@3scoutsmom Those fee totals look to be reasonably accurate.
A few things I would tell you to keep in mind:
- Assume tuition and fees will increase every year. The state government is not supportive of education right now and that doesn’t seem likely to change. While it may, I wouldn’t count on it. In addition, rising fees is a trend EVERYWHERE right now, which is exceptionally frustrating.
- There are additional scholarships to be earned once your DD is on campus. These typically come from the colleges themselves. (For example, College of Engineering, Arts & Sciences, etc.) These applications are available to the whole university during the spring semester. These are generally not large scholarships (ranging from a couple hundred, to a couple thousand dollars), but can offset the cost of fees. A large number of these scholarships are given out as well, so they are not exceptionally competitive. I'm in the College of Education which is far from the richest college. I believe there were over 100 recipients of scholarships in our college last year. I've received one every year that I've applied for it (didn't apply my freshman year, because I'm stupid). Basically, this is a long way to say that your daughter should be on the look out for additional scholarships and awards while she is on campus. Take the app process for them seriously, because not as many students apply as you would think. None of my awards have been need-based either, so don't let that prevent her from applying.
- Freshman year is the worst, fee wise. My parents now only pay the bursar $1-2k per semester and that is with me being on the old NM scholarship. There have been multiple semesters where my parents have gotten refund checks, because scholarships, fellowship stipends, on-campus internships, etc. On the new scholarship, that should be even less.
All of this is to say that for capable and motivated students, there are a wide-variety of ways to get additional money to counteract the rising fees. I’m happy to be more specific about some of them if you’d like to PM me (that offer goes for everyone, of course). Honestly, a lot of these forms of funding have led to my favorite experiences at OU, both developmentally and socially.