Spending money for college?

<p>student chiming in!</p>

<p>it totally depends on your kid. if yours is the one who is going to spend her free time joining clubs, going to lectures, meeting with profs... making her sacrifice something for $20 a week might not make sense. if hes going to spend his four free hours every day playing a video game... yeah, make him get a job.</p>

<p>my parents understand that im very busy. i commute to penn state twice a week for a graduate mathematics seminar and an econometrics colloquim. im president of a club on campus, am taking the equivilant of 20 credits in addition to working on two honors theses and spending hours per day of additional mathematics readings (this board is keeping sane right now)... you get the idea. it just doesnt make sense for me to give something up so i can have $5 to chip in for pizza.</p>

<p>ive done the $6.25 an hour thing. it just hurts me to see some of my friends have to drop out of club x or stay in and study every friday night for a minimum wage job. and it hurts them even more... its just not healthy. so if your kid is going to keep busy, consider a stipend (i had about $200 in non-gas, after-book expenses this semester).</p>

<p>Once you've paid all of the college expenses (that appear on a bursar's bill), books, phone/cell/car insurance, the student should be able to come up with the rest from summer earnings.</p>

<p>I would suggest, if you are feeling generous, that $20/week for a freshman would be very appropriate. Generally, that will cover movie rentals, pizza, some clothes, essentials (shampoo, laundry money, mac & cheese for those like me who need to eat more than 3 times a day), and gas for things like trips home. </p>

<p>FYI: my parents did not give me money in college. It helped that I was able to get a very high-paying internship. In some ways, going to a "rich" college is tough when there is a lot of "keeping up" to do. If your friends are all going for dinner and a movie (about $30 each, right there), it's either spending money along with them or hitting the library. I do, however, think that boys tend to do things like rent movies and split a pizza (for about 1/10th of the cost!), while girls spend their cash. Just my observation - I prefer to spend like a guy and thoroughly enjoyed my guy friends in college.</p>

<p>nngmm, our attitude has been much like yours. We felt the kids "jobs" at school was to be at school and do well. They have worked during the summer and used that money to pay for their extras, but we have furnished basics--books, school supplies, drug store items, travel home, etc. They use their money for any extra trips with friends, eating out or off meal plan, clothing that is just "wanted", etc. Once kids got apartments it was a little harder to judge the basics so we did set a monthy allowance.</p>

<p>A final thought...</p>

<p>I fully concur with the idea of having kids get summer jobs to save money and learn to manage their money. If you are in this boat but don't want to spend $40,000/year so your kid can spend his college time earning $5.15/hour, here's the solution:</p>

<p>Match whatever he's saved from his summer earnings right before he goes to school. If he managed to save $1,000 from his summer earnings, give him a grand. (You could always spread the payments apart over semesters or months.) In other words, give him an incentive to earn money and manage his money this summer.</p>

<p>good idea ariesathena!</p>

<p>
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Another vote for summer jobs.</p>

<p>On a related note - our d is going off to college in NYC without a meal plan. - Does anyone have estimates for a food allowance for her? Either per diem or per week?

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</p>

<p>I am at NYU as a commuter without a meal plan and last month I spent 386 dollars (just checked my bank balance). The month before that I went a little crazy on my birthday... and I would rather not disclose how much I spent. I have survived on as low as 150 dollars a month and as high as I spent two months ago.</p>

<p>My cousin whom I live with on the other hand (she commutes to a graduate school in NYC)... I am not sure how much she gets each month but I am sure it is above 1k, excluding the rent and food. Needless to say, she's shops/parties a lot.</p>

<p>If your daughter is commuting, then the metrocards are a pretty significant drain on your monthly budget. You can find many cheap places to eat, so most of my money spent on depends on how much I go out with friends (bars/clubs are quite expensive), hence the wide range of monthly budget for the past eight months.</p>

<p>My parents give me 200 bucks a month, but most months I've spent more than that and the deficit comes from my savings from previous work.</p>

<p>As for summer work... I got lucky last year and landed a great job which payed approximately $3000 for 4 weeks (it was a teaching position at a Foreign Language Camp). This summer I am going to be working for approximately 8 weeks on a $10/hour basis (hours will vary each week), but I got lucky on this as well because the only reason I got the job was due to my brother.</p>

<p>I read a book LONG ago on teaching children fiscal responsibility. We followed the advice, and I believe it worked well for us. Since they were old enough to remember, every allowance, every gift, and any employment income was divided (percentages are up to the parent). Some went to college savings. Some went to charity. Some went to shorter savings (we chose 1 year). and the majority was "spending" money. College savings was too vague to them, but finding a pot of gold on their birthday (the 1 year savings), was always appreciated. By the time they were ready for college each had about $2000 - $3000 in their college account. It was what they use for everything above tuition, room & board (books, entertainment, snacks, etc.). It probably only lasts about 1-2 years at college, but they also make slightly better wages for summer work at this point, which will be applied to the latter years. We also still "treat" when they come home (bring them clothes shopping, dinners out, etc.). While they obviously have a "safety net", they also seem to watch how they spend their own money.</p>

<p>one other comment about summer jobs - last year, I took an unpaid internship in a research lab that was (academically) VERY useful to me, and involved a pretty big time commitment. Because I wasn't getting paid for the internship by the lab, my parents kept giving me spending money for the following year. </p>

<p>There are a lot of great internships out there for college students, but unfortunately, a lot of them are unpaid. I think the most important thing is for your student to be doing something useful with their time. As such, I think that maybe something that would work is telling the student that if they want spending money for the next year, they either have to take a paying job over the summer, or take a worthwhile unpaid internship, for which the parents will (effectively) compensate them. Obviously for families with limited financial resources, the first option works better, but I don't think that simply telling a college student that they have to earn their spending money over the summer is always the best option, because it may prevent them from pursuing some really really worthwhile unpaid activities.</p>

<p>Good point athena,
I know this summer my son will be in an unpaid internship and taking a class. He will try to get a few hours work on the weekends, but it will be peanuts. He was concerned about this and we told him the internship is much more important in the long run than working in a barely above minimum wage job that is not in his academic area.</p>

<p>Athena
I also agree with your point of view. My D will be taking 7 hours summer classes at home this year. And she'll plus putting in alot of observational hours (unpaid) in physical therapy at a children's hospital to prepare her to apply for a Doctoral program in phys therapy. While I REALLY would love for her to earn some of her own spending money, this opportunity will be far more valuable. I expect it may be life-changing for her. It's worth way more than a minimum wage job. It is a bit of a hardship for us as we have two in college simultaneously. However there are only 3 summers to do this kind of thing during college before graduation.</p>

<p>It's a tough call as I also appreciate the value of a kid earning and spending his or her own money. Right now, this is what we expect of our S who doesn't have this type of activity lined up for the summer.</p>

<p>I think it's a very individual thing--differing by family and by each student in that family.</p>

<p>Curioser, our son is doing the same this summer, taking 2 courses the first summer term and working with one of his profs on a few open source programming projects gratis. Fortunately he lives in an off campus apartment so the housing/food issues are already taken care of. He is hoping to pick up a part-time evening job for spending money next year.</p>

<p>My S is so thrifty needs to be prodded to spend 9on food and entertainment...
Seriously, so much depends on the child and the school. My S's school provides concerts and weekend activities (barbecues, movie parties, etc). They rented a theater and buses when Star Wars came out. He started with small jobs and moved into better positions over the past 2 years. Summer research job began after freshman year, and this summer he'll earn more. So, I see it as helping out freshman year, then he gained more savvy about earning.
On the other hand, I've had friends' kids manage to spend $500-1000 a month, shopping and eating out. So much depends on the child's temperament, even with parents' trying to teach a value for money. One works in a clothing store, and spent more than she earned.</p>

<p>This thread is helpful. I too can see the value of a volunteer position where the student learns whether the field is the right one for him/her. I've seen a lot of kids graduate only to realize that they DON'T LIKE their fields when it comes to actually doing the work they are qualified to do (Physicial Therapists, Lawyers, Travel Industry & Management, Teachers, Engineers, etc.)
This summer, son will be paid to help kids with computers (he volunteered to do the same thing last year). Hopefully next summer, he will be doing something that he thinks he MAY want to do as a career, even if he does it as a volunteer. We have saved all the money that has come his way over the years & it has accummulated to a tidy sum that he can use for school-related expenses while we pay the rest of his tuition, room & board.
I agree that if the families can afford it, sometimes a position in child's field of interest (volunteer or with nominal stipend) is FAR more valuable in helping the kid think about future options than a part-time or summer job. I know that I learned from my summer & part time jobs what I DIDN'T want to be but not too much about what I DID want to be. I'd like my son to have more exposure to what he might WANT for his career.</p>

<p>I agree that the value of an internship or a career starter spot is more valuable than 40 hrs at minimum wage doing burgers at McDs -- unless your child is interested in running a fast food franchise!</p>

<p>My parents subsidized one summer i spent in an unpaid internship spot -- and in suceeding years I saved some nice chunks of cash towards my expenses.</p>

<p>We feel strongly that <em>our</em> son earn his way on the spending money. Coming from an affluent area where many kids seem to have a money tree in the back yard and there are lots of places to squander a quick $50 having fun with friends -- we think it's important for him to put a value of (for example) 5 hours at work to make that $50 bill.</p>

<p>I'm sure that down the road we'll help fund an unpaid internship for S1 or S2 ... luckily this year S1 has a great summer job, while S2 is still under legal age to work!</p>

<p>I second the vote on Internships and money. As much as I believe in the kids earning their spending money, I also have told D that if she gets in Internship in her field, we will financially support her. And for the third summer, she is doing a show with an elite Regional theater an hour away, and we will once again pay for the gas to get there. Just not for the bottle of Fitness water she buys along the way :)</p>

<p>Well, yeah, of course an unpaid internship or classes means that college kids would have a hard time holding down a summer job too. I thought that was a given. I just don't like the idea of anyone (my 12 year old son included) sleeping late, playing computer games all day and staying up late - for two months.</p>

<p>It depends on one's major and amount of time a student must put in on schoolwork as to whether it's possible to hold another job or not. I believe if a student is on scholarship, that is a job. Keeping up one's grades to maintain the scholarship is more important work than earning spending money. The rewards are greater. If a student is a junior or senior in a rigorous major, trying to get into grad school, the student's jobs should be maintaining one's grades. If one is doing an unpaid research project with a professor for course credit that takes away from other study time, that would be the work time. Not every student has a lot of free time to work. Some majors require much less study or prep time for classes. The arts are also very time consuming. If one is in a studio class or in a show, the rehearsals eat up the time one could be holding down a job. As someone said above, an internship also counts as job time.</p>

<p>My parents are paying for my education so all of my graduation gifts and summer earnings will go towards spending money. However I was fortunate enough to get a full time job this summer with a moving company. Its hard work but for an 18 year old just looking for a summer job, you can't beat the pay. If you can do it manual labor in the summer is the best way to earn spending money for college.</p>

<p>This is my parents and I are planning on doing:</p>

<p>I'm going to work this summer about 20 hours, but I am also paying for most of my stuff for my dorm room and for all personal nessecities, so I won't be able to save very much. We only sent out 50 graduation announcements, so if I get $20 from 40 of them, that's $800 right there. That money will go towards personal things, like dorm room stuff.</p>

<p>My first semester of college I am not going to work to get acquainted with school. My parents are giving me $200 a month of spending money my entire freshman year. The second semester, I am going to get a job with about 10 hours a week. All of that money will go directly into my CD and will not be used. I will use the money my parents will deposit in my checking account for spending instead.</p>

<p>Over the summer after my freshman year, I am going to work about 30 hours. I will keep $200 each month for summer spending money and put the rest in a savings account (not the aforementioned CD). After 10 weeks of summer, I should have about $1850 saved up to use as spending money my sophomore year.</p>

<p>During my sophomore year, I will live off the money earned over the summer and continue to work 10 hours a week, and put all of that money in the CD.</p>

<p>The next summer I will do the same as the previous summer, and the first semester of my junior year I will do the same as my sophomore year (live off summer earnings, contribute school year earnings to CD). </p>

<p>The second semester of my junior year I want to study abroad, which everything considered costs about $9400 more for that year than going to my college costs. I will split that extra cost with my parents down the middle. Working 10 hours a week should over my second freshman semester, whole sophomore year and first junior semester should earn me about $4700, which is half of that cost. If I end up not studying abroad, I will have that money for a newer car or to go on a vacation during the summer.</p>

<p>We haven't really worked out anything beyond my junior year. What do you all think of that plan? I really think it will work well for my family and I.</p>

<p>Bravo to the parents who are teaching their students to be fiscally responsible! There's far too little of that going on these days.</p>

<p>Judging from people I know, having your kid take care of his/her own finances is a choice that is beneficial- and not just to your wallet. My boyfriend's sister is 22 and will be attending grad school at UVa next fall. Her parents have paid for everything throughout college- room and board, tuition (although she got a substantial rebate because her dad teaches there)- and given her free housing for the summer. They also paid for two trips to England- one academic, one simply to see her boyfriend- and sent her money regularly, as well as (later) paying for the long-distance phone calls to her British boyfriend!</p>

<p>She's a very intelligent girl, but she has no idea how to take care of herself in the real world, and she's very naive; right now, she's working part-time for her school, but has no real plans for a job next year. It's unbelievable how out-of-touch she is for someone of her age. I'm eighteen, and even I know better than that! </p>

<p>Because my parents have little money to spare and five younger kids to take care of, I expect to work at least one job during my freshman year of college. It was never a question in my family; once you're out of the house, you need to start taking care of yourself. Not only is it financially necessary for my parents, but it builds character. If I hadn't held down a steady job for the past two years, I would know nothing about independent life.</p>