The Extra Expenses

Paying for College
1

<p>So we visited DS's college of choice during a 3 day road trip and we hit 7 colleges, making that a fruitful excursion. Stayed two nights at a friend's house, so the entire thing cost us the wear and tear on the car, gas, tolls, meals, some of them covered by the colleges we visited. Not a bad start.</p>

<p>When he was accepted, I found a cheap ticket and just sent him on his own (turned out expensive due to some last minute home events but that was just bad luck and timing). Stayed with friends and enjoyed two days there, one during the official hurrah and one with a student there getting the inside scoop and look. He stayed in the dorms one night and 2 nights with friends, and the cost really came down to the plane ticket and trip to the airport and back. About $300 total out of my pocket.</p>

<p>Orientation is during the work week this summer and starts at 9 am of Day 1 and ends at 6PM of Day 2. I think I'll drive there with a one way rental (haven't checked prices yet) the night before, stay with friends for that night. DS has a dorm room for the next night, but I'll stay with friends. We'll fly back at the end of Day 2. Cost will be 2 one way plane tickets, a one way rental, some meals at very least. I expect $500 out of pocket, and I don't work outside the home so there is no loss really there, and I have a place to stay with someone who will feed us some of the meals. </p>

<p>For move in, I'll rent a one way again, drive there that day starting very early in the morning, get him settled and fly home that night. Probably $300-400 in bare bones expense in doing that. One 1 way car rental, one 1 way plane ticket. </p>

<p>That's $1200 right there before day one of classes and before paying for the tuition and room. </p>

<p>Also there has already been a room deposit fee, enrollment fee, orientation fee to be paid, some of which will come off the total bill. There will be shopping to be done--gotta get at least a Tshirt and mug, and of course DS has purchased several items for himself. </p>

<p>I write this as I see folks on very tight budgets trying to come up with what the school wants . These incidental expenses can be not so incidental. </p>

<p>DS is covering his living expenses including books other than the money I'm putting down for room and board charges. Still I expect I'll break down and put some money in College bucks for him, and his meal plan is on the generous side. I have no doubt I'll spend some money on the two trips on incidentals, sundries, meals. He has his full STafford loan for a buffer but he can easily cover first semester on what he has allocated for year one in savings right now, and hopefully second term as well, and he has yet to have his 2011 summer job earnings. He will pay for trips home--school provides cheap buses to here for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. DH and I expect to fly out there for family weekend; I have $1k set aside for that. Would love to take my youngest along--maybe I'll do a one way drive with him and just have DH fly, and we'll fly back together. We don't have hotel expenses due to a dear friend in the area whose DD has been at NYU and they have stayed at our house over the years and are eager to return the favor. `Otherwise, it could be close to another grand, even more.</p>

2

<p>I hear ya!</p>

<p>We also save money by staying with relatives when we visit son. We drive our car so we don’t pay for flights. We are not worried about milage since the car this is a leased car with extra miles built in. If I owned the car, it would make me really crazy to rack up all of those miles on a car I wanted to drive for 10 years! We do stay in a hotel to split up our drive (just too exhausting to make the drive straight through), and we use Priceline bidding, which saves quite a bit. We can usually land a clean hotel room for $45-60/night (price depends upon where we decide to stay, as some areas are more expensive than others).</p>

<p>Two expenses that we did not expect were fraternity dues (our son pays the dues and we pay the insurance bill that goes with that). We did get something out of it, because we saved on storage fees this year since he was able to use his house to keep some things at the school (probably saved $200-250 on storage). Another expense is that I did not realize is that suite style living on his campus costs more money. After freshman year most of the students want to live there. If I had said no to that, he would not have been able to room with his roommate (roommate gets his housing free!). My son offered to pay the difference if he could work enough hours to pay for it. Realistically he can’t do that because of his other expenses.</p>

3

<p>My college son got the lowest priced double room his freshman year. But in the room lottery, he ended up with a single. That jacked up the costs considerably, and this was not what he wanted, but it was either that or some dorm that was essentially off campus that cost nearly as much. He went over COA that year. The college raised all of its costs as well, so it made things very tight. We also had costs from some medical emergencies that necessitated an immediate plane ticket home.</p>

4

<p>Double I hear you! Just made hotel reservations for orientation- 2 nights $250. Fortunately we can drive to d’s college in less than 3 hours and breakfast is included in hotel price. But then there will also be family fall weekend; more hotels and driving.</p>

<p>Then there is the new laptop and bedding and comforter and mini fridge and t-shirts, sweat pants and jacket, etc. and new clothes and laundry detergent and and and…any extra fees per class that we don’t know about yet. Sports fees and clothing…</p>

5

<p>Travel factors definitely helped tipped the balance in favor of the 45-minutes-away school for my family. If the kid is an athlete or performer, there could also be family trips (transportation/hotel rooms) to watch games/concerts/plays. I wouldn’t want to miss out because of expense. It could easily have added several thousand to the price tag of the out-of-town school.</p>

6

<p>The cheap hotel to pick up child this weekend is only $70.00 for the night, we know the gas will be a lot more than that! (almost 700 miles of driving) Next year child has dropped the meal plan and is in a theme house with a single, a little bit more, but I think we will still save quite a bit with no meal plan.</p>