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The room and board thing depends on the students situation to determine which route is the cheapest. For me my parents house was 15 miles from my school Georgia State in downtown Atlanta. Since I only recieved the states Georgia hope scholarship that paid for my tuition in full but I had no scholarships or grants to help me on the R&B so I stayed at home and since my parents didn't have any money saved for my college they allowed me to stay at home rent free and I only had to give them $200 a month to help them out with groceries.
Of course this is not an option for someone who lives 100+ miles from the school as they have to live on campus. Unlike QWERTY's children, I didn't have a full ride scholarship so it was cheaper for me to stay at home and I find that QWERTY finds every moment to brag about her kids. Okay, your kids are rock stars!
The only expenses I had in college was Money for groceries, my car note, and car insurance which was a little bit cheaper than living on campus and I managed to graduate with no student loans due to my part time job I worked during school.
According to college board, room and board costs $10,728 a year versus $4,095 living at home. My car note plus car insurance cost me $6,000 a year and I didn't have to worry about not having a car on campus. Gas cost me additional $1,800 a year which makes my grand total of $7,800 which I paid for with my part time job in school.
Living at home is a little bit cheaper than staying on campus if you have that option.
$7,800 in car expenses? In most college towns you can rent a room for less on craigslist and walk. There are very real cases when living at home does not save money and it puzzles me how people can miss it.
$7,800 in car expenses? In most college towns you can rent a room for less on craigslist and walk. There are very real cases when living at home does not save money and it puzzles me how people can miss it.
Seriously? $780/mo? Not too many places in Boulder, CO available for that, even for a room! https://www.google.com/search?q=room...utf-8&oe=utf-8 Said room is likely to only have a hot plate for cooking, if that, meaning you'll have to do most of your meals out.
If you live "at home", your parents will likely not charge you rent or board.
What's $100K in loans to acquire a lifelong earning asset? That's really nothing when compared to all the money you will spend on your mortgage/rent, car payments, wedding, honeymoon, child care, vacations, kiddie college, and so on.
$7,800 in car expenses? In most college towns you can rent a room for less on craigslist and walk. There are very real cases when living at home does not save money and it puzzles me how people can miss it.
This apartment complex is Walking distance to Georgia Tech and Georgia State. A 2 bedroom apartment costs from $1485-1805. If you share the 2 bedroom apartment with a roommate it will cost 742.50-902.50 to rent an apartment off campus $8,910 anually since most apartment complexes force you to sign a 12 month lease and this excludes utilities. It will cost $10,728 a year for room and board at my university. Atlanta is not a college town eventhough they have several colleges in Atlanta.
Now in Athens, Ga where the university of Georgia is located you can get a dirt cheap apartment to live in with a roommate but not downtown Atlanta; therefore, it was cheaper for me to stay at home and also I needed my car to get to work.
What's $100K in loans to acquire a lifelong earning asset? That's really nothing when compared to all the money you will spend on your mortgage/rent, car payments, wedding, honeymoon, child care, vacations, kiddie college, and so on.
Mick
I hope you are a doctor, pharmacist, dentist, or lawyer coming out with a 100k in student loan debt.
If someone comes out of school with a 100k of debt in art history they are going to be in trouble.
I hope you are a doctor, pharmacist, dentist, or lawyer coming out with a 100k in student loan debt.
If someone comes out of school with a 100k of debt in art history they are going to be in trouble.
A person who works full time in education, non profit, or the government who makes the minimal payments on their student loans for 10 years can have them discharged if the student loans are federal.
I'll get to what you said in a moment, but that is not what we were discussing. It was the cost of a year at a public university. randomparent quoted $25K/yr and missourah2006 asked if that was tuition only, or tuition, room and board. This morphed into a conversation about having to pay for R&B anyway and not considering it a college cost. I disagreed to a point. It is cheaper for a student to live "at home" than to R&B at college, be that in an apt or the dorms.
Now, we didn't track it that closely, but I don't think our utilities changed much when our kids went off to college. As for eating out, IME, college students do a lot of eating out of their own, so what is saved by mom and dad is spent and sometimes then some by the student. Groceries didn't change much for us, maybe because we have girls.
I agree that R&B in the dorms is generally a decent deal at college. I do think that if ours had not gone to college, but gotten jobs instead after HS, they probably would have lived at home, at least for a while to save up money, ironically, for the apartment first/last months' rent, furniture, etc. College students often feel that it's cheaper to live in an apt, but forget to budget for utilities (especially cable/internet), gas for the car to get to the grocery store (instead of walking to the caf), etc.
Our kids would have had about 6 months at home if they were not going to college. If they wanted to work full time instead of going to college, they were done being "kids' and would have to take on adult responsibilities like living on their own.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poor Chemist
The room and board thing depends on the students situation to determine which route is the cheapest. For me my parents house was 15 miles from my school Georgia State in downtown Atlanta. Since I only recieved the states Georgia hope scholarship that paid for my tuition in full but I had no scholarships or grants to help me on the R&B so I stayed at home and since my parents didn't have any money saved for my college they allowed me to stay at home rent free and I only had to give them $200 a month to help them out with groceries.
Of course this is not an option for someone who lives 100+ miles from the school as they have to live on campus. Unlike QWERTY's children, I didn't have a full ride scholarship so it was cheaper for me to stay at home and I find that QWERTY finds every moment to brag about her kids. Okay, your kids are rock stars!
The only expenses I had in college was Money for groceries, my car note, and car insurance which was a little bit cheaper than living on campus and I managed to graduate with no student loans due to my part time job I worked during school.
According to college board, room and board costs $10,728 a year versus $4,095 living at home. My car note plus car insurance cost me $6,000 a year and I didn't have to worry about not having a car on campus. Gas cost me additional $1,800 a year which makes my grand total of $7,800 which I paid for with my part time job in school.
Living at home is a little bit cheaper than staying on campus if you have that option.
R & B at our kids' school is only $8000 so your car expenses alone were more. My kids got multiple scholarships, not one "full-ride", plus they get R & B covered for being RA's and did their homework to find a place where they could graduate with no debt. It's not bragging, it's just what it is. Sorry you couldn't do the same.
Our kids have a car on campus, they don't NEED one, but we got them one for ease of getting to/from home, etc. No one really needs a car on a college campus unless you are commuting. Based on the numbers you provided, if it costs $4,095 to live at home, plus your $6000 car payment and $1800 in gas, that is more right there than living on campus???
Our kids would have had about 6 months at home if they were not going to college. If they wanted to work full time instead of going to college, they were done being "kids' and would have to take on adult responsibilities like living on their own.
R & B at our kids' school is only $8000 so your car expenses alone were more. My kids got multiple scholarships, not one "full-ride", plus they get R & B covered for being RA's and did their homework to find a place where they could graduate with no debt. It's not bragging, it's just what it is. Sorry you couldn't do the same.
Our kids have a car on campus, they don't NEED one, but we got them one for ease of getting to/from home, etc. No one really needs a car on a college campus unless you are commuting. Based on the numbers you provided, if it costs $4,095 to live at home, plus your $6000 car payment and $1800 in gas, that is more right there than living on campus???
My parents didn't charge me anything when living with them through college besides paying for groceries ocassionally each month. I was only responsible for my car expenses which I managed to pay with my part time job paying 14.50 an hour.
Unfortunately, when you live in campus my school wanted their room and board up front so I couldn't wait until I got paid and put the R&B expenses on a payment plan.
I would of had to borrow student loans if I stayed on campus and that was one thing I refused to do.
Average student debt is $30K and something like 90% of borrowers have less than 50K. It's only the 10% minority that have more than 50K.
There is almost no reason to run up $100K as an undergraduate. If you are not rich but accepted to an expensive liberal arts college, they probably give you discounts, grants, etc... to reduce the up-front cost to look more like the 8-15K a year a good state school will cost.
The people I know that racked up 60K+ did so through one of the following:
Med school, which usually pays off in the end
Law school, which they thought would pay but the job market for lawyers is saturated now. People have figured that out.
PhD program, sometimes pays off, sometimes not. In my experience, it's about a 50/50 shot of being worth it.
People I know who have a lot of debt got multiple post-graduate degrees they probably did not need but they did not know what else to do with their lives. Some people really like school and don't know how to operate outside of it. These people work for a few years, go back for a master's, work for another year, go back for another master's or PhD. I encountered a decent number of those types in grad school. We called them "collectors."
I know no one that racked up 100K in undergraduate.
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