<p>can a current student tell us how much a freshman spends per week/month.</p>
<p>This is a totally wide open question depending on means, social scene they’re in, etc.</p>
<p>There’s general cost of living things, like toiletries, hair cuts, dry cleaning, etc. that probably could average like $35/mo. </p>
<p>How much they eat out/see movies/go into chicago could range from $10/mo to $200. </p>
<p>How will they spend on alcohol (and don’t assume your kid doesn’t drink, I know a ton of “if my parents found out…” cases)? Freshmen generally dont have to spend a ton thanks to free booze at fraternity parties, but even then $10-20/mo is nice for that</p>
<p>Then there’s the occasional big-ticket thing. A few of my friends wanted to go skydiving one weekend. Or maybe its a cubs/bulls game. Again, things that can be avoided if money is an issue or drive things way up if its not.</p>
<p>I made like 50/week with my work study job and that was more or less sufficient for me.</p>
<p>Whenever my son needed a few extra bucks he did a Kellogg survey. Sometimes it’s a food study. He’s texted me and said - I just had a piece of cake and they paid me $8, He would do one or two studies a week for a few extra dollars. They are not mandatory - they send you and email and ask if you want to participate</p>
<p>[Opportunities</a> for research participation and assistantships](<a href=“http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/rc/researchparticipation.htm]Opportunities”>http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/rc/researchparticipation.htm) </p>
<p>Here’s an example of one of the emails - </p>
<p>Researchers at the Kellogg School of Management at
Northwestern University would like to invite you to
participate in a study on decision making. The study will
last for 30 minutes and you will receive $8 for your
participation.</p>
<p>Please go to kellogg-markecon.sona-systems.com, login to the
system and sign up for Study 11001.</p>
<p>The study will be in Room 480, 4th floor, Marketing
Department, in Leverone Hall at Kellogg. Please wait in the
hallway outside of the room and someone will come out to
greet you. Please let us know if you must cancel your
appointment.</p>
<p>Our freshman son this year spent about $150 - 200 +/- per month, which included cheap brkfasts at Einsteins bagels (he had 13 meals a week plan, so we budgeted for some breakfast costs/cereal/milk, etc.), occasional meal out, laundry, CVS runs for incidentals, El transportation to Chicago and back, and he regularly attended CSO concerts at 10.00 per ticket cost and at times had to pay piano accompanist for performances (music major). Not a lot of extra, hidden expenses in our experience - just be careful about not incurring overdue fines at campus libraries. Our son was pretty frugal as a music major saving his $$ for symphony tickets. YMMV.</p>
<p>@kleibo</p>
<p>No way! That’s awesome, I’ll definitely sign up for next year. Along with $50/week from my work/study and my parents’ credit card, I think I’ll be able to manage.</p>