<p>UCLA has a projected amount of $23,293 for total cost of attendance for 2006-07 school year. But a lot of my current UCLA friends have told me that figure is off by $2,500-$3000. </p>
<p>Is there any truth to this?</p>
<p>well it depends on you...the only two fixed quantities you HAVE to pay (assuming you live in residence halls) are the tuition and the room and board....the rest is controllable (books, transportation, personal) and the Health insurance you can waive.</p>
<p>agreed with citan. i dont think i've exceeded $20k for a year yet (a year for me probably costs around $17-$19k). </p>
<p>if youre thinking about saving money, consider tripling in a res hall and reduce that meal plan. buy used books instead. waive health insurance. don't go too crazy during the sales. etc. </p>
<p>the estimate is more like an amount for what you'd need for a very comfy but reasonable college lifestyle.</p>
<p>I live in the off campus apartments. UCLA estimates that it costs $21,516 to live there for the school year, but even with my most conservative estimations, their estimation is 4k-5k off. In my estimation, it should cost closer to $16,000 a year out in the apartments (in my experience). First off, they went way overboard on the cost of room and board. If you pay for the 9 months of the school year, by their estimation you're spending over $1000 a month. Even if you live in LA the whole year, they're estimating you pay nearly $800 a month just to live out there, not even including transportation and personal expenses. Personally, my rent goes at $550 a month, so even if you add very liberal $100 in ultilies and expenses (and usually I only pay about half of that), you're still only at $650 a month, a big difference.</p>
<p>I'm not sure where they pull some of these other numbers either. $1554 for books? Over $500 a quarter? Personally I've never gotten close to that number (over $300 is a bad quarter for me). $1529 for transportation? Are you flying to Cancun for Spring Break and driving an H2 around Westwood every day? Keep in mind, I live in a nice apartment right across from campus, go out to eat fairly often, and enjoy the occassional alcoholic beverage, so it's not like I'm living in squalor. With some common sense, you can easily save a couple thousand over the projection they have.</p>
<p>yeah, my net cost for books (bought some, sold some) my whole freshman year was about $525, including course readers. almost all of them were brand new too. its all about half and amazon ;).</p>
<p>Yeah I'm angry if I have to spend more than $100 on books per quarter. But that's because I'm comm and we rarely ever get actual textbooks. </p>
<p>I get $1000 a month for rent/food/utilites (off campus) and I'm here during the summer and I'm still not paying anywhere near 23k/year. Oh and I pay for a parking pass (~500). Huge overestimation.</p>
<p>well, it's possible to get those "ridiculous" numbers...</p>
<p>south campus = a lot of books and if you really want all new ones, that's probably going to be about $500 a quarter</p>
<p>about housing prices... i'm not sure how they come up with the off-campus number, but for the on-campus number, i think it was either the median or the mean of the cost of all the housing combos (dorm type, meal plan, roommates). so the estimate was for like a sunset double 14-premier. </p>
<p>if you're going to take roundtrip flights to the bay area for winter break and spring break, then that adds significantly to transportation costs.</p>
<p>so we are given an estimate of about $23k for attendance, but if i'll be living in a triple residential hall and don't spend that much, it will be a lot less. so the question i have is for eFAN and do we not take out as many loans since it'll be cheaper? or what happens at the end of the year if our financial aid money and the money we paid initially exceeds the actual amount of $ for attendance?</p>
<p>if you overpay tuition or dorms, then they'll pay you back whatever you overpaid. other than that, you can't really overpay for anything else like books, transportation etc. if your financial aid exceeds the tuition amount, the extra money will be disbursed to you to spend on whatever you need, like for housing or books. </p>
<p>i think what you mean is what happens if you DONT end up paying $23k. well in that case, you've saved your parents some $$. or if your parents are willing to spend $23k, then use the extra money for uh, "personal expenses." ;) </p>
<p>also to clarify, UCLA is not gonna ask everyone to pay $23k. if youre tripling in a res hall, you're just gonna end up having to pay less. therefore, you won't be doing any overpaying.</p>
<p>well for eFAN, they still project everything to be around 23k. so when we accept our eFAN, i'll most likely be accepting all loans and all the financial aid + personal $ will add up to $23k. But after the school year is over, I'll most likely have a few thousands dollars left over right? so can i transfer that money to next year's cost of attendance? </p>
<p>i mean...for loans, i really don't want to take out that much, but is there a way to calculate our actual expenses so that way I don't submit my eFAN with more loans than needed?</p>
<p>Well just loan less. If you have extra, save it for next year and loan less -- it's all the same if you have subsidized loans. It's better to just overestimate if all of your loans are subsidized. I think there is even a way to return the money at the end of the year if you really insist.</p>
<p>And no, there is no way to accurately calculate your actual expenses; there are quite a few variables. Take the tuition amount given, add your room&board, throw in about $500 for misc. fees. The rest... well, who knows how much you'll spend on supplies, textbooks, transportation, personal expenses, etc.</p>