<p>What are some additional costs you were not expecting your first year of BS? Tuition and books, travel expenses. Anything else?</p>
<p>Costs for shipping stuff and more stuff to child.
Phone bills.
Costs for clothes, blankets, pennants, etc. with school name or logo.
Travel costs for parents, siblings and grandparents to BS and back.</p>
<p>linens -I found out a little while ago that the service that washes/cleans/dry cleans clothes and bed linens/towels are about $100/month.</p>
<p>Shipping stuff came to my mind last week when my d said “you can just send me another pair of pointe shoes when I need them”–lol. That along with her favorite “whatever” she left when she packed stuff.</p>
<p>Instrument rental if they are musicians and don’t own one) and private lessons.</p>
<p>Spending money to help with field trips, weekend trips, movies.</p>
<p>Spending money for eating at the student center “grills” on campus (which aren’t in the food plan but often a hang-out place)</p>
<p>Transportation to and from the airport (in the event the school charges for the shuttle)</p>
<p>(yep - laundry)</p>
<p>$ to send care packages.</p>
<p>But mostly I found needs to be few since so much is already covered in the tuition.</p>
<p>The Annual Fund (although, voluntary, you’ll receive repeated race-to-the-top emails informing you that the Junior class parents have surpassed all other classes combined and eventually pony up).</p>
<p>
I’ve been curious about that. Why is The Grill not part of the “food plan”?</p>
<p>^ Because they sell brand name goods.</p>
<p>I didn’t find a lot of hidden expenses. Travel is expected, books are expected, care packages can be expensive depending what you send, skip the school laundry and let your kid learn to do his/her own, a monthly allowance is probably good although they can get by without. But the yearbook is $150!!!</p>
<p>The yearbook at Choate was free! (but maybe just for seniors?) The most unexpected expense for us was that the coaches expected better quality athletic equipment and shoes than we were used to paying for.</p>
<p>spending money. you can get by without it, but school is a LOT more fun if you can occasionally order pizza, go to a movie, or go to boston for a day</p>
<p>
Weird, because there was no brand name on my cheeseburger there.</p>
<p>Ah, here is an expense that I didn’t anticipate: I made a contribution to my son’s school in order that it could purchase a new, valuable and important piece of equipment for one of his athletic teams. I was glad to make the contribution, however.</p>
<p>RE: Care packages…</p>
<p>The post office now has prepaid Priority Mail boxes with no weight limit. The biggest one is 15$ I think. The best part is that you can pick up the empty boxes, stuff them with needs/wants/pick-me-ups and the mail carrier will pick them up from your door. I’ve tried to remember to pick one up every time I go to the post office (which isn’t terribly often) just so I’ll have them on hand next year. That way, when I make that batch of son’s favorite cookies for my other kids, I can pop it into a ziploc and into the box and put it out with the rest of the mail.</p>
<p>The Grill is the most frightening place on campus to this mother of a bottomless pit teenage boy <em>anticipating montly student charge account bill</em>.</p>
<p>I am anticipating a sports camp, or two, on the horizon. I’m sure her lax team does a spring break clinic somewhere expensive 
Isn’t that always the way? </p>
<p>Neato, you took the words right out of my mouth. I am sccarrred of the smart card. These school stores & grills have come a long way since my time. I don’t remember being able to buy more than m&m’s and school supplies.</p>
<p>
Yes, that really is a terrifying thing to contemplate. We haven’t got our arms wrapped around this whole thing yet, but it sure does look like that “charge capability” could get absurdly expensive.</p>
<p>grotonalum, do you mean the school doesn’t pay for the lax spring trips? :D</p>
<p>If you are international or out of state (far far away) student, you might need to have a storage space during the summer. Not every school provide space for student storage.<br>
Some local UPS store will come to your school to pack it and do the transport part, that’s extra cost.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, how much money would be spent ALTOGETHER (including the $40,000 tuition fee)? Including buying clothes, bedding, paying for laundry, etc. etc. :)</p>