How to cut costs for an OOS student

<p>Hi guys, </p>

<p>I really really want to go to UW if it were not for the high price tag. Is there any way to cut down on costs in any way?(either through living off-campus or jobs) How much would a summer job pay and cut down on the costs? </p>

<p>I have ruled out getting state residency, because of how unfeasible it is. If I don't go to UW, then I would have to go to UC Riverside. Please, anyone with previous experience and/or going through the same dilemma should support each other.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>I’ve got the same issue going. I’m a Cali kid and this is a headache.</p>

<ul>
<li>Renting a room should be cheaper than living on campus.</li>
<li>A part time job can help to pay for the room and even food (say, 24 hours/week)</li>
<li>Books can be successfully bought online (tremendous savings).</li>
<li>Ramen is very cheap at Costco (just kidding).</li>
</ul>

<p>There aren’t many ways you can cut down your costs. The biggest one is the tuition, and here you don’t have many options…
Getting a part time job should really help - good thing is that Seattle is a big city where you can find a job.</p>

<p>You can find a room for about $500/m with everything included. A triple on campus might be a bit cheaper than a room, but… I believe you won’t be able to cook yourself living on campus (in most places, at least). </p>

<p>Summer jobs can yield you different money depending on where you are working and how much… If I were you I would sacrifice my summer and work 2 jobs to save for college.</p>

<p>And maybe you can try to apply to different scholarships - some of them don’t care about your state residency.</p>

<p>If you are financially needy you might qualify for the gov’t pell grant. That’d help out quite a bit and you wouldn’t need to pay back. no special app…the fasfa information will tell uw if you qualify</p>

<p>I have gotten 4.6k in pell grant already, but thats still 39k unaccounted for. I am not sure if each subsequent year the tuition, room and board, etc will go up or down. If each year I get the same amount of pell grant, its around 160k for 4 years. </p>

<p>If I follow seatac’s advice, I wonder how much I can save. Is there any hidden or additional fees that I may face as I progress these few years?</p>

<p>Kevinl, how much you can save depends on your personal needs.</p>

<p>If you are fine with a longer walk to campus every day, you can save on room (maybe $100/month, maybe more). Here is what you should do: just go to seattle.craigslist.com and look for a room near UW. Find out the address of each you are interested in and see how far away it is from the campus.</p>

<p>If you are fine with cooking yourself inexpensive meals you can save quite a while. Just think about how much food you need and estimate how much you would spend on it at your hometown (food prices aren’t much different across the US).</p>

<p>Don’t except the tuition to stay the same - I believe they have risen it several times already in the last couple of years.</p>