@kelsmom Hi I saw a post form 2013 that prompted a question that I think you could answer. Can you help with estimating the cost of books and other miscellaneous things that my daughter may encounter while at Vandy?
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/financialaid/costs.php
This is the Vandy cost of attendance for everything for the current academic year. It includes books and personal expenses.
Books and supplies. $1294
Personal expenses. $2788
This is Vandy’s estimates of these costs.
Yes I am familiar with the published estimates. Thank you. However I am looking for a more personal response from practical experience. Thanks again.
Personal response- a kid who shampoos daily, needs a substantial midnight snack every day in addition to the meal plan, and has to travel 2500 miles to get back and forth from school is going to have higher expenses than a kid who eats twice a day (and makes coffee in his room), doesn’t use a ton of toiletries, and takes the Bolt bus 40 miles to get home.
How can someone tell you what YOUR expenses will be without knowing your lifestyle, habits, geography etc? Does your D wear jeans from Costco which she replaces once a year, or shops frequently at the mall? Is she in an expensive EC requiring formal wear?
It would depend on the major. I have one daughter who spent $1000 on books her first year (engineering) and the other spent $400, with an online code for French being the most expensive item. Last year the engineer spent $95 and the other spent $200 for one semester. It just depends. The engineer, when she lived in the dorm, spent very little off campus while the other is a spendthrift with $5 coffees and eating out several times a week. Travel for the engineer is $300 round trip while the other goes to school about 150 miles away so it’s a tank of gas. Engineer does spend a lot on shampoo and lotion. Both attend schools where almost everything is included (sports, rec center, concerts) in the student fees.
Ask on the Vandy page is students spend more or less than the estimates.
Thank you all.
I am trying to learn the culture of this forum. Is it customary to answer post addressed to other people? Wow. This is interesting.
Welcome to CC!!
If you wanted to send your query ONLY to one person, you would do so via private message. If you have a post by the person you want to PM, you click or tap on their avatar…and you will get their Profile page. One of the prompts is “message”. If you choose that, it goes ONLY to that one person.
If you post on the forum, it’s a public forum, and anyone can and will respond.
I will say…if I got your query about my kid’s college costs via PM, I would suggest that you post ON the forum…because you will get a variety of answers. As noted by @blossom it’s hard to say how much you will actually need…too many variables. And really…your spending habits could be very different from @kelsmom dughtet.
But I’m sure @kelsmom will respond.
I will add…folks ask me this question about my kids…and I can’t even answer it. They were responsible for working and earning the money for their personal expenses and books. They earned it…they spent it…honestly, I don’t know what that number was…it was their money.
thanks
thanks @twoinanddone. This is very very helpful for me. I appreciate it.
To revisit to possibly help someone: For the first semester, her books were $788 (physics major). Commodore Cash was $400. Thanksgiving and Christmas flights were $770. We bought an iMac, refrigerator, microwave, toiletries, and school supplies. We are from a very warm climate so we had to buy winter clothes.
I was warned for the OP because I mistakenly used my daughter’s account.
There are ways to lessen the cost for books…buy used, rent…or even rent used.
Borrow from an upper classman.
Buy ebooks (sometimes cheaper)
yes cheaper for sure. I work for a publishing company and got most of her books free. We just priced used ones for reference sake.