OK. I see it on Tuition and Fees - Undergraduate Admissions - Purdue University. This site calls it as “Additional Fees”. For CS and Engineering, this is $2,050. Makes sense now. Thanks.
I had wondered too so last night I looked further and here is what I found. It is a little more clearer on the UIUC site but it is pretty much the same idea. Scroll to the bottom and you can see which programs charge more and how much more. So for instance, CS is $2,050
Oh so funny! I looked at the breakdown of ours and the one difference is travel. They calculate ours at $250. Probably because we live in Illinois and they assume he will always take the bus to/from there or we would pick him up. Or he would have a car. That must be the difference.
UIUC is not generous with merit so if you get any that’s like winning the lottery, so just don’t get your hopes up. I don’t know how they are with financial aid as I know we won’t qualify so I can see our COA on their page now and mine would live in a private dorm there so it’s actually higher.
As I said in a previous post, travel can be the killer if you have to fly, especially around Thanksgiving and Winter break. This year it has been dirt cheap thanks to covid and the tons of evouchers we had but those will soon be used up. Books I usually find a lot less expensive and have found the Engineering/CS ones to be way less than my daughter in a Business program. Go figure. The real unknown to me is the personal/monthly spending.
Curious if anyone has been admitted RD after being deferred EA?
Deferred too. Deferred is not bad. Waitlisted is likely bad - too small of a chance.
Waitlisted = the college has finished reviewing your file and made a decision to put you on a waiting list for admission. … The admissions committee may or may not admit students from the waitlist. If you are placed on a waitlist, you can usually find out if the school has gone to their waitlist in the past and if so, how many students they admitted from the waitlist. In some cases, your chances of eventually getting in are very good; at other colleges, waitlisted applicants are almost never admitted.
Deferred = You applied under the Early Action or Early Decision plan and have been pushed back into the regular pool.
Does Purdue send acceptance packages in the mail?
Don’t forget the housing costs, which vary greatly. My son was in the honors dorm for 2 years then had a single in First St Towers for 2 years. Even with a minimal meal plan his room and board were about $14k I think, not 10k like in the general estimate.
Is the honors dorm significantly more expensive?
Yeah totally agree with this. All dorms are not created equal. UIUC does the same thing with the dorm and meal plan for their COA. They just pick some middle of the road dorm/meal plan. Depending on the needs of your student, and what they eat it can make a big difference. My son is an eater my daughters are not. One kid we dropped her down to only 7 meals a week at her school. Saved a ton. Dorm prices were all the same regardless of where you lived with the exception of the room being single, double, triple, or quad. This one I expect to probably go with the full meal plan. He’s not as picky as his sisters and is athletic where they’re about 105#. That stuff really adds up fast.
Also, if your kid doesn’t have a car at college there are savings to be had with car insurance because you can put them on away status on your own insurance. Plus all the money you aren’t spending on them at home. So, while a dorm might cost 10k, people should figure out what the cost of the kid at home is. You would be surprised how much it costs. It’s not something you really think about until they’re gone, then back home after something like Covid closes school and all your bills go way up!
@srparent15 That explains the difference! We are from CT and hence higher travel expenses. I agree we should go with zero scholarship expectations from UIUC. Irrespective of income levels, all students would get DIRECT UNSUBSIDIZED loans, which, I believe, every one should leverage because of its low interest rate of 2.75%. One can get up to $27K (over 4 years) of these UNSUBSIDIZED loans and the interest accrual over 4 years is ~$1,500. Instead of spending $27K of your liquid cash, if one invests even conservatively, one can earn much more than the ~$1,500 of first 4 year interest accruals.
That’s odd. My D’s entire cost (graduating in May) - on campus room/board every year, engineering supplement, BGR, new laptop, engineering books/lab supplies, two courses one summer, one course another other summer, grand totaled to under $180k. The only line item I can think of that would be missing would be travel.
~$46K is per year and includes nearly ~$1.5K of Misc expenses and ~$2.3K of Travel expenses…if we average it to be around ~$45K, it comes to ~$180K for 4 years.
Ugh I wish I could get away with paying less than 180k for this kid in college! My daughter at Cornell all in is about 80k/year. I haven’t even paid attention to her travel expenses, but last year coming home Thanksgiving was like $800. Plus when we have had to take her the hotels are so expensive, not to mention this year we had to quarantine with her for 2 weeks. But this year is the cheap year because her sorority housing and food is cheaper than dorm, no spring break, airfares are so much cheaper, etc. If this one goes to Purdue I will be thrilled re the money. I think between his father’s obligation and what I have saved for him he would be all covered. I cannot believe how expensive college has gotten.
@Liberty76 Definitely the transportation. I can’t even imagine how you get there from CT. Can you fly from Hartford to West Lafayette or do you live in a different part of the state? You’re funny because you and I think the exact opposite. I wouldn’t take the loan for the low rates. First you pay the origination fee (I think that’s the $60), so you’re out that money. Rates in the bank or money markets are less than 1% so you’re not going to get anything out of your money by saving it, the interest will accrue, if you put it into investments like the stock market you are taking the risk it may not go up but if it does then you have to sell it to pay the loans and create capital gains so you still need it to go up enough to cover those taxes and the interest to make it worth it, and god forbid something happens that the kid can’t pay the loan just seems risk. If you invest conservatively, you won’t make that $1,500 back that easily. Conservatively means it’s sitting in the bank earning .01%. A little less conservative you put in a non bank money market and that’s even only about .05%. Still a lot lower than the interest rate. You will have to be a little more aggressive plus again the additional origination fee which will go up each year with the higher amount of the loan since they allow you to borrow more each year. Just food for thought. I don’t know if those rates fluctuate or are fixed at what you take the loans out either but it looks like we’re starting to head into a period of inflation so rates will may go up, so the effective rate on your investments will have to increase at those rates as well.
You may be better off paying tuition with a credit card that pays cash back. Get the float that way and the cash back, but having to find a special one that pays more than what they charge. I do that with my daughter at UT-Austin.
I guess that’s “Misc” and “travel” then. Travel must be based on where you live - $2k+ seems like a lot for 3-4 r/t per year.
($10k+ was for summer courses, to free up a time for travel abroad, which was cancelled, and her minor/certificate, so it would have been just under $170k).
Yes, Purdue is extremely cost competitive for engineering compared to comparable institutions, IMO. My younger is looking at Cornell as well as MIT, CMU, Stanford, etc., and the costs are at a different level.
FWIW, we haven’t paid more than $42K in any given year and our D also lived in honors. We are within driving distance though so minimal travel costs.
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Great ROI I am sure for most.
My husband’s daughter went to Purdue and for them it was a 0 ROI but she was not in Engineering and her going there was a huge mistake. Never got a job in her field and is now doing something completely unrelated and can barely make a living. I think it really depends on what college you go to for what you’re looking to do after, if you can handle that type of college, and most of all fit. I’m not worried about mine going to Purdue and feel 100% it’s a bargain. I think he just may not want to go with the 20 other kids that got in there from our school.
@srparent15 I think our definitions of “conservative” also differ! I should have said “invest conservatively” 
and such investment would be in equities/ETFs and similar money markets - not just let the money sit in a bank - we got to make the money work! I know risk appetite varies from person to person, but if I have $27K in cash, I’d rather invest it money markets rather than put it all in school tuition especially when Fed gives me $27K loan for 2.75% interest rate. Also, this approach will let my son have some skin in the game.
Haha, yes, better to say “invest”. You may consider then lending the money to your son as opposed to creating the debt for him and the loan terms, etc. This was something we considered for me daughter 18 months ago and the interest rate was less than 2% but just wasn’t worth the risk for them and I have found other ways to make sure they have skin in the game without them worrying about that pressure. $27k is not hopefully going to be life altering for him but I saw with my ex husband what school loan debt hanging over him did while it was deferred for numerous years until he finished his education. It was always just sitting there hanging over his head. It’s definitely hard being a parent! 
Can you explain more about this credit card cash back method? Want to see how we can wing it too.
Wherever your kids go to college you should find out if the school(s) take credit cards for tuition (and other fees). One of my children goes to a school where they take credit cards so last year when tuition was 21k/semester I could charge the tuition. They charged 2.3% transaction fee, but my credit card (Alliant Credit Union) gave me back 2.5% cash so it was worth it and I also took advantage of the float. So ultimately I wasn’t actually paying the tuition until mid October. But they also had this great payment plan where you could pay 50% the first month and 25% each for the next two months and they only charged you $15 for that so for that much tuition and to delay it further based on where interest rates were at that time it was worth it. Now with rates well below 1%, not worth it. My student is also now a resident so tuition per semester is only $6,630 so it’s not worth dividing it up and paying the $15 so I just charge one payment. I also charge my federal taxes and estimates for the same reason - the float and because the IRS and other state taxes that I have to pay all charge less than 2.5% to charge the payments.