<p>For out of state, independent students, OSU’s estimate of Misc/personal expenses is $5,796. I would imagine that some of that is transportation, but it still seems awfully high compared to other schools. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Those numbers are pretty much made up in my experience. I was once sent a “Transportation” estimate for close to $2000 per year. This figure included car insurance, car loan payments, and gas – this is for a school that does not even allow freshmen to bring a car on campus. The real number for pretty much anything that isn’t books or fees vary dramatically per person and per circumstance. You might be very frugal and spend 1/2 to 1/4 of that on personal expenses. You might develop an online gambling problem and end up going into massive debt seeking an artificial “high”. The college is just giving you a rough number for budgeting purposes, and it’s not an amount that should be particularly intimidating. Your focus should mainly be on the fixed fees like tuition, room and board, etc. that you actually have to cover and books.</p>
<p>My daughter was invited up to compete for scholarships, and they did a breakdown of the misc. expenses. On it was 168.00 for 4 pairs on jeans, 99.00 for socks and underwear! I don’t know where they shop, but I have never spent 42.00 on a pair of jeans for my daughter, and she’d have to buy a lot of socks and underwear for that! Basically, she has enough clothes already to get through at least the first 2 years unless she gains the freshman 15.
Sue</p>
<p>^Ha ha I was thinking the school might want students to buy a lot of Buckeye sweatshirts. Well, she already has a lot of those also.</p>
<p>susan- My son has spent about $50 a month at OSU. Mostly it’s for food and entertainment.</p>
<p>@Schrinky: Jeans at trend shops (Hollister, American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch, etc) go well above $45. Men’s shorts are around $45, right now. So, unless your daughter shops at Target or something, the clothing costs aren’t exactly low.</p>
<p>A different university told me at a FA seminar that they like to keep the COA estimate as high as possible for the student’s benefit to increase the amount of FA/scholarships they can receive as monies have to be used on school expenses. Therefore, the higher the estimate, the higher the eligibility. Bottom line is, you can spend as much or as little one is on extraneous expenses.</p>