Real cost of UCLA

notaznguy
Sat, 13 Apr 2013 02:48:43 +0000

Oh there are many ways to reducing housing costs. Many people move out to the apartments by the end of their sophomore year, and some do it earlier.

As stated above, you likely will not have a car, so transportation costs will be at a minimum (and you’ll probably meet friends who have cars). Books def. do not cost $1500 for the year. I was a north campus major, and I found ways to get cheaper books by buying them via bruinwalk.com, buying them from a friend of a friend, borrowing them from a friend who took the class, or doing some research on google and finding a free PDF version of the book. I usually spent $600 on books a year at MOST.

There is definitely affordable housing, but you will have to live with a roommate (I mean, you pretty much have to. This is college, get used to it). Fortunately, I had a terrific group of friends by the end of my sophomore year so I lived with 3 of my buddies in a 2 bedroom apartment. We paid between $550-650 each (after factoring in utility costs) depending on who got a parking spot or not, so housing wasn’t that bad at all. Now if you want to live in a single bedroom or a studio, then good luck, that will cost ya. Food was also okay. You just need to know how to budget it. I spent around $100 on groceries per month and spent another $100 going out to eat with friends/eating on campus. Sometimes, I had some friends who were freshman and sophomores and they would swipe me in at the dining halls so there was a free meal here and there.

Personal costs are always overrated. Unless you’re going to buy a crap ton of UCLA gear and random junk, you won’t be spending $2000, or whatever UCLA estimates it to be. Also, I found if you need personal spending money, get a part time job on campus. For instance, you can work at Bruin Cafe for 10 hours a week (minimum shift is 10 hours/week). They paid $9.25 an hour, and I believe $10.25 if it’s a night shift. That’s about $100 a week, which is a lot of money for a college student.