Colleges hidden costs: What the admissions office doesnt tell you

[FarCenter]

Whatever you think you know about college costs, you’re wrong. It’s going to cost more. Lots more.

For many families, college’s hidden costs will probably be a prime topic of discussion this Thanksgiving weekend, when students filter home — many for the first time since school started — for urgently needed refills on home-cooked grub, family face time and cold cash.

Take it from me — the father of a college freshman. We thought we knew what our daughter’s first year at school would cost, but we were dead wrong. You, however, don’t have to be. Think of this as a guide to figuring out what college will actually cost you and your kid. This story isn’t about the basics such as tuition, room and board. Most — but not all — colleges spell that out on their websites.

This is about everything else. The costs that you usually cannot pilfer from the 529 College Saving Plan account. Like the Uber rides to those off-campus parties. The off-campus food runs. Even orientation — with, of course, a stop at the college bookstore for sweatshirts.

On a monthly basis, these costs typically stack up to $250 to $500 a month, estimates Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Cappex.com, a website focused on how to pay for college. These costs may be close to what students pay for tuition.

“If you don’t budget for this, you are bound to get a call around the middle of the first semester for more money,” Kantrowitz said. “Perhaps the goal of college should not just be about getting a good education but learning how not to run out of money.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/colleges-hidden-costs-what-the-admissions-office-doesnt-tell-you/2016/11/25/5531a0e8-b02a-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

1. Almost as bad as Disney World!

[Ilsa]

2. Here's an idea: insist your

College kid have a part time job. Even if it is only minimum wage, it'll cut down on how much party time they have. It'll also promote personal discipline, appreciation of this privilege.

[phylny]

4. We had college jobs, and our daughters did, too.

Our oldest was pissed off - she said when WE went to college, we didn't have as rigorous a program (probably true) and that it was unfair. She worked anyway. When she graduated, she couldn't find anything in her field (engineering, go figure) and she transferred with the retail store to another location, worked her way up to assistant manager, had an interview with a construction company who wanted her for her engineering degree. She got the job because she had management experience and knew how to multitask.

Makes more money than I do now

[FarCenter]

5. Work experience counts for a lot on resumes and during job interviews

A CV with only academic and volunteer activities does not have the same credibility.

[phylny]

8. True. Our three daughters always worked in high school during the summers

(we told them that during the school year, their job was school - only one worked during the school year) and they of course worked part-time at college and in the summers.

Our youngest has a boyfriend who has just graduated from college with an undergraduate degree at age 25. She was rather shocked to find out that he has never held a 40-hour a week job. When she said that she has worked during every summer since she was 15, he asked, "But what about letting kids just enjoy their summer and time off?" She replied, "I didn't start working when I was a 'kid' - I was in high school and I got my college internship and grad school assistant job because I had stellar work experience." (She is keeping a keen eye on how hard he works post-college.)

And Mr. phylny and I patted ourselves on the back just a little for rearing hard-working young women

[FarCenter]

11. Having only standard holidays and 10 vacation days off can come as a real shock to new graduates

[phylny]

14. To us parents, too!

This Christmas, three of the five of them (two daughters and one fiance) have started new jobs, so no vacation time yet. Christmas celebration will be on Saturday so everyone can get back to work on Monday

[ileus]

3. Sounds a lot like life in general.

Today you need a new battery for the car, tomorrow you need a heat pump.


Where there are people there are going to be hidden costs.

[Maeve]

6. Uber to off-campus parties? Food runs? Sweatshirts?

Oh, the first-world horror of it all!

Learning how not to run out of money should be taught long before the kid hits college. My kids paid for their own college--working, scholarships, loans, living at home, minor help from us, because we couldn't afford otherwise. And yet, they managed.

[Ilsa]

17. They should be learning to value of money - to others- at this stage,

I think. And personally having to earn it, even if it is just for entertainment cash, is important. I think too many kids see mom & dad as an ATM.

[Leonardo Da Biker]

7. Bernie wanted college to be free

And in light of the fact that we were spending $750M per day at the height of the war in Afghanistan there is no reason why that could not be. This was money well spent? I think not. Bombing the shit out of dirt poor farmers in the hinterlands of nowhere who had nothing to do with 9/11 is most definitely NOT money well spent. Providing higher education for all Americans who desire to persue it WOULD definitely be money well spent*.

Lets not lose sight of the fact that colleges and universities are for-profit corporations. Continuing the healthcare overhaul and reassesing education in this country would have been hallmarks of the Sanders administration.

*reason #167 why stabbing Bernie in the back and tossing him under the Hillary bus was a bad idea.

[FarCenter]

9. If college were to be free, which of the myriad expenses would be free?

Would only tuition be free? How about dorm rooms and meal plans? Books?

I'd guess that uber trips to off-campus parties would not be free, but of course, if tuition is free, then the students have more money to party with.

[exboyfil]

10. First of all your daughter decided to go

across the country and attend a Cal State school instead of wonderful in state opportunities in Virginia?

Virtually all the expenses you listed my daughter did not (and I did not) incur when we attended a public university. Everything you need in college is on campus so you don't need off campus transportation, and if you live off campus to save money and need transportation then you are comparing the cost to the published rates for room and board anyway - take your pick - more for room or board or more for transportation and lost opportunity cost of time.

The board offerings on campus are simply amazing now. It is usually all you can eat at a level close to a Golden Corral type establishment. In addition flexible options such as meals to go are available on the board plan.

The extra cost for some majors is clearly stated on school's websites. I think it is crap to charge more for engineering, but that is what many schools do.

The mandatory fees are always published in advanced. Again some of the fees are crap and should be eliminated, but they are known.

Greek life, spring break, and study abroad are all lifestyle choices. None of them have to happen. In fact study abroad expenses can usually be reduced to about the cost of a plane ticket since so many schools have exchange programs that allow students to pay the same tuition as they would at their home college. Neither my daughter nor I did spring breaks.

I would contend that you should not major in any internship that does not pay you. If your major has so little value, why are you pursuing it?

You don't need to spend four years at an university you can usually shave at least three semesters off by attending community college (this requires advanced planning).

Really this appears to be an entitled snob complaining about ridiculous things. The cost of tuition is historically high. Room and board is expensive and could probably be reduced to a more economical level. Some fees especially those that go to support activities and sports programs are excessive. Also some fees go to support unnecessary infrastructure like fancy gyms.

[FarCenter]

13. You're ignoring college's function as a ladder up the social ranks through networking and signalling

[exboyfil]

15. I have never been very good at that

It seems how you perform on your job also has a significant impact on your career. My employer for example is very much a meritocracy with most of our higher level executives coming from our ranks and reflecting a business or engineering specialization.

I can't imagine someone going to a Cal State school over some of the Virginia schools he listed would care that much about that either. Cal States are good bread and butter schools, and I would have probably attended one instead of the UC system if my parents had remained in California. The advantage of going to smaller midwestern states like Iowa is that all relatively good students have access to the flagship colleges.

[Kilgore]

12. Simple solution we used with our kids

We sat each down and had a discussion about what we and would not pay for.

The list was quite short, tuition, fees, books, supplies, and a phone. Everything else is on them. One is graduating next year with an engineering degree and has always had a job while in school and sometimes two. The other is not far behind.

In our opinion not paying for food, rent, and fuel was a tremendous motivator not to screw off and work.

[exboyfil]

16. I paid for tuition, fees, room and board (basically everything the school bills for)

Textbooks, phone (continued the contract on the non-smart phone), and picked up and brought her home about once per month.

I don't know about motivators, but my daughter did finish her engineering degree in two years (she had been taking college classes since 10th grade - many of them paid for by the high school). My daughter had two summer internships in engineering (after her high school year and after her first year). She did not work while in college. She is now employed at the company in which she interned.

My younger daughter will hopefully finish her B.S. in Nursing in 1 1/2 years (August of 2017 after graduating in May of 2016 from high school). She lives at home, and I am basically picking up all her expenses. She does not work either, and it is not recommended to work while in the Accelerated B.S.N. program. She did not work in high school either (was unable to get a CNA placement because of her age). She did finish 75 college credit hours though while in high school - many of them paid for by the high school.

The college expenses are a gift to my children. We are a single income family, but I do make a good income as a Senior Engineer. I pray that my assistance will be enough to help them as we go towards a very dark future.

[MineralMan]

18. Unless parents begin early and don't constantly

give in to every childhood demand for things, it's almost impossible to expect that their children will somehow learn self-restraint on high school graduation day. "No, dear, we can't afford that right now," should be an expression children hear from the very beginning. And, when it is said, it should not be subject to revision based on the loudness and intensity of the whining.

Uber rides to parties? Really? Catch a ride with someone or walk. Off campus food runs? Is there no snack bar or student store on campus? No pizza place or Subway in the Union?

While college costs are up dramatically since I first went to college, money was still hard to come buy back in 1963 when I moved into the dorm. I had no credit card (didn't exist) nor checkbook. I had a savings account at my hometown bank, where I put half of the money I earned at my half-time job through the last two years of high school. My parents paid for fees, books, and room and board. The rest was up to me. They sent me a small monthly sum for incidentals. When it was gone, I had to make do with the dining hall and whatever I could scrounge up. So, I made it last. There were three meals daily in the dining hall, and a clever guy could manage to take some non-sticky foods away for later at those meals. An occasional dash to the snack bar yielded up a bag of fries. We had a theater on campus that showed second-run movies for 50 cents admission. There was always something going on nearby, and a city bus made a regular loop between the campus and the downtown area of the local city. The fare then was 25 cents.

I didn't really date for a couple of years. When romance raised its head, there was stuff to do without spending any money for impoverished dormies. Indeed, it was possible for couples to entertain themselves quite nicely without spending a cent, and plenty of private little corners and nooks with doors here and there on campus for the truly adventurous. Everyone was perpetually broke, so we made do in other ways.

Self-restraint. It's an important life skill. Parents should teach that skill to their offspring, starting as soon as they can understand the spoken word. Truly.

[MissB]

19. I'm paying for nothing and then everything else.

Kid #1 has a full ride - tuition, all mandatory fees, room and board plus a small book scholarship and a study abroad scholarship. His mandatory fees include a transit pass so that's covered too.

I give him additional $ on the first of the month for incidentals like laundry, eating off campus with friends, coffee, clothing etc. He budgets from that amount - which isn't an awful lot. He's discovered the local thrift store for clothing. He goes out off campus with friends for dinner once a week.

I also made sure he had a credit card before the end of high school. It's linked to my account and we set up guidelines for use. Those guidelines didn't change much once he headed off to college. The cost of books exceeding his scholarship go on there each term. He can use it for uber rides but the only uber ride he'd take is to/from the airport and he tends to ask first anyway.

He's going to be an undergraduate teaching assistant this next term- they pay him $500 a term for an hour of work each week. That's his only job for now but he's looking at internships for the summers (engineering.) He's always been a saver.

Kid #2 will cost me whatever I'm saving on kid #1.

[petronius]

20. Not exactly an earth-shaking discovery here - does this father not have any

Last edited Sun Nov 27, 2016, 02:55 PM - Edit history (1)

luxury or recreational expenses in his own life?

There's a case to be made that some students spend too much and are too attached to the lifestyle aspects of college, but it's silly to expect that room/board, tuition, and books are all it takes for four years; a life reasonably-lived will entail occasional expenses. If students don't work, then parents can either pay or say "no," and the tone of this article suggests that this dad is one of those who pays (apparently without much reflection - it seems to say more about him than about colleges or students)...