We, too, were concerned about the money. One thing that did save us some was having her live off campus after freshman year (her choice to do so). She shared an apartment with 2 other women about 10 minutes walk south of campus. Three guys from their same class at WPI that they were close friends with had the apartment upstairs. The 6 of them would do things together. The area wasn’t great, but it was OK. There were quite a few students living in that area, so it made it more fun. She also liked to cook, so making her own meals (or having group meals) was preferable to the cafeteria food. I also thought that is helped her develop as she had to find the apartment, pay utilities, keep it clean, etc. more than you would have to do in the dorms.
A dorm room and meal plan run about $13,000 for the school year. Her apartment rent for the year (her share, 12 months) was $4,000, utilities (her share) about $900 and food was about $2,000.