<p>Hello guys,</p>
<p>I was wondering for those who have attended or currently attending Cal Poly, can you tell us about your total cost of attendance? How much did you spend for everything including tuition, housing, etc? Is the estimated financial aid budget an accurate breakdown of budget you will need for the whole year? </p>
<p>I’m a little reluctant on taking out unnecessary amount of loans. My estimated cost comes around 24k. I think I’ve got tuition covered with grants but the living cost might have to come from loans (both sub and unsub). </p>
<p>Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks</p>
<p>Sorry I’m not a current student, but I’ve been stressing about the same thing lately. It is estimated that for all undergraduate students, it will cost $24,858 for 1 school year. This is an absurd amount of money to me. As of right now I only have 500 bucks saved up for Cal Poly. This will probably only cover moving costs getting up there! Sad, isn’t it? Anyways, I was told to start looking into scholarships. So that’s what I’m going to start doing. I’m wondering if I, too, should take out those loans that were offered to us. $50,000 by the time I graduate. Wow. And I’m a transfer student! To think that incoming freshmen will have twice that amount of debt. We did get accepted to a Cal State, right?? LOL</p>
<p>Did you not qualify for the Cal Grant, or Pell Grant? If you did not I don’t know how you will be able to afford go to SLO. You can only qualify for a small amount of loans yourself. The others are parent loans and your parents need a good income to qualify. You might need to change to a school close enough to home to commute so that you don’t have the housing costs.</p>
<p>Cal Poly’s stated cost of attendance includes quite a bit of money for discretionary spending. Here’s the breakdown for 2012-2013:</p>
<p>Fees & Tuition $9,021
Books & Supplies $1,737
Room & Board $10,677
Transportation $1,134
Personal / Misc. $2,289</p>
<p>Total $24,858</p>
<p>There are many ways to save money. Buy used books, take the Amtrak bus ($35 or so one way from SLO to the Bay Area), keep your personal spending under control, and after your first year you can live off campus or buy a cheaper meal plan. </p>
<p>My son spent about $19,000 his first year on campus, $17,000 his 2nd year living off campus and will spend around $17,000 this year as well living off campus.</p>
<p>His rent is around $600/month and he spends around $1000/quarter on food & books. He eats lunches on campus and picks up free pizza a couple of days a week with his club. He’s not one of those guys who eats a lot, so the food cost will probably be higher for most.</p>
<p>Plan on tuition going up at least 5%/year.</p>
<p>We’ve spent around $19,000-20,000 a year on our daughter, both as a freshman last year and now as a sophomore living in PCV. She was fortunate to have $4,500 of outside scholarships to cover some of that her freshman year. Next year, even though she’ll be living off campus, it’s going to be more costly, unfortunately. 
With rising tuition and higher rent, I think we’ll be spending closer to $23,000. Hopefully, we can keep it under that.</p>
<p>Are there CP merit awards made specifically after freshman year? Are there CP competitive scholarships? My daughter is an Out of State student so, she will have higher CofA. Is there a concerted effort made to help students compete for scholarships from outside organizations?</p>
<p>I can’t answer this, but I’m sure someone will be able to, memphispeg. As for outside scholarships, my daughter found them through her high school. They have a list of local scholarship opportunities, ie; Rotary Club, etc. Not sure what Cal Poly does in that regard. I wish my daughter could find them as a continuing student. Many of them seem geared for graduating h.s. seniors.</p>