Hello,
I was accepted ED to my first choice but am unable to afford it with the aid they gave me. I really wanna go and cutting the 15k housing will make it perfect. However they dont allow off campus freshmen unless my parents live nearby.
How can I live off campus? what should I tell them? thanks
Save 15k? That’s some expensive housing!! You sure you did the calculations correctly?
@CollegeMan91 room cheapest is 3300 and lowest meal plan is 3500. thats almost 7k per semester = about 15k per year
You are still going to have to eat and pay rent even if you live off campus. Those expenses aren’t going to go to zero.
@me29034 true, but my housing will be down more than 50% and meals by 80. I do follow a very specific meal plan which the college wont allow me on top of the money for the plan itself.
So yeah how should I talk to them and convince them? thats what i need help with
How do you figure it’ll go down to 50-80% of the total? How do you expect to live on less than $15,000 in 10 months? $6600/10 = $660, so you’d have to find a place to rent that was only $330/month in order to cut the housing in half. The meal plan is about $350/month on food. Cutting that by 80% means you’ll be spending about $70 a month on food. I won’t say that’s impossible, but I will say it’s highly unlikely.
Besides, are you sure you really want to go to this college if you have to live off-campus to make it affordable? All of the other freshmen will be living on-campus.
What college is it? Is housing in that city really that affordable? What’s your plan for living off campus? Sharing a room with another college student in the area? If you want to convince them, you would need to come up with a plan, a (realistic) cost calculation for how much you save, etc.
You might get more traction explaining to the school that you cannot afford to live on campus with the package they offered you and asking if they could give you a bit more aid to cover part of the costs of room and board.
Your parents can buy a property nearby, you can live in it, and then sell it when you graduate, plenty of people do this.
@juillet thanks for the reply. Yes those amounts are right, although meals come to around 150 a month. Sorry I don’t want to name the college, but it’s in Ny. Sure I’ve figured how to live on those costs and done my homework. I also can’t get more aid because regardless of having need, they don’t want to give me more.
And yeah I’ll miss out some college experience but as long as I get the education and degree, I’m good.
So the only problem is how to influence them to let me live off campus or on my own. If I tell them it’s the only way I can afford to attend, do I need to show them any costs, calculations etc? anything you guys can suggest? thanks
Yes, you know HOW, but CAN you? Have you looked at housing? Is there actually anything available for $330/mo? At my school nothing close to the campus is anywhere near that low. Here you’d either take the bus for a long commute each day, or you’d need a car (another expense).
@bodangles yes, thats what I meant when I said I have it figured out and my homework done. I’ve also considered commute and everything and it’s all good for me.
Again that’s not even the point of this thread. I just want help in how to influence them to live me on my own and drop the 15k from my bills. thanks
Have you tried talking to the university and telling them what’s going on? They might have an appeals process.
@Mandalorian if OP can’t afford the 15K to live on campus, his parents probably can’t afford to buy a property for their kid to live in while at school (although it IS a great idea if you can swing it financially).
Maybe @philbegas has it right: if there is a disconnect between the EFC and actual cost to attend/live on campus, they may be able to throw some more bones your way on appeal. If it’s just a question of “they say we can pay X, but we don’t want to pay X”, you may be SOL.