<p>I tried to figure this out, but the UA website wasn’t very descriptive in breaking down mandatory fees and costs of board separate from housing. NMFs receive full tuition, room, $1,000 a year, plus the study abroad / research stipend and a laptop. The package doesn’t address student fees (unless UA combines mandatory fees into the tuition figure) or the cost of meal plans. How much is that likely to add up to?</p>
<p>Fees depend on the type of class and the college that the courses are in. Classes with labs tend to have higher fees.</p>
<p>Total fees per semester can also be affected by how many credits a student takes each semester (more classes = more fees). Now that Bama has increased the number of credits a student can take to 20 per semester without paying more tuition, I imagine people’s “total fees” per semester will go up. </p>
<p>My kids (Math and ChemE majors) tend to take 17 - 18 credits a semester, and their fees run about $300 a semester. Many of their classes have labs. </p>
<p>“Board” (aka meal plan) is typically the highest freshmen year since there is a mandatory minimum plan for freshmen. The Silver plan is the minimum plan for freshman.
**
Bama Silver - $1272 per semester***
160 meals per semester; please note that this does not include the required $300 Dining Dollars.</p>
<p>Dining Dollars are used at “Retail Dining Venues” on campus…such as Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Chick Fil A, vending machines, Rec Center Smoothie Bar, etc. </p>
<p>Typically those who are upperclassmen (sophomores on up) choose the smaller plans that are available to them. The Silver Plan (minimum for Frosh) has a lot of meals - 160.</p>
<p>The Dining Halls that are “meal plan” are “all you can eat.”</p>
<p>I should have included all the meal plan choices…</p>
<p>Meal Plans – Please note that the price per semester does not include $300 Dining Dollars. Dining Dollars are billed separately on a student’s receivables bill. </p>
<p>(BTW…if you don’t spend your $300 Dining Dollars, they roll to the spring semester. After the spring semester, you can request a refund if you have a balance, otherwise they will roll into Bama Cash.)</p>
<p>Bama Unlimited - $1757 per semester
Unlimited meals</p>
<p>Bama Gold - $1579 per semester
220 meals per semester</p>
<p>Bama Silver - $1272 per semester (Frosh must have this plan or one of the above plans)
160 meals per semester</p>
<p>Bama Bronze - $740 per semester (Sophs+ can choose this or any plan)
90 meals per semester</p>
<p>Bama 50 - $394 per semester (Sophs+ can choose this or any plan)</p>
<p>Gadad: If your son has a car and brings it to campus, he will also need a parking permit. If he chose to do Alabama Action or Outdoor Action before the start of classes, that would also run about $200.</p>
<p>A list of per-course and per-credit fees can be found at [College</a> Course Fees](<a href=“http://cost.ua.edu/college_coursefees.html]College”>http://cost.ua.edu/college_coursefees.html) . Fees are assessed based on the college operating the class, not the student’s major. For example, an engineering major taking a calculus class will pay A&S fees for that course and an A&S economics major taking an economics class will pay CBA fees for that course (all economics courses are taught by CBA staff in CBA facilities).</p>
<p>GADAD, I looked at our bill and picked out the basics for you that someone not doing Alabama Action or bringing a parent and staying an extra night for Bama Bound would pay.</p>
<p>Son is an engineering major, but like Seatide said, he is getting charged fees for courses from the different colleges he’s taking, ie, English, Calculus, which are Arts and Sciences, plus honors, CBH and AA for him, but I assume if you take any honors course, you would get an honors college fee.</p>
<p>Here’s the specifics for son:</p>
<p>A&S college fee 70
Engr college fee 40
A&S facil/tech fee 56
Engr facil/tech fee 44
Honors facil/tech fee 40
Orientation (no frills) 120
Meal plan (default 160) 1272
Dining dollars 300</p>
<p>The NMF package covers the tuition and the housing, so add these up, and that’s your bill. </p>
<p>Now, this also does not include textbooks, so you can go to the Supestore site and price that out now to get a figure.</p>
<p>I’m hoping I’m not missing anything, and please, anyone can correct me, but from looking at our statement, which is very nicely done as a debit and credit column, that looks like the “extra” charges.</p>
<p>I’ll be making phone calls today to see what exactly we have to pay now, so we don’t get any “surprises”. These figures do not include the NMF stipend, since my son is getting a corporate scholarship, so that amount may offset some of these billables.</p>
<p>According to my computer calculator, that’s $1942 a semester. Our Bama Bound bill was $269 because both parents attended and son stayed an extra night. And we also have the Alabama Action bill. But those have already been paid, so we won’t have to worry about paying those in the fall. Now, son is not taking chemistry, so he doesn’t have lab fees like I did in college,which I remember were a good sum, so you might want to figure in extra for that if you take a class with a lab, like biology, chemistry, or physics.</p>
<p>Gadad: The fees can change dramatically once your student is an upperclassmen. My son went online last night and paid $774 for the semester. A total of $694 was for $300 in dining dollars and $394 for a 50-meal plan. I do know of one student who is taking just the dining dollars and giving up his meal plan. As for books, my son looked at the price at the SupeStore, then he ordered elsewhere because he could save money.</p>
<p>Montegut…</p>
<p>Your “pay your student bill” link in mybama should tell you what you owe. there shouldn’t be any surprises.</p>
<p>Has your son selected a meal plan yet? If not, that may not be there yet or they may have it default set to Silver.</p>
<p>As upperclassmen, their football tickets are billed to their account.</p>
<p>if you opt out of the dining plan altogether i think it still costs you 200 bucks. (not sure if the amount is correct, but it is some amount that is kind of significant.)</p>
<p>Had great phone calls today with numerous departments and I do know exactly what we will have to pay. So, no surprises here.</p>
<p>I was just giving a generic rundown of fees in my post to help someone trying to figure out exactly what their costs would be.</p>
<p>We can pay our balance due by credit card, so son will be good to go on first day of class!</p>
<p>And the meal plan is default set to silver, but we can go in and change it if we want.</p>
<p>Mike, I believe the $195 figure for freshmen in fraternities/sororities who don’t want a meal plan (they are also able to buy the Bama 50 meal plan). Otherwise, the only way I know to get a meal plan exemption as a freshman is to have a housing exemption. Of course, if one is coming in as an upperclassman by credits, Bama Dining may allow you to choose a smaller meal plan.</p>
<p>If your student is running out of meals during the semester, they can buy an additional 20 meals for $172. Not using a meal plan, breakfast is scheduled to be $6.30 (late night at Lakeside is usually rung up as breakfast), lunch is $9.00, and dinner is $9.29, tax included.</p>
<p>Thanks all - it sounds as if perhaps $4000 per academic year could be a good ballpark assumption.</p>
<p>Gadad: That would be a safe figure for a freshman, as you do need to pay for food, fees and books, along with transportation. BTW, the transportation was probably our biggest expense as my son flew home at Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break and at the end of the school year. </p>
<p>As I pointed out earlier, board figures change when a student is an upperclassman, as he is not required to take the silver meal plan – something that all freshmen must have. My son also will cut his travel costs this year, as he will not come home for Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>What is your child majoring in? </p>
<p>If majoring in Comp Sci or some kind of engineering, then the student gets an additional 2500 per year. </p>
<p>If majoring in something else…then your $4k estimate is probably right for freshmen year - since at least the Silver plan and Dining Dollars are req’d. (So, about $3k for food, 1k for books, and the rest for fees, MINUS the $1k from NM.</p>
<p>**
For later years, you can spend less on food since meal plans aren’t req’d. **</p>
<p>The meal plans are waaaaayyy overpriced. Most of the people that I know wasted money on the silver that we had to get freshman year. Now we are dropping to either the Bama 50 or no meal plan at all. Save your money, buy groceries, cook, eat out, cut coupons 
Life gets cheaper as an upperclassman, though books get more expensive IMO.
And I agree with momreads about transportation being such a huge cost. I flew home twice last year and it was really expensive. Not only because of the plane tickets, but for parking my car or taking the shuttle.</p>
<p>If you have a Credit Card with a Rewards Program, it makes good sence to pay your bill with that credit card. I realize each Rewards Program differs but the end result is you are discounting your UA bill by receiving Reward Program benefits. </p>
<p>As for meal plans, our son is an athlete and has purchased the Althetic Meal Plan both years. We have been very pleased with the quality of food available. Yes, the cost is high BUT we know our son is getting the nurishment needed to refuel the 5000 calories he burns each day. Our food bill will drop quite a bit once he returns to campus. I have had three meals at both Lakeside and Bryant. I have been pleased with all of them. Then again, I am comparing them to my college dinning experiences waaaaaaaaay back in the early 80’s.</p>
<p>Once my younger son’s AP credits were posted (sometime in July) and he had upperclassmen status, we just changed his meal plan to Bronze. </p>
<p>We didn’t give an explanation to Bama Dining, didn’t mention that his status was because of AP credits (didn’t want to raise any eyebrows)…we just gave his CWID which indicated that he had sophomore status and his plan was changed to Bronze.</p>
<p>So if you choose to try this (if your child has more than 30 credits from AP/dual/etc), then don’t say much to Bama Dining, don’t be too wordy, just give CWID number and they can see that the child has enough credit that he’s not a freshmen.</p>
<p>Forgot to add…</p>
<p>If your child is a NMF, then there’s a decent chance your child could get some outside scholarships which also help pay for smaller costs like books and fees, etc.</p>
<p>momof3boyz - what sport does your son do?</p>