GS Budget

<p>Hello GS students,</p>

<p>Me, and probably many others are considering the costs of attending GS. Even though my application is still due, some thoughts and considerations come up after reading about the exorbitant costs.</p>

<p>Is anyone currently attending willing to share his annual budget incl. tuition?</p>

<p>Some insight would be helpful.</p>

<p>Do you meant the cost of attendance? It’s approximately
60k per year. That’s no secret as you can find itemized lists of how Columbia arrives at that number on every undergraduate schools’s site.</p>

<p>Well, I am asking because I haven’t met one single person where the listed cost of attendance from a school was accurate.</p>

<p>New York is expensive, food prices are inflating, living expenses are enormously high (I heard). Just looking for someone who can give some personal insights.</p>

<p>During my visit in NYC in Jan, the cheapest Yogurt I found was around 67 cents, which is ridiculous. I love yogurt, I have it every breakfast, after lunch, and a few days throughout the day.</p>

<p>HelloJan has it about right. Count on about $60,000 a year.</p>

<p>Buying groceries in NYC is like shopping in an airport. At the moment, I pay about twice what I did in the south for food. </p>

<p>If you sit down with Financial Aid, they’ll walk you through a budget. The only thing that has been really inexpensive here is my power bill, but that’s probably because I have a small studio without air conditioning.</p>

<p>For yogurt? That seems to be on the cheap side. Around campus it is usually a dollar. </p>

<p>And, no, no two people pay the same. Not everyone takes the same amount of credits, has the same living situation/expenses, buys the same health insurance, etc. But the ceiling, meaning the estimate of paying full-freight for everything, is $60k.</p>

<p>Living expenses, for a student, are cheaper than for a regular Manahattanite. For one, if you live in University Apartment Housing, you don’t pay for utilities. You get one bill a month for your rent and that’s it - depending on your assignment, you may end up paying monthly or by the semester. You also have the option of buying Dining Dollars from the university. These are applied to your student ID card and can be used at dozens of places on or around campus. This way, you can avoid paying New York City’s Prepared Food Tax.</p>

<p>Also, UAH is all within walking distance of campus. So, your daily commute cost is $0. If you’re given housing way uptown, which can happen, you are given free shuttle service.</p>

<p>So, NO food tax, ZERO utilities, and NO commute cost. That helps to balance out some of the other expenses.</p>