<p>Here's an article about things your child can/should go without in college. The article doesn't go into a lot of detail, but it provides several places you can save lots of money. </p>
<p>Exp: Not bringing a car to college can save a lot by the time your child graduates. Parking passes, gas, insurance, etc, adds up quite fast. </p>
<p>5</a> Ways to Save Money While in College - Associated Content</p>
<p>D has (or will) done #1, 2 & 5. Not sure that I really agree with #3. We’ll wait and see about #4 :)</p>
<p>My son has no car and saves us even more money by still not having a drivers license. It would be nice if he saved by buying books on line or selling them at the end of the course. He couldn’t live without his computer. He saves money by not being on the meal plan. I don’t think his university would recognize CC courses, and with APs there were very few intro level courses he needed to take anyway.</p>
<p>Don’t join a fraternity/sorority either Greek or service
Don’t pay for the Sports Package-so no tix for football,basketball,baseball</p>
<p>I don’t agree with #3. Most colleges recommend having a laptop.</p>
<p>No car for S. Not in high school or college. </p>
<p>I’ve been suprised by the number of students in my classes (I’m a student as well) who do not have their own computers at home. I asked one of my classmates how that worked for her and said it works great. She got forced into it because her computer broke and she could not afford to a new one. Now that she can afford it, she’s not planning on doing it since for the price of memory stick she had 24/7 access to free computers at various places on campus.</p>
<p>I disagree about not having a computer. Ten years ago, maybe – but not anymore. Kids need to store their music, pictures, and what-not. You can’t just keep all that stuff on a flash drive somewhere.</p>
<p>Cross-posted with pugmadkate. Really?? It works for her??</p>
<p>Mathmom, I agree. Not having a license can save about $1,300 per year in add on insurance in Texas.</p>
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<p>I think we’ve moved into need vs want. Students do not need to store music and pictures although I would imagine most want too.</p>
<p>Anyone who thinks not having a computer in college is a good option is completely delusional, and I say this as someone who’s gone for months at a time without owning a working computer. There are only about 5 hours a day that there aren’t any computer labs open at my university, but when your schedule is packed (even if you’re not a huge procrastinator) those 5 hours can be important. And often lab computers won’t let you install software and addons, which can be a big problem… I once had a linguistics paper take hours longer than it should have because I couldn’t install a Cherokee syllabary font on the public computer.</p>
<p>I didn’t agree about the computer, but we were told at more than one school not to worry about a printer as they take up too much space and there was printing available at several places. Seems to me that my son ended up emailing problem sets and papers more so than every before this year so he was barely printing at home now.</p>
<p>THe car… the article supposes you’re buying new. Umm… no. However, I can see how having your car at school would be a huge help especially dependent on where you live and where you go to school. However, offering the advice to ride with friends is built upon the premise that even though YOU won’t have a car, your friends will. Silly when you think about it.</p>
<p>I disagree with a few of these (generally speaking) - </p>
<h1>1. Car - it depends on the circumstance. It’s nice to avoid but is sometimes needed depending on circumstances.</h1>
<h1>2. Books - They can also buy used books at the bookstore and trade them in when done to save some money (except when they switch books every other semester to earn the publisher and author more money).</h1>
<h1>3. Bringing a computer - I think that for many/most students it’s essential. Not only can they use it to work on a big paper or CS HW at 2am from the comfort of their bed in their jammies, it can be their entertainment central to access the internet, do IM’ing, watch DVDs, watch online programs, listen to music, etc. Even though most colleges have other computers available, they’re not that convenient unless they hand you a laptop to use for the whole year.</h1>
<h1>4. Using the meal plan on weekends - many students are tired enough of campus food during the week and that’s at a campus with decent food. They need a break from it every now and then. If they think up front that they’ll eat ALL their meals on campus and therefore pay for the expensive meal plan there’s a good chance some of that meal plan will be wasted when they decide to go out to eat on the weekend anyway.</h1>
<h1>5. Taking classes at a CC - Yes, they often can take some classes at a CC for less money and a better grade but didn’t they just work very hard to get into a particular college so they can take their classes there from the top profs, etc.? Why decide to go to a top college only to take a bunch of classes at the CC? I know people do it but generally, they should stop to think about this aspect. If they really want to save money by taking classes at a CC then they should just go from HS to a CC for a couple of years then transfer to the other college.</h1>
<p>Son #1 never used his printer. Brought it home after his first term freshman year–waste of $</p>
<p>They got “zip” cars at Duke this year. Other schools have them too. I think it’s a great idea.</p>
<p>My D had a laptop (most of the time… I think she was more productive when her’s was not working and she used the one in the lab but whatev…), used and sold back books, no car, no printer. Went a little nuts eating out first semester. WAY better the second. Meal plan doesn’t really cover weekends well. She says her school won’t accept or CC courses.</p>
<h1>3 does not belong on that list. In these times, it is absolutely critical to have your own computer.</h1>
<p>Although I’ll be a graduate student, a personal laptop is REQUIRED for classroom use in my program.</p>
<p>I agree that a car isn’t necessary if you live in an urban metropolis with excellent mass transit and pedestrian-friendly streets (Chicago, NYC, Boston, DC, etc.). If you live in a more rural or isolated location, having a car might be necessary in the upperclassmen years. Ditto on Zipcar. I used the program and loved it. Made my grocery shopping trips much easier.</p>
<p>Agree with some - disagree with others:</p>
<h1>1 - S will have his truck at school next year which will save us gas and tiime when we had to pick him up and take him back. When D had her car at school, she rarely drove anywhere, but again saved us from having to drive out to get her and take her back.</h1>
<h1>2 - books. We have done VERY well buying them online. Campus bookstore only buys back at a pittance of what you pay. We have also done well re-selling them on half.com.</h1>
<h1>3 - ummm, computer is a necessity. S is a computer info. systems major. A good part of his life is on the computer, lol.</h1>
<h1>4 - yeah, meal plan works. S has an unlimited plan which is great since he can eat as much as he wants any time he wants.</h1>
<h1>5 - S has actually taken 3 courses at the college where H works, so it is basically free. These were not classes in his major. He had to pick up some credits because when he transferred, not all his credits were accepted.</h1>
<p>Regarding storing pictures, students can get storage space for pictures free on sites like Flickr and Photobucket… or for $40/year with privacy and other benefits on sites like Smugmug. As to going without a computer entirely… my son has had his laptop for a couple of months at high school. He uses it for his papers, but mostly to take notes in class. For the first time ever, he’s able to keep up with all of the lectures. He’s become the go-to guy for class notes when his classmates are catching up from absences, and (more importantly) studying for midterms was a breeze since all his notes were right there and searchable. Can’t do that on a lab computer. No way he’d go without a laptop now.</p>
<h1>1 – No cars here. No licenses yet, either. S1’s school gets them access to public transit (at least in the immediate campus area).</h1>
<h1>2 – He has bought very few books this year. Many of the readings are available online. His math and Core Bio courses didn’t use a text.</h1>
<h1>3 – Absolute necessity. LaTex and Mathematica are essential for a math major. He has an external hard drive, sends papers to gmail storage online in case the computer breaks down (saved his tail during finals!), and he has a four year warranty on his free laptop, which is honored by the on-campus IT folks, who are an authorized repair facility.</h1>
<h1>4 – no choice on meal plan, unfortunately. This is the biggest waste of money for us with this particular S. He is perfectly happy with Easy Mac and hot dogs. He loves the dorm he’s in and does not want to move out, but I can see how off-campus in a shared house/apt. would be a financially sound move, even if he has to pay part of the summer rent.</h1>
<h1>5 – Did not want to leave his HS social life and leadership activities to take college classes off-campus, and we were lucky that his HS offered many college-level electives. He built a program in HS that enabled him to place directly into major courses in his two areas of interest. College he attends limits CC and AP courses anyway.</h1>
<p>We don’t pay for spring break vacations, winter break vacations or social organizations. Not that he has asked!</p>
<p>Agree completely with #1. Unless the student is doing something special where a car is essential (like student teaching), not bringing one usually saves a substantial amount of money.</p>
<p>Buying books online only makes sense if the book list is published well in advance and if the student is very sure of his/her course selections. </p>
<p>Selling books at the end of the semester gains you very little money. My kids have sold books they would never use again, but they always keep books in their major and related subjects for possible use as references later. Getting rid of books you might need makes little sense when you get only about ten dollars for a hundred dollar textbook.</p>
<p>Not having a computer does not make sense to me. Trying to use the college’s computers exclusively is very awkward.</p>
<p>If the college is in a community where cell phone service is good, not having a landline may be a good way to save a little money. I’m surprised the article didn’t mention this. </p>
<p>For students who go to college extremely far from home, not coming home for any breaks except the long December/January one may also save money. </p>
<p>If the student is more than about 200 miles from home and doesn’t have a car with him/her at college, the family can save money by giving this information to their insurance agent. There is usually an auto insurance discount for such situations, but the student will still be able to drive the family’s cars when at home.</p>
<p>If the college offers it and if places where you can buy food for cash are readily available, a 10-meals-a-week plan may be better than a 14-meals-a-week plan or an unlimited one. I think this is better than asking the student to force himself to eat in the dining hall on the weekends if everyone else is eating elsewhere.</p>
<p>Having a refrigerator in the dorm room may be less of a necessity than many students think it is. Neither of my kids really got their money’s worth out of their refrigerators. </p>
<p>Taking community college classes in the summer may make financial sense, but it means not spending the summer in other ways that may be of more value – such as a job, internship, or travel. It’s also important to make sure that the community college credits are transferable and not to exceed the home college’s limit on transferable credits.</p>
<p>My D could live without her laptop (as in the front of her thigh) but not without her portable computer.</p>