Spending Money

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Notre Dame
1

<p>Can anyone comment on how much the average freshman at ND should budget per month for spending money while living on campus (excluding the meal plan that comes as part of room and board) i.e. purchasing of personal items, going out with friends occasionally, cup of coffee, additonal food items, other university fees, etc.?</p>

2

<p>I was just wondering the same thing.</p>

3

<p>same too, i’ll be returning to this message when someone answers it.</p>

4

<p>When I was at ND I actually spent very little money while on campus freshman/sophomore year. Especially freshman year, people mostly stay on campus since freshman can’t have cars and everything is pretty much taken care of (your Flex Points take care of coffee, snacks and personal items, which can be bought on campus). Freshman year, pretty much all I spent “real” money (aka, not Flex Points) on while at school was books (which can be charged to your student account) and the very occasional dinner/shopping trip off campus. Guys I know also had to spend some money on beer if they drank (girls usually avoid this expense freshman year since nearly all the parties happen in guys’ dorms…not fair, I know) as well. And I really did most of my shopping while home on break. She will need some money for laundry/vending machines (which can be put in her Domer Dollars account- my parents would usually give me $50-100 at the beginning of the semester and reload it when it ran out, though it usually lasted the semester).</p>

<p>Once I turned 21 and started going out to bars, my expenses went up considerably…</p>

5

<p>Things you will spend money (or domer dollars, essentially money) on outside of the meal plan:</p>

<p>DOMER DOLLARS (about $50-100 per semester was fine for me)

  • Laundry
  • Random food expenses after you run out of flex points
  • Vending Machines
  • School supply needs that come up during the semester</p>

<p>MONEY (all three of these are completely dependent on your interests)

  • Alcohol
  • Cabs
  • Going out to eat</p>

<p>Of course, you’ll also probably be spending money on furnishing your room as well as books. Room stuff is dependent on you, and books can be anywhere from $100-500+ per semester depending on your courses and where you buy from. My suggestion: rent from chegg.com. Totally worth it.</p>

6

<p>Do most freshmen work during their first year? Does the first-year workload allow enough time to work 10 hours a week or so on campus? Or is it better to just focus on studies before commiting to a work/study job?</p>

7

<p>where are the washing machines located? i didn’t see them when i visited?
would chegg.com be considerably cheaper than buying the books? </p>

<p>part of my financial aid package requires me to do work/study. will it be difficult to handle my studies, get a job for work study, do ND choir, and participate in student government. I promised myself i’d ease on the extracurriculars when i got to college and focus more on studying and fun, but i’ve narrowed it to my favorite extracurriculars.</p>

8

<p>I am also trying to figure out the whole work study thing and how many hours per week I would like to work. So if any current/past students would like to help, it would be greatly appreciated.</p>

9

<p>Work Study on financial aid is the MAX that you can make in a semester. It is up to you to find a job on campus (there are plenty) and determine the number of hours you wish to work. At the financial aid page there is a calculator or chart with rate of pay.</p>

10

<p>I am sorry but I don’t understand the first part of that. As an example, say I had a federal work study of $2600 per year, so $1300 for this fall semester. Why would they limit how much I can make to $1300? What if I want to make more money?</p>

11

<p>

They limit it based on need, since federal work-study pay is subsidized for financial aid. If you want to make more money, go out and get a job at a restaurant.</p>

12

<p>For work-studies, does the money go straight to the school or do we get the money?</p>

13

<p>

You get a paycheck; it’s up to you to use it to pay for school.</p>

14

<p>I don’t understand everything people have said. I don’t know much about aid but I don’t get any work study aid, but I can make as much as I would like so I am not sure if it is necessarily limited…maybe it depends on the job?</p>

15

<p>Federal work-study wages are subsidized by the federal government; non-aid student employment is not. The federal government doesn’t want to subsidize someone’s wages more than they need, so you can only make so much in federal work-study (up to your “need”), whereas non-subsidized student employment doesn’t have to have a cap. From what I understand, at least.</p>

16

<p>Dolorous, I have called the office several times now and according to them I can make as much money as I would like. They simply allot $1300 per semester to my financial aid, but I can work as much as I want. </p>

<p>Talking to the office is rather confusing, however, and I am still not completely understanding the entire concept of federal work study so take my word for what it is worth.</p>

17

<p>Then it seems I’m misinformed. Sorry about that.</p>