It is the cost of housing. I could not believe that it broke down to $400 a week for room and board. And that was when the older kids went to college 2-3 years ago.
Food. It’s the only expense that I would think back on the month and say, “No, I think I was pretty good. Not too many surprises…” and then remember all the random food purchases and Chick Fil A runs.
All the other expenses, tuition, fees, housing, and books were all easy to grasp and to predict. Nothing too surprising in my situation.
I’m happy with D’s school so far. They started discussing career planning the weekend before school started! They are offering workshops for the freshmen right off the bat.
I was pleasantly surprised that D’s art supplies cost only $120, and that the school is busing the art students down to New York City soon and dropping them off at the Met for the day - no cost to the kids. It’s not a “big name” school, but I sure like it a lot.
A fee for “building construction,” for one. A “mental health” fee for another. There were a few others that left me with, “huh”?
" is the cost of housing. I could not believe that it broke down to $400 a week for room and board. "
That’s $57 a night. I don’t know what kind of hotel you can get for $57 a night but it’s not one I want to be in.
My daughter’s dorm room, in a suite, was about $1000/month. There were 4 sharing the suite. That’s $4000/mo. which is about 3x what a similar sized apartment in the area would cost. For $1000/mo, she could have rented a very large, very nice one bedroom apartment that allowed her to cook. The school suites only allowed a few appliances and all cooking was by microwave.
As a college freshman this fall, the thing that surprised me were the number of additional fees that were tacked on to my fee bill. Some are self explanatory (registration fee, orientation fee) while others left everyone scratching their heads (spirit fee, fuel recovery fee, success fee). All together these fees added up to (just did the math) $1,633.81, with no real idea of where the money goes…
@mommdc I have been wondering a lot about all the fees since starting this thread. While apparently not eligible for AOTC, do anyone know if they are 529 eligible?
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch08.html
@delilahxc, most fees that are mandatory fees can be claimed for AOTC, but I did not realize that about $400 of the fees were nonqualified because they covered health or transportation.
Publication 970 has lots of information about education credits, 529 and more.
My daughter got a really cool unpaid summer fashion internship in NYC. I was fine with the unpaid, BUT then learned I would have to pay the school for 3-6 course credits to make it legit!! She instead took a less cool but minimum wage summer job as a department store clerk.
Graduation fee! And that did not include the biodegradable cap and gown (I imagined it disintegrating as he picked up his diploma). I guess it covered the lovely program and speaker. 2015 grad-$75.
Our local community college has a mandatory health fee that is a qualified educational expense. It is required of every student in order to register and it is not health insurance. There is no way to opt out of it, so it qualifies. It funds the on-campus clinic to which registered students have access, whether they want it or not, and whether they use it or not.
@mommdc Just because something is not on the 1098T doesn’t necessarily mean it cannot be a QEE for the AOTC. I was a VITA volunteer last season and we were taught to use the 1098T just as a starting point. It can work both ways. Something on the 1098T might not be a QEE and something not shown, might qualify. I couldn’t quickly find the reference but will see if I can.
D’s expenses have been OK, was surprised by the $ amount of the fee for an art course which only appeared in her account after I thought we were all paid up, and was happily surprised by cost of books for first semester.