It’s like 4 years of all-year summer camp, with breaks in-between.
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Every family is different. From our perspective, rent and utilities were additional expenses that we didn’t have when our kids were in HS. In our case, travel and food increased. We spent more flying our kids home, or paying for gas for them to drive home. We gave them a monthly stipend for food. Purchasing food for a family was more cost effective (per person) than what they spent on groceries as an individual.
For us, “kid things” were replaced with “college things” such as football/basketball tickets, club/org fees, Greek fees, education abroad, weekend road trips, etc.
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Yeah this is pretty much what we are expecting too….
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of course! we are paying rent right now in providence and tuscaloosa! college is incredibly more expensive than high school. But what i’m saying is that our HS costs are now diverted to college; so its not like we still have those in addition to college expenses. The way our budget works, it’s like an extra source of funds that have been freed up. ** and in college, we do have our kids make choices and pay for many extras on their own; spring break trips, greek fees, club org fees, etc.
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Yes! My kid’s private music lessons will now be included in college. That’s several thousand dollars per year that we’ve been paying for the past 11 years. @AmyIzzy is probably in a similar situation. I did not know how to include that savings in my cost calculations, but we’ll feel the difference.
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Yes! We are so excited!
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What I was spending on competitive dance for D17 was more per year than her college tuition, lol. We joke that with what we spent on dance, she could be a doctor.
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S23 visiting UW today. The formula SAE team told him they accept only 16% of applicants. It seems kind of unappealing to have to compete to get into the school, then compete to get into the engineering major that you want, and compete to get into clubs and teams too…
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Thank you for that! We never told my kids they had to choose the cheapest option but gave them our budget range and told them they can pick the college with the best fit within that range. Loyola New Orleans was in the middle of that range for my daughter and Case Western (after the updated financial aid package) is at the top end but totally worth it! I never really thought about all those savings you mentioned but we were paying $325 monthly for theatre for my daughter, not to mention the frequent NYC trips and we are at $400/mo for gymnastics plus lots of travel. Even though the Florida schools were less expensive, the travel expenses for flights and our visits would add up fast. It hasn’t been too bad for New Orleans only because my daughter rarely comes home but our visits there aren’t cheap (although very enjoyable!) An Amtrak train ride r/t home for my son will probably be $50-$75 from Cleveland not bad at all. CWRU really seems like a great fit for my son and it’s crazy how everything fell into place after kind of giving up on it due to cost.
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Yes, lots of savings on voice lessons for my daughter! And that’s one of the reasons my son is considering a music major at Case. They get free lessons through Case or CIM. If he chooses a minor, it’s $1500 per semester for 1 hr/week.
WOW. We spend about $500/month on music, and we thought that was a lot.
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I feel you. It’s the same for music. The school, then the program, and then one more layer, for those of us who are not full pay–the offer. If your kid is also interested in honors, that’s four!
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Yes, but most of those things that you mention (the program, the offer, and honors) are offered in admissions season, and you can compare BEFORE you accept and enroll.
At schools with secondary admission to major, you compete AFTER you are already a student and have committed and are attending. And the same is true for these clubs.
For my son, formula SAE is a must-have. He already eliminated a lot of schools because their formula team wasn’t good enough. So if there is too much risk in joining the team, this might be a dealbreaker.
Luckily Oregon State’s team, which has the BEST race car out of all his school choices, is much more welcoming! Cal Poly is also super friendly and has a good car team! I hope he picks one of those schools… 
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Ah, that’s different. The similar piece for us is ensemble auditions, which come after you start school, and that is a big risk in choosing some schools where the required ensembles are competitive. It’s not as high stakes as a major. OSU sounds so perfect. I’m rooting for him to pick that one. How can he not?! 
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When a school shows you who they are - believe them. Speaking as a local and alumna.
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By high school, we were spending about 10k a year on dance between studio team, high school team, solos, costumes, etc…
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My son received his first outside scholarships. Yay! He won a memorial award for character at the USA gymnastics state meet (in the form of a $500 Visa card) and an award for the 2nd highest overall score at the state meet for a senior (in the form of a $500 check written out to him.) Do we need to report these to his college or just keep track of for our tax records? I believe some scholarships are sent directly to the college but these were just given to him. BTW-I did ask Case Western about stacking scholarships and they should be added on unless the amount is something very high like $7k or more in which they’d start taking off of FA. If he’s lucky he’ll get up to $3500 (including these gymnastics ones) but not likely more than that.
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Yes, the rejection culture seems really strong at UW. Lots of great things about that school… but having to apply with an essay and resume and interview for EVERY SINGLE THING… and then being proud of how many people they keep out (even for a student club!)… this sort of culture seems like it would be a negative feature even for the kids who are hard working and lucky and get access to everything they want.
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I would not report them, but I don’t know the official answer. A one-time, small payment made directly to him (as a gift card?!) doesn’t seem like the sort of outside scholarship yoh would need to report. It is more like a graduation gift than a scholarship.
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Congratulations! That’s a great validation of his talent and work. 
I am not an expert, so don’t depend on my answer, but they sound more like “prizes” to me than scholarships, in a technical sense–especially the Visa card–because they went to him personally and not the school. He could use them for something non-billable like books and write a thank you note to the sponsors.
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