<p>Can some student or parent please tell me the per year costs except tuition for Vandy. No Financial aid expected. I see that from Vandy site non-tuition cost is approximately $19184 w/o transportation. Is that close to what you see ? I want to get a realistic and more accurate cost # when I compare costs with other colleges. TIA</p>
<p>I just logged onto the Vandy system to look at my son’s bill. The only non-tuition costs for this semester I see are:</p>
<p>Housing $4,604
Meal Plan (8 meals) $1,450 ( this was $2,350 his freshman first semester)
Engineering Equip Fee $325
Activity & rec fee $525</p>
<p>Freshman year there was also something called a First Year fee $332. But not since then.</p>
<p>He spends about $400 - $500 per semester on books.
He also has a bunch on Commodore Cash charges on there - who knows what he is doing with that money. This was one thing that took me by surprise - the student can add Commodore Cash at any time and it gets added to the bill, yikes!!! Keep an eye on that.</p>
<p>That’s it. So some but not a lot of hidden fees.</p>
<p>Oops, forgot something. He pays about $800 per semester for fraternity dues. I think that is on the low side.</p>
<p>But that is paid directly to the fraternity and does not go through the Vandy billing system.</p>
<p>Also there is the automatic health insurance fee but that is waived if you show the student is covered under some other heath plan</p>
<p>I find that our total expenses are running about $70k for the year, including tuition and travel and incidentals. Just subtract tuition from that. Your mileage might vary – I suspect that it might be possible to shave that a bit, but not a lot IMO. Hope this helps. </p>
<p>Not 70K for us, even with 5 or 6 round trip flights a year (about $400 each). Less. </p>
<p>In case it helps the OP, here’s how I can break it down: total VU bill for the year (includes tuition, fees, housing, meal plan,health ins, etc.), is a few $ shy of $65,500. Add to that comm cash, travel, books, entertainment, personal expenses, subtract fin aid.</p>
<p>I would add 3-4% annual increase in the COA, parking $900/yr, parking tickets, and wardrobe updates to the list of other costs.</p>
<p>Do many students bring cars? How is public transportation in Nashville?</p>
<p>Parking tickets? Parking? No car!!! (uses zipcar on ooccasion) Wardrobe updates? Wouldn’t they buy clothes regardless? I guess mine is a guy who does not spend that much. 
And his health insurance is under our family policy. Have only put $250 into Commodore Cash so far this year. I do give our son spending money amounting to $2K/year. So far I have paid Vandy directly $57,136 for the 2013-2014 school year. So adding travel and books, I think we are paying around $63,000 to $64,000. I guess every family is different and every student is different. </p>
<p>@LBowie. Thank you. My estimate was 63 to 64K with tuition included. This helps a lot. 2K/year for spending. Great. Now I can quote you and ask for at least that amount 
</p>
<p>Students who work summers can often bank 2 grand and in some colleges are expected to raise that amount or some similar amount via part time work or summer work. In the olden days, students went home and worked at car washes, as nannies or as secretaries for the summer and lived at home with their parents. Not so much anymore. Vandy students hustle to come up with more vivid summer experiences and there are a million ways to do summers, not all of them revenue-producing. Our son had one paid internship (unusual) but living expenses pretty much neutered that, one unpaid excellent internship summer (ouch re living expenses), one do-over summer school class followed by an internship (very expensive to go to summer school and not covered by Chancellors but worth it for students who have multiple goals, majors or want a do-over in a course), and one summer research experience paid for by his Chancellor’s Scholarship (blessing). Prepare to surprise yourself with what you do with your summers whether it be bike across a continent, volunteer somewhere or take a summer paying job. There is no right way to provide yourself with spending money. There are 1600 ways students cover outside of tuition expenses that suit their family and circumstances. Students whose parents pay frat dues are not necessarily spoiled or indulged, students who have bigger shopping budgets and entertainment budgets from parents are also around with students with limited funds for these things. Our guys’ personal budgets came from summer work or gifts from grandparents and we only occasionally contributed and expected them to eat most of their meals on the prepaid plans and not at the many inviting off campus venues. We happily paid for things like business wardrobes when called upon, fees for Alternative Spring Break, the occasional plane ticket to visit a Vandy friend, and cell phone and perhaps one upgrade in laptop over four years, support for team costs, occasional tickets to big Nashville events. Summer school…expensive and perhaps regrettable but lots of premeds knock off basic sciences this way in many universities as a strategy in their long term academic calendar plans. The best news for Chancellors is the highly likely reality that you can do a summer abroad without needing much more than plane fare and some cash in your pocket. </p>
<p>I concur with the $63 - $64K per year and we have plane tickets back and forth to California. Now if I add in our trips to Nashville to visit and attend football games, it’s a few thousand more.</p>
<p>@yetanotherid the 2K is in the form of a weekly “allowance” (gosh that sounds like he is 12 years old or something!) and he does at least match it with summer earnings. He has not asked for extra yet this year, except for an additional $50 into Commodore Cash, and he offered to pay himself. Last year the freshman meal plan had him asking for more meal money because he’d sleep in and miss weekend breakfasts or something (freshman meal plan is less flexible than upper class options.). I made him pay that out of his own savings once and asked him to budget the meals better. And just for the record, there is no way I’d ever pay for his parking tickets! 
</p>
<p>Regarding a car–our D did not bring hers her freshman year, but did the next. There is a city-wide bus service that is free for students. But, our D got a job in downtown Nashville, so it was much more convenient for her to have her car there. I think we paid about $750 for an annual parking pass for the Kensington garage, which was not too far from her dorm. If you are willing to leave the car in an open lot that is a little farther away, the pass is something like $350-$450 (I don’t remember). Now that my D is a junior, having a car allowed her to accept an internship that she needs to drive to (not on the bus route). She is also living off-campus, so she needs to get to a grocery store now and then. Having a car is nice, but probably not essential. Some of her friends have them, some don’t.</p>
<p>One more thing–if your student studies abroad, their semester or year abroad will be much less expensive than the semester or year at Vandy (by about half, including housing). I know that this is true if your student does a non-Vandy program; not sure if the price is the same for Vandy programs abroad as for regular Vandy tuition.</p>
<p>helpful info lenny2, thanks. curious does financial aid cover study abroad as it does at many other schools?</p>
<p>Yes. But you do need an approved program signed off by your academic advisor and a full understanding of how credits will and will not transfer. There is an entire office devoted to International study and travel on campus to advise students thoroughly on these matters. Trickier for engineering and premeds but do-able. Don’t forget Maymesters (which in general I don’t think are covered in FA packages)…as shorter options for studying away from Nashville as well</p>
<p>great to hear, thank you very much Faline2</p>