Son17 is leaving today on a road trip to Switzerland and Germany. I am amazed he has figured out the details on his own. He’s looking forward to it. It’s his 1st big trip on his own.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek – I think that there is a lot of help offered on college campuses these days. (Far cry from 30 years ago.) However, the students need to ask for that help. KUDOS to your D for accompanying her friend and getting the process started.
@RightCoaster — Wow on your S’s big road trip! Lots of new adult experiences during his semester abroad. Hope he has a wonderful time.
Room is $2,060 per semester and the lowest meal plan is $2,928 per semester for S17. He’s in a standard double, suite style dorm (2 standard double rooms with 1 bathroom between them). Freshmen are required to live on campus (unless living with parent near campus or >20 years old) and must have a dining plan. Even the lowest level meal plan is unlimited swipes–S17 says it’s good to be able to pop in to the dining hall and get a snack after class and not have to worry about how many swipes he’s using. They also allow a “combo exchange” on weekdays, so he can go to the on campus food truck, some campus food places that aren’t dining halls, or the on campus convenience store and pick up 1 meal each day Mon-Fri. At the convenience store, he uses the combo exchange to get an “entree” like make & serve mac & cheese or pop tarts, a snack like crackers or chips, and a drink to keep snack stashes in his room. He says the dining hall food is good, and he mainly eats at his dorm dining hall, but sometimes they travel to a bigger dorm complex dining hall for a little more variety. The more expensive dining plans add dining $s and guest passes, but he doesn’t see how they’d be worth the price.
At Muhlenberg there are a panoply of options, but my D17’s costs are room $6,205/board $4,535, so $10,740 total.
Meal Plan $2950, Room $5490 per semester. Room is a 2 bed, 2 bath suite for 4. Meal plan is “unlimited swipes”, but no additional “dining” dollars.
I looked back at the bill and saw I paid 101.68 for tuition refund insurance that I didn’t really want. My bad, I didn’t read the paperwork closely, I guess.
There is almost as much variety in room & board costs as there is for tuition.
There’s only one housing and board plan for freshmen at Caltech. It’s $14,500 total combined for the full year. So, a bit on the high side. Dinners are waitered meals in the House (student waiters, work-study pay I think), so that probably drives up the price some.
That could be for a single, double, or triple (not sure where they actually have any triples, but they are designed that way). S got a low draw for the room choice after he got sorted into his House, but it’s still a nice double with a south-facing balcony that came with a sofa and some chairs.
Room and board for D17 in a single is $4,805 per semester. It’s sounding like quite a bargain, even without the salmon. :))
D’s meal plan is $2660 each semester, with 3 swipes a day. Board is $5000 a semester.
D had a job at dining hall until now…I think her last week will be next week. As most kids at Vandy don’t like the jobs at dining hall, she would have made $15 per hour. ($8 per hour plus 30% discount for meal plan, plus free meal while you work). She got 2 burns while making custom pastas and was disappointed by the lack of first aid, good cookware and general procedure. My plan for her to gain humanity and spending money needs to be modified now!
Hope all the kids are having fun in and outside of classroom, and talk or text the parents about it 
We pay about 15K a year for housing and food. Relatively speaking the food is pretty average but that’s because D comes from a foodie household and has high standards. I’ve eaten there a couple of times. It’s definitely better than the standard Aramark level institutional food. That being said we had D on the lowest level meal plan and she recently upped it to the mid-level. Even though she’d like to be able to get better food there just aren’t any options close enough in the limited amount of time she has for eating so going to the dining hall is what she has to do.
Room is $3950, Meal plan is $2061 so $12,022 for the year. Unlimited swipes and $100 in Dining Dollars/Points.
Son’s meal plan is $3000 per semester for unlimited, might move down one next semester and housing is $9,016 for the year.
@NerdMom88 We visited UAH yesterday for S19. I will say that the Dorms were the nicest I have seen in all my vistis! We did not see the singles, but the normal dorms contain a common area, with bathrooms on both ends, and 2 rooms on each ends. so basically a sorta singe.
I would be curious to what your D has to say about social life at UAH, as it seems more like a “commuter” school, in the sense that even the kids who live on campus, more than likely go home a bunch on weekends if they are local. The tour guide did not even touch upon greek life, which for my nerdy son, was just fine.
The only other concern was the academics. I would assume S would apply to honors college. He wants to study CS.
@sdl0625 Those dorms are what I was referencing, since they are single rooms in a suite.
D17 absolutely loves UAH, and seems to have much more of a social life already than she did in high school. She’s made friends during the Week of Welcome, in her dorm, through the Hardware Club and in the music program.
I had also heard about the school’s reputation as a commuter school, but the dean of the honors program had talked with us a bit about how it was changing – in part due to the students their great scholarships draw in. All three of her suite mates are from out of state, as are all of her friends so far. When we talked and she decided to stay at school for Thanksgiving she assured me that most of her friends were also too far from home to go for the holiday, and that they’d already made plans to fix some meals together since the cafeterias will be closed.
UT housing is relatively a bargain.
S17’s room and board is $11,058 for a “renovated” double. R/B for a regular double is $10,715.
I thought I’d share this with the class. After a phone conversation with D17 last night, she sent a followup text: “All said, I really do feel a lot healthier and happier here than I have in a long while.”
Isn’t that ultimately what we all wished for as we went through the college selection process with our kids?
I have no idea on room and food costs at NEU. Just that it’s not cheap. Oh well. Living in Boston and other big cities is not inexpensive, so it is what it is.
Som17 will probably like having access to the cafeteria when he comes back for 2nd term. He won’t have to grocery shop or cook.
Only one plan at Wellesley.
Room: $8,040.00
Meal Plan: $7,796.00
I don’t think there needs to be concern over the academics at UAH.
From their website:
@NerdMom88, I am glad that your D ended up at the best place for her! I know at one time she wasn’t sure. I am glad she is doing so well!
I was a little surprised last week when my D was mentioning a conversation telling her friend how happy she was at her “dream college.” Funny, two years ago UF was not her “dream college”, I basically had to drag her to an Open House. As a HS junior she really didn’t appreciate what a college experience would be like. I think she has found herself in place that exceeds her expectations and is giving her experiences she did not anticipate. Would she feel the same way some where else, probably - though Gator88NE would say no
How many others are finding their children thriving at their “dream college”, may be a little unexpectedly?