Weekly College Planning Tip

Types of College Costs

Your school is required by law to provide you the cost of attendance for an academic year. The cost includes tuition, class fees, books – supplies, and room and board.

You also need to estimate costs for other expenses:

• transportation:
  how are you going to get around? Will you have a car or motorcycle? If so, costs will include vehicle payments if any, insurance, gas and other maintenance expenses.

  Some students will bring their bicycle. You need to consider registration fees.

  If you don’t have a car or motorbike, you will need to estimate the costs for public transportation use.

• personal expenses:
  you will need pocket change for a haircut, new outfit, new shoes, new book bag, and other personal items. Estimate how much you will need each month.

• entertainment:
  you can’t live in the library all of the time. You will want to take a weekend to get a pizza or head to the movies. You need to budget some entertainment money for the year.

• computer:
  almost every class with require some computer work such as a term paper, mathematical spreadsheet, and classroom log-in. You can use school computer labs, but you can save a lot of time if you had your own laptop. Estimate the cost for a computer. And don’t forget about the software to run the computer.

• special events:
  budget some money for those special events like going to the games, taking a weekend road trip, returning home for the holidays, moving yourself to and from college each year, etc.

Add It Up

Calculate your costs to get a rough estimate. The calculation will provide you a fairly good idea on what to expect as you finalize your decision where to attend college

we have some great tools to use
these spreadsheets require MS Excel or something similar

1. download college cost comparison spreadsheet
   this spreadsheet allows you to compare cost and aid awarded among colleges

2. download budgeting worksheet:
   use this spreadsheet to plan and budget your monthly expenses

• view our complete college planning calendar for November