<p>DD, I hope, has finally narrowed down her college to U of Ala. U of Ala has offered full tuition scholarship based on her test scores. From research I have gathered it looks like her mom and I will be responsible for room and board, books and spending money. If this is not correct please advise.</p>
<p>There are also some course fees that you’ll have to pay which vary depending on what courses your D takes. Roughly around $300/semester for my D who is a history major. And travel expenses if that applies. </p>
<p>And sorority expenses if she decides to go through recruitment.</p>
<p>Congratulation to your daughter on her scholarship and welcome!</p>
<p>You will be responsible for:
a meal plan (silver plan for first year students)
$300 Dining Dollars (each semester)
Bama Cash (money for laundry/etc.)
Course Fees (depends on which classes)
Books (costs depend on where purchased)
Transportation (airline fees/shuttle, depends on where you live)
Moving/decorating (shipping items/driving depends on location)
Spending Money (grocery shopping/personal items/discretionary)
Clothing/supplies (School supplies/clothing -depends on individual)</p>
<p>This is what UA lists:
HOW MUCH WILL SCHOOL COST?</p>
<p>The table below shows in-state and out-of-state tuition and fees for the 2010-2011 academic year:</p>
<p>In-State Description Out-of-State
$8600 Tuition and Fees $21200
$10206 Room and Board $10206
$1100 Books $1100
$1075 Transportation $1525
$1400 Miscellaneous $2226
$22381 TOTAL $36257</p>
<p>Hi!</p>
<p>Glad to hear that your D will be coming to Bama! :)</p>
<p>As you may have read in previous threads, Freshman meal plans are the most expensive, so those costs often go down after the first year…especially since you have a girl. :)</p>
<p>Bama doesn’t have fees like: recreation fee, health fee, university fee, activities fees, facilities fees, etc like many colleges do. I’ve seen some schools have 20+ line items of various “fees”…which you probably have seen as well. </p>
<p>However, like many colleges, there are course fees for various courses…so, you do need to allow for those. It seems to me that typically the hard sciences have the higher fees because of labs…and the costs associated with labs and technology use. My kids are Chem Engineering and Math majors (lots of labs/technology use), so I did have to budget a few hundred in course fees for each semester for those.</p>
<p>Okay, not to scare anyone with the costs: There are ways to economize. </p>
<p>Rooms: (which I left out of my previous post) are significantly less expensive if you do not take a “super” suite. *** Note of Caution*** If you do not pick Honors Housing for freshman year, you can never live in Honors Housing for subsequent years.</p>
<p>Meal plans: Costs will go down significantly after the first year.</p>
<p>Books: You can buy online or used or even rent, this will be a cost saver.</p>
<p>Dining Dollars: You can choose to not even use that money and ask for a refund at the end of the year.</p>
<p>Personal/clothes costs: Bring toiletries from home and add only those clothing items you really need.</p>
<p>Spending money: Be frugal -good time to start a budget.</p>
<p>Travel costs: Share a ride, or try taking the train -this can be a big savings over flying. Buy airline tickets early and compare prices.</p>
<p>Supplies: Take a computer from home (if available) and who doesn’t have enough pens/pencils laying around?</p>
<p>Expensive, yes, But these are some suggestions for economizing!</p>
<p>Don’t forget to check your health care coverage, it might just cover your college student. That could be a big savings!</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the tips. Will look into the health coverage.</p>
<p>the way i see it is that personal expenses (like clothes and toiletries etc) and to some extent meal plan are costs you are already paying to keep your kid alive. so these are really not additional costs.</p>
<p>so, to me, the cost of school if you dont have to pay tuition is room, fees, books and travel.</p>
<p>and for us that has been about 10K this year. maybe a little less.</p>
<p>I will also say that I’ve spent less on D’s “personal expenses” this year than when she was home. There’s no little runs to Target or the mall, where I’ve picked up a $10 tee shirt, or a cute little pair of shoes for $30. Since she didn’t go Greek, there’s been no requirements for any particular clothing (except for a new pair of rain boots & a lighter North Face jacket.) Even on the weekends when she’s come home, there hasn’t been much time for shopping.
YMMV.</p>
<p>When you get to T-town…if you do a Wal-mart, Target, or Sams Club run, you can pick up soap, shampoo, etc, etc for the year. I think my kids only go thru 2 (maybe 3) shampoo bottles during the year. </p>
<p>For the super suites…everyone in the suite needs to contribute paper towels, toilet paper, dish soap, hand soap, etc.</p>
<p>It is never to early to start collecting the obvious general supplies and start placing them in a designated storage tub(s) now. As graduation comes and goes, these threads will be jam packed with “lists” of items to bring. </p>
<p>It is not uncommon for first time college students to think they NEED all this stuff. TRUST ME!!! THEY DON’T!!! </p>
<p>I don’t want to hijack this thread into a “Things to Bring” thread. Use common sense. Check your vanities and storage closets now and consolidate the duplicates. When you find your favorite detergents/soaps on sale, buy an extra one and place it in the designated tub. Clean out your first aid kits and junk drawers and gather the stuff you know they will use at some point. The last thing you and your student want to have to spend $6 to $10 bucks on is a bottle of Motrin or Anti-fungal cream when you probably have multiple open bottles or tubes in various drawers in the house or glove box. For the ladies,the cost of monthly personal products suck joy out of being a woman. Stock up now. Unfortunately they need to be reminded to keep these extras locked in the rooms. Otherwise, you can predict another girl in the suite will assume those supplies are there for the taking. These are NOT the same as toilet paper or dish soap. (sorry about my candid approach - this stuff does happen)</p>
<p>I have sent my two oldest away to college very far from home (and with out a car the first semester). Your kids have to learn to be resourceful and frugal now. Get them in on the project. Have them clean out the house/medicine supplies and motivate them by offering to spend $XXX amount of money toward something THEY REALLY want. Give and take… Alright, I am stepping down off my soap box now. : )</p>