<li>What can I expect to pay for books? On average, ballpark, whatever.</li>
<li>How hard are season tickets to come by, and what should I expect to pay for those? (Football, basketball, hockey, etc)</li>
<li>Is it smart/necessary to have a vehicle? </li>
</ol>
<p>I’m attempting to budget for the fall starting now, and would like to know some expenses so I can estimate how much I should have saved.</p>
<p>1) Varies depending on which classes you’re taking. Probably around $400 freshmen year.</p>
<p>2) Any student that submits an application for season tickets on time will get them. Football is about $200 for 7 games, hockey is around $225 (~2 exhibition games, ~14 regular season home games, playoff tickets for the home series, and the option to buy student-rate tickets for games over breaks), and basketball was only $99 this year.</p>
<p>3) Having a car isn’t necessary, and isn’t really feasible for your first year or two if you’re living in the dorms. The buses do a good enough job at getting you most places you’d need to get to around town.</p>
<p>Agree, just adding a few things</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Go on amazon.com, half.com, or even the marketplace ( marketplace.umich.edu ) to buy books for cheap prices. The bookstores on campus are very expensive.</p></li>
<li><p>At least for football tickets, the earlier you submit an application, the better seats you’ll get.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1) Books varry from major to major. On average, you will pay roughly $200-$500 per trimester ($500-$1,000 per school year). Cost of books are pretty uniform in colleges across the nation.</p>
<p>2) Tickets are guaranteed to all students, but the earlier you request them, the better the seats you will get. And yes, you can expect to pay handsomely for those tickets. The Football and Hockey programs have among the most loyal fans in the nation, so the tickets are in demand. In all, assuming you intend on attending Football, Basketball and Hockey games with a degree of consistancy, you can expect to pay in the $500-$700 (including snacks) for an entire year for all sporting activities combined.</p>
<p>3) I would not recommend owning a car in Ann Arbor. Parking is expensive and seriously lacking and the university has a free and reliable bus system. Furthermore, the city of Ann Arbor is very walkable and has a cheap and effective public transportation network.</p>
<p>Well that certainly makes my day. If I don’t have to have a vehicle, especially the first year or two, I can go right ahead and buy season tickets for those sports!</p>
<p>If I go with $2000 dedicated to sports/books it looks like I’ll be good to go!</p>
<p>Thanks guys.</p>
<p>Yep, in addition to U-M’s own bus system, anyone with a U-M ID can ride the city buses for free. Living without a car is very do-able.</p>
<p>Oh, and congrats on your decision! Woo-hoo!</p>
<p>1) look wisely and you can buy all text books for around 200.
2) all are guaranteed as a student
3) no. parking is a disaster at umich. stay with the minotaur blue busses.</p>