College. Once you get accepted, what does your bill mean?
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For incoming freshmen you should expect a mandatory meal plan that
will be over $2,000. Room and Board, if you stay on campus and are not
commuting will be around $3,700 a semester. Tuition will also be over $2,000 if
you’re taking more than 12 credits, and of course there are other crazy fees
such as student government, athletic fees, student recreation, transportation,
etc... Okay, I hope I did not scare you away from the idea of going away to
college. But that’s why you should know your resources.
It’s good to prepare beforehand and know your options. There
is of course financial aid, loans, and scholarships colleges around the nation
provide for students.
During my first semester at SUNY Brockport, I was once
informed in class that, “A lot of scholarship money does not go to use because
students are not applying for them. They do not want to write an essay and even
though they may want to, they often feel like so many other people will be
applying to the scholarship as well. So they do not believe that they stand a
chance.”
In many cases, if only one student were to apply for a
scholarship that scholarship would go to said student even if their essay showed
room for growth.
Lastly, as an individual whose planning on attending college
soon, the bill will not be the only thing that you have to worry about.
Textbooks will be extremely expensive. As a word of caution, know that the
bookstore at your school will overprice you. You might spend more than $600 on
books at the bookstore when you can spend a lot less on Amazon.com.
Try using Mint, an app
that budgets for you and send alerts of any strange purchases or else they got
you!
