<p>In an earlier post, I used the published COA from OSU as $24K to make a point. I was told that the true COA could be much less than that if one watches their spending. </p>
<p>So, how is the true COA for your DD or DS comparing to the school's estimation?</p>
<p>In our DD's case:</p>
<p>Family contributions estimated by school ~$15K</p>
<p>The true COA:
School bills ~$10.7K
Airfares ~$1K
Book etc ~ $1.5K
Misc ~ $1K
Total family spending ~$14K.</p>
<p>So, the school calculated expenses are real and close to the actual spending. DD purchased used books and/or shared new books to lower the total expense.</p>
<p>School assumed close to $3200 for books/personal expenses. S1 has spent $1200. He’s cheap and several of his classes either did not have textbooks or the materials were available as .pdfs from the professor’s website.</p>
<p>Was not amused to see a $100 Bio lab fee tacked on to the bill, considering what we pay for tuition! School does not include transportation in its calculation of COA, unlike some other schools S considered.</p>
<p>When all is said and done, we came out about $1000 less than COA at a private.</p>
<p>It really varies a lot by the kid. For our 1st child (S), freshman year, things were pretty close to COA, since he lived on campus & used the school meal plan. 2nd year, he lived in a campus apartment & was able to cook, so his COA went down and he pocketed the difference between the meal plan & his actual cost. Schools generally greatly underestimate travel costs, especially for those of us who live in HI as airfares between HI & other states can be pretty steep, especially to get kids to & from school for breaks.</p>
<p>After a while, we would just use tuition & fees, plus any U housing expenses. We’d put the amount for the lowest-priced meal plan in the kids’ checking account & purchase any airplane tickets. The remaining expenses are the kids’ to pay. They pay those out of funds they earn during the school year or summers. Sorry, that’s the best estimate I can come up with.</p>
<p>I generally have gotten some good deals on airline tickets through credit cards, etc.</p>
<p>Our experience was similar to CountingDown. The books are less expensive, the incidentals are alittle less and the transportation is less. S1 is frugal and we are frugal. But “less” is a negligible number in the big picture of total college costs…probably not quite a grand. S1 living off campus for sophomore year and saved us some money, but tuition went up year two so it was net/net on actual out of pocket expenses for us. Like remodeling a house, budget for the higher number and if it comes in lower consider it a bonus.</p>
<p>ditto —to that of momofthreeboys, especially books being less.</p>
<p>even greater savings next year because of off campus housing, no on campus parking (apt is in walking distance), presently gasoline for car travel is less than estimated COA that included airfare.</p>
<p>We had hoped S could drop to the cheapie meal plan next year since he eats so little (and we’d save $2400), but the school is refiguring their meal plan options and he’s in the year that doesn’t get grandfathered. While he loves living on campus, this action may make us seriously consider off-campus options junior and senior year. The current freshman meal plan costs as much as we spent on groceries the first eight months of last year (and that includes feeding a football player).</p>
<p>S will be living in Boston in a sublet this summer and if he spends $200 on groceries in the ten weeks he’s there, I’ll be surprised.</p>
<p>OTOH, we have a friend who is in upper-div genetics and bio courses, and the book budget is HUGE. YMMV depending on major!</p>
<p>Yep–forgot to mention that by off campus living the [high] meal plan cost gets dropped and S knows how to cook and is using only the much, much lower transient meal plan plus cooking at his apartment next year.</p>
<p>Daily frugality and having fun on the cheap is something that my now rising college junior S acknowleges has made him able to do some additional adventures and experiences w/o having his hand out to us (or having us have a say in them due to us coming more out of pocket to pay for it)</p>