son is getting "express" applications...

jlauer95
Wed, 20 Sep 2006 12:50:26 +0000

Rellie,

Along with the advice to use an EFC calculator to find out how much your family will be expected to contribute each year, I recommend the following:

Be sure to find out each school’s TCA - Total Cost of Attendance. The TCA includes: Tuition, Fees (health, lab, activity, etc), Books, Room, Board, Daily transportation, Trips back and forth for home visits, personal expenses. I would also include any expenses that you and your spouse would have to incur to visit your child for the annual “Parent’s Weekend” or other events. Also, will your child have to have a car with him or does the school provide campus and nearby town transportation. Since you are a large family living on one income, all of these extra expenses could become a hardship.

Do not simply rely on the one Room and Board price that the school claims on its TCA page or the one price that a college book gives you. We have learned that when a school has to list a single number for its room and/or board, it lists the cheapest situation (their cheapest dorm and their cheapest meal plan). For example, in my son’s case, the new honors dorm that he will likely stay in, costs 2k more per year than the dorm cost that is listed on the college’s TCA page and in college books. Similarly with the meal plan, because my child is a boy, he will need a more expensive meal plan that the one listed (my son cannot live on just 10 meals per week!!!), so his meal plan will cost about 1,200 more per year.

So… in other words, go directly to each websites actual housing and dining sites to get the real prices. The newer or recently remodeled dorms can be much more expensive, as well as those dorms where a bathroom is shared by only 2 or 4 people.

This may all seem like “small potatoes” but it’s not. Overlooking these issues can result in surprise expenses that total several extra thousand per year.