<p>I don’t think having TA is a draw back to higher education system, as long as it is to assist the Professor and not be the Professor. MIT has a strong TA culture and I’ve not heard DD complained about it. We are a full paying family at sticker price of $52K.</p>
<p>Here is an interesting blog from MIT website on the same topic:
<p>Note that I said “roughly” when I said one week pay = one month’s rent (and I was talking gross pay). This was a casual conversation held on a subway; the goal was to introduce my daughter to a new way of thinking and to make her connect the cost of the sublets she was seeing to real life (I also said she lives a charmed life, since her parents are subsidizing the cost of her summer sublet. But these subsidies will end at her college graduation, and she needs to understand the connection between what she earns and where she can live). For my daughter, I knew that this comparison would hit home, while saying 40% would mean nothing to her. </p>
<p>New graduates have to understand the consequences of their decisions. If you want to live in a high-cost city, then you will be paying 40% of your salary on rent – and as a result, will have less (or no) disposable income to do anything fun. Especially if you have student loans to repay. One week’s salary = one month’s rent is a goal, and if you can achieve it, it means being able to go to the theater, movies, museums, etc., plus save money.</p>
<p>Really this can’t be hold true for any expensive city. DD dorm cost is $1000 per month, so with that rule she will have to be able to make $4000 a month for any summer job in Boston, which will be insane.</p>
<p>That has traditionally been the standard - is it still true though? I don’t know. I do know that in NYC you can do more and have more fun being broke than you can in most other places with lots of money so it’s a trade off. In NYC people are willing to make large compromises - 3 to a small bedroom and one or two in the living room - whatever it takes to afford living there. Dorm costs are very different than apartment costs, really irrelevant for comparison.</p>
It sounds like you’re the one paying lots of money to be taught by grad students. I pay about $500/class and there’s a professor who even teaches 2-3 times a week! : )</p>
<p>@Calmom: Not really, I’ve found some places in the Lower East Side that are about $3k/month for a 3-bedroom. I’m in a group of 4 (including a set of twins who will share rooms) so it comes to about $800/month. That’s for the apt I need for the school year.) Over the summer, I’m already subletting for $900/month (including rent, utilities). Harlem is about an hour away by subway so not worth it, especially since my family lives 1 hr 10 mins from college anyhow.</p>
<p>I do envy those Columbia/Barnard kids who live in the cheapest part of Manhattan and can move off-campus while still being within a 5-15 min walk of campus!</p>
Actually, I don’t think it would be worth it to move off campus – I’ve seen some pretty nice apartments for upperclassmen at Barnard & Columbia. Once my kid was off the meal plan I felt the cost for housing was pretty reasonable for what she was getting.</p>
<p>And my d. is currently commuting an hour by subway to her job. That’s just the way it is unfortunately.</p>
<p>i’m amazed at the denial regarding ability to repay college depends on the degree/major:</p>
<p>“The assumption that a freshman majoring in women’s studies is going to have a lower income than a freshman engineering major really bugs me…Your major does not always determine your salary”. </p>
<p>“And because of that, I don’t think it’s right to suggest that humanities/liberal arts majors should go to inexpensive schools and take out no loans and only science majors can go to pricy schools and take out loans. Sorry, life is too unpredictable to make rules like that.”</p>
<p>(maybe not “right” but do your kid a favor and help him/her prepare a post-grad business plan for paying off the debt, and suggest minoring in a subject suitable for a dayjob) </p>
<p>“Perhaps every student should be required to complete a worksheet in which they research the monthly income of various professions, cost of housing, insurance, etc., and monthly loan payments. Maybe this worksheet should be part of the college application…”</p>
<p>How on earth do people afford to live in areas where housing is such a huge percentage of your income? Housing here is going to be a bit less than a third including utilities, it would really break the bank if it was half.</p>
<p>^ Well keep in mind that incomes in places like NYC are generally higher than rural areas. And real estate here isn’t too expensive right now; it’s much cheaper than dorming. I’m a college student and I’m lucky my parents pay my rent - no way I could afford Manhattan otherwise! The way we justify it is my parents saved for years so I could attend a good college. But my scholarship reduces tuition to $4k/year so we have that extra money which you need for living in a high-cost area. Also I’m saving money by not dorming - dorms come out to like $1300/month and you’re sharing a room! Off-campus I’m paying less and I get my own room. And if I share a room, then it’s like a third of dorm prices.</p>
<p>Are NYU dorms that expensive, Springreen, on average? My understanding was that though room and board are higher at NYU and other NYC (actually schools in the NE in general), they were not that high. The advantage to dorming is that you don’t pay utilities, you don’t have problems of extra expenses if a roommate reneges, you don’t have problems with repairs that you can have with an off campus landlord. Also most NYU facilities have college amenities in them. The rates are usually for 9months instead of the whole year without having to worry about subletting for the summer. </p>
<p>MY son is only paying $600/month for a room in his apt but he is in the Heights. Though right on the subway express line which gets him into the Village in a half hour, that is far from the college scene. </p>
<p>So you are one of the lucky ones to get a good merit/fin aid award from NYU? I’ve known a few others who have gotten some as well. Congratulations to you and your parents for planning your college scene so well.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse: They’re not too expensive, but unfortunately we are not guaranteed housing if we ever live off-campus. Because I spent my freshmen year off-campus, and because I am a junior and we have lowest priority in the housing lottery, and because 2 former Undergrad dorms have been given to the dental/med school now, I couldn’t get housing at NYU for next year even if I wanted to; I was put on a waitlist. </p>
<p>The average dorm comes to about $1300-$1600/month with a roommate. Right now I’m living off-campus for only $900/month and I get my own room - if I shared, it would be even less. The dorms are very nice, but lots of students move off-campus after Soph year.</p>
<p>Wow, I’m surprised your son can get to the Village in half hour! When I visited my friend at Columbia last year, it took nearly an hour each way. Unless you mean Brooklyn Heights? I just assumed morningside heights, which is up by Harlem.</p>
<p>I looked at the rates. There are low rates for triples but most of the rates do run quite a bit. No I mean Washington Hts. There is an express train that runs regularly there. It does stop in Harlem but then whooshes through most of the other stops. I’ll have to get the number/letter of the line.</p>
<p>I lived in New York (Queens) for a couple of years, and not having car payments and car insurance and gasoline and car maintenance and blood sacrifices to the Car Demon to do every month is a relief. It’s kind of a trade-off; there are some parts of NYC where the housing costs are so high that even the lack of car costs isn’t enough to make it reasonable for some people. However, there’s no law that actually requires you to live in these expensive neighborhoods and you could probably find cheaper housing (or, if you’re lucky / old, rent-controlled) if you live in one of the less popular parts of the city.</p>