then you need a $105 a week which amounts to $420 for just daily food per month. So take roughly $500 for a month then for 4 months it comes to $2000.
So for each semester it comes to ~$6000, which is ~$12000 for the year.
$10,000 MIT estimation is an average for double or tripple shared dorm I think.</p>
<p>ok with 2 in college I’ve tried various things. DD is generous spender, DS is frugal. First both have a credit card for gas & emergency use only-- all other uses must be authorized by a phone call to a parent. This clearly defined use was necessary because DD initially overused card with clothes/pizza/subway type emergencies. We foolishly thought $1000 per year would be enough spending money. We ended up more like $1000/semester. To be fair she has had meal plans of 10 and 15 meals/week so she does buy some groceries/shampoo etc. She still abused this…finallly I have taken to sending her a check for an “allowance” every 2 weeks. I do not do online transfers, she needs to take the check to the bank, learn to budget, see the cash go into & then out of her wallet. Nothing else has worked as well! DS, the frugal one got $1200 at start of school year and has only spent about $200 so far! I guess you need to find what works for each kid.</p>
<p>Does your daughter really eat 3 meals a day? My s’s easily slept through a few breakfasts or weekend meals, grabbed light snacks or healthy food they kept in their rooms, or cooked inexpensive meals when they desired. Even if she did spend $400/month on food (which is, IMO, easily avoidable), thats still $350/month left for “fun” and ancillary stuff. Thats incredibly generous.</p>
<p>Something is wrong here. My husband and I don’t spend that much to feed the TWO of us in a month. Why would a college student take that amount to feed ONE person.</p>
<p>I asked my kids how much money they spent on food per week at the grocery store (for all of their meals when they lived in apartments)…neither spent more than $75 a week and said usually it was closer to $50. And yes…one lived in Boston…the other in the Bay Area of CA…both pricey markets.</p>
<p>Jym…Room and board in Boston at most schools is in the $10,000 per year range. Ditto CA.</p>
<p>We pay around $9350/yr for room AND board for DS (ie housing AND meals). Cost of living is understandably pricey in Boston, but the dorm rate mentioned was without a mealplan, correct POIH??</p>
<p>Most school’s board is comparable to local food cost. What we have done with D1 was to give her money equivalent to what her school charges for a full meal plan. Last year she lived in her sorority. The house’s meal plan was less than what Cornell charged, but it also didn’t provide meals on weekends. We gave her the difference what Cornell and sorority charged. She decided if she wanted to blow $50 on an expensive meal or a few dollars on a bagel sometimes. D1 did get wise and packed some sandwiches from her sorority for lunch instead of paying for lunch. She is going to be living off campus this spring, coming back from abroad, we will give her monthly grocery money equal to her school’s meal plan. She told me that she may take some of that money to pay for a cleaning lady. Fine by me.</p>
<p>My son doesn’t cook and probably spends five or six dollars a meal eating out. (Luckily he does make himself cereal for breakfast.) I’d imagine IvyHope’s daughter is doing something similar, perhaps with somewhat more upscale meals? We told him we’d pay the cost of CMU’s lowest meal plan which he is no longer on - it’s $2000 a semester and is supposed to cover 14 meals a week. Anything beyond that comes out of his pocket. We have a joint checking account with him, so theoretically we can keep an eye on his expenses, but we don’t really know how he spends his money. He made a lot last summer, so he’s got plenty to cover just about anything he might want to do.</p>
<p>Confirmed.
To be quite honest, my S never worked while at school, only during the summers. I felt his occupation was being a student first and foremost. We also didn’t put any limits to his spending and we would have done something if he became reckless. I remember there were large expenses related to fraternity activities and I mentioned it to him.</p>
<p>He lived off campus for two years and never cooked during those times. He bought all his meals out and he estimated he spent about $5 per meal unless it was in a sit down restaurant.</p>
But, we did quickly learn (the hard way) that even studious students have a lot of free time on their hands if they don’t have a little job of some sort. And, kids with too much free time often end up spending too much money…LOL (but not in kleibo’s DS’s case - yeah!) As I mentioned in an earlier post, DS1 was good with money for the first 2 months, but the second 2 months were BAD! He and his friends started really exploring the town, and my credit card started soaring. :(</p>