One thing to consider is how much do you pay for your kid's food/misc/clothing/social/sports in high school?

-our food budget for the family went way down after kids went to college (private HS lunch fees were high, they eat more snacks and bigger meals than we do): SAVED over $5000 per year
-we bought them clothes every year and continue to do the same in college: NEUTRAL
-misc toiletries, Rx, etc: NEUTRAL
-social :we gave them $ for fun in HS and give a little more in college not a lot, and they have a campus job if they want to spend more than that : COST $2000 more per yr at college but we have friends that have kid pay for all of it
-EC/SPORTS fees: club fees are a couple hundred here and there, even greek is reasonable at their T10/ivy: SAVED $6000 per year compared to HS fees

Overall we save about 9k annually compared to HS, then spent 89-91k all in each year so far on Tuition/Room/Board/fees. Net 80-82k. For 4 yrs the net will be around 330k.

We did the math early talking to family who had been through it recently, went in comfortable with full pay, their school is incredible with opportunity and worth every cent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who have a child in college now, has the total actual cost lined up with what you expected? I see that schools provide estimate what the total cost will be (tuition, room and board, meals, incidentals)

Our kids have spent about 2k less every year than the total cost listed (ivies), and we do not need the extra health insurance fee (3k) for under-insured students. The books/misc/incidentals is overestimated.

We are about $7k less than COA for our kid’s Ivy. Literally $0 for books and $6k less for housing then estimated for even off campus, because lives at Fraternity for big savings vs on campus or off campus housing.

^adding ivy housing on campus is exactly as the estimate; housing off campus for the one who chose that is the same as dorm fee for a very nice all-student apartment adjacent to campus, less than dorms if they rent one of the big houses that are less-nice but walkable.

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who have a child in college now, has the total actual cost lined up with what you expected? I see that schools provide estimate what the total cost will be (tuition, room and board, meals, incidentals)

Our kids have spent about 2k less every year than the total cost listed (ivies), and we do not need the extra health insurance fee (3k) for under-insured students. The books/misc/incidentals is overestimated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Much higher than expected. The cost of attendance didn't include the mandatory 4k health insurance (our plan doesn't cover out of state). Also, my kid is at an urban campus and social expenses are much higher than expected. College kids today go out, dine out, etc. Also the mandatory meal plan is a bit of a rip off. Hours are limited, and kid often has classes amd club mtgs during dining hall hours. Signed up for max dining dollars vs full meal swipes but kid is not using as much as we expected. Also ubers and other unexpected expenses. Kid has summer job savings but will not last long...

+1
Much higher than expected as well.

Decent housing is expensive and so are meals, more than expected.

+2
Echoing above

Yes, for us the estimate was very accurate. I didn’t really pay attention to the estimate for travel, to be honest. He spends less on books than the estimate, I think, but that is pretty minor.

The unexpected trips for health reasons and other emergencies were unexpected-school is driving distance, but hotels, food etc.

It’s more expensive than expected.

Should a family with a child graduating high school 2030 plan on $500,000 for four years?

The school’s calculator includes on-campus living and a meal plan, but moving off-campus and cooking meals ended up shaving $$$ off as the years went by (at VT). Also, the financial aid was not a lot but it went up a little bit every year. As others have said, it was the transportation (DC had to fly) that was a killer, especially since we could not use the 529 for it. Overall, the actual school costs were less than I expected.

Anonymous wrote:Much higher than expected. The cost of attendance didn't include the mandatory 4k health insurance (our plan doesn't cover out of state). Also, my kid is at an urban campus and social expenses are much higher than expected. College kids today go out, dine out, etc. Also the mandatory meal plan is a bit of a rip off. Hours are limited, and kid often has classes amd club mtgs during dining hall hours. Signed up for max dining dollars vs full meal swipes but kid is not using as much as we expected. Also ubers and other unexpected expenses. Kid has summer job savings but will not last long...

+1
Much higher than expected as well.

Decent housing is expensive and so are meals, more than expected.

Much higher than expected. The cost of attendance didn't include the mandatory 4k health insurance (our plan doesn't cover out of state). Also, my kid is at an urban campus and social expenses are much higher than expected. College kids today go out, dine out, etc. Also the mandatory meal plan is a bit of a rip off. Hours are limited, and kid often has classes amd club mtgs during dining hall hours. Signed up for max dining dollars vs full meal swipes but kid is not using as much as we expected. Also ubers and other unexpected expenses. Kid has summer job savings but will not last long...

Anonymous wrote:My college kid is low maintenance and spends very little on stuff. He's at a SLAC where the meal plan is unlimited swipes and where the off-campus environment is very limited and low cost. The only surprise should not be a surprise, which is that tuition has steadily risen every year. Just paid his last semester bill, which started out around $41k for the first semester and is now $45k.

This. From talking to friends, the biggest variables seems to be which kid and which college (location). Our college kid at a rural school (a 4 hour drive home) has very low expenses: the occasional meal out with friends, shopping for supplies, etc. My friend's kid at UChicago (a flight away) spends a ton of money going out, shopping, etc. - fancier parties, weekends away with friends, and so on. The tuition/room/board is exactly what we expected (including the increases of course) and saved for, and the additional expenses for my kid are nominal. It kind of amazes me what my friend spends, but she can afford it and doesn't seem to mind.

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t expect $5000 in sorority dues!

We've told our kids if they want to pledge they will pay for themselves. We are covering literally everything else.

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who have a child in college now, has the total actual cost lined up with what you expected? I see that schools provide estimate what the total cost will be (tuition, room and board, meals, incidentals)

No. It was unexpectedly high but we are immigrants and not aid eligible.