<p>Basically, you will get a bill from Duke charging you for 1/2 the 2013-14 tuition, all of the fees, 1/2 the actual room and board, all of the health insurance (maybe depending on how they do it, and if you have coverage already, you give them the info and they will drop that charge), off set by 1/2 your award less any loan origination fees, and also offset by your enrollment deposits, will be due by the time classes begin. </p>
<p>Books, transportation, personal costs will not be on that bill. You have some control over those costs. Depending on whether you get used books,rent books, get books cheaper on line, find students that will lend you books, take courses that don’t have as many books, can make that expense variable. The school uses an average. One of mine was a theatre major and he had hardly any book costs, but a lot of other fees and supplies that most academic majors would not incur. One of mine paid practically nothing for books because he made some friends that shared their old books and were aggressive about getting books from others and made it a point to break the bookstore. My current son is paying a fortune in book costs, because his courses require paper packs, not books that cost $19-200 a sealed pack, not even a book, and you can’t get the stuff anywhere else and it is all new for the term–what a rip off! </p>
<p>If you live nearby and your parents can just drive you there and absorb that cost, and you can car pool with students there, then you “beat” the transportation average figure. You live in CA or overseas, then you are going to pay, much, much more because of the cost of air transportation. How often you go home will determine that cost as well as the cost of your flights. But you or your parents have to pay for those costs.</p>
<p>Personal costs? You need sheets and bed linens. The beds are usually an extra long so most people have to buy them new since most homes don’t use that size. Yeah, what a pain and expense. Or just use a flat sheet if you want to save money or ask around if anyone has any from older college kids (like me, we don’t buy any sine we have them from the older kids that I saved). You need laundry money for detergent and paying for use of those machines most of the time. You need shampoo, soap, toiletries. Whether your family will spring for new towels, clothes, things for the room or you scavenge in your house is up to you, so you can control some of those estimated costs that way. How much pocket money you need to have is also discretionary. Do you have a computer already? Do you have a cell phone? All those go under personal costs. Some of those costs you and your family may already be covering and when you leave, it may actually reduce your family’s outlay. No more empty tanked car after the kid uses it. The washer isn’t used as much, the juice and milk aren’t drained, and the electric and water bill might go down, if you get my drift. But yes, those all go under personal costs,those thing that the college talleys up that you will still cost your parents or self, and they just estimate an average. </p>
<p>So even before you head out to college, you and your family need some of that money. You gotta buy some stuff, you have travel costs to get there, you need your books before classes start, you need certain supplies like pencils, notebooks, computer, calculator, batteries for the calculator. And stuff happens while you are there too. You can break your glasses, your teeth, your ankle, and more costs right there. So whether you will $4K, get away with less, end up spending more depends on your own spending, luck, and specific needs. </p>
<p>If your parents cannot come up with the full amount due that they are billed, I suggest that they use a payment plan–there is a fee that breaks the amount into monthly payments. That’s what I do. You can be responsible for the discretionary costs as they come up during the year, and your books. That’s what my kids do.</p>