Overestimated COA?

[imadome]

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[SN12357]

I was looking at one of my home school's COA and it seems as though the school's estimates are incredibly high.

For example, they estimate ~$10,000 a year for housing. As this is my home school, I'm obviously familiar with the cost of an apartment. There is an apartment complex less than 1/4 of a mile from the med school that is newly renovated, fully furnished, and unlimited utilities. They charge $630/month for a one-bed/one-bath. That comes to $7500/year for housing. Most people I know here in town share their apartment with a few roommates and live in a less fancy place. I have some friends who share an apartment and pay around ~$400-450/month including utilities and live within 10 minutes walking distance. Unless I'm missing something, there is no way housing can cost $10,000 a year in this town.

For food, they estimate ~$5500 a year. That amounts to over $100 a week. I assume I will be eating out quite often as a busy med student, but that still seems very high.

Further, they estimate ~$7000 a year for transportation for IN-STATE students. That's ~$135 a week for gas. There is just no way. This school is ~5 hours away from home and round trip costs me $100 in gas. (This one might be less applicable to my question if car insurance is factored in. Still not sure that it would amount to $7000 a year though.)

I could go on and on...

Am I completely missing something?

The COA represents the max loans you can take out. Schools pad the number a bit to give people flexibility and because there are some categories they can't technically include (for example--car payments. I remember being told at one school that they couldn't line-item car payments on their budget, but they make sure there's wiggle room in other categories so people who need to buy a car can).

You don't HAVE to take out the max loans, and if you can live on less, then by all means do so. I'm not going to take out the max for my school. And yes, that 'transportation' line is probably meant to include all costs associated with cars, including insurance.

 

[Zelda840]

There is an apartment complex less than 1/4 of a mile from the med school that is newly renovated, fully furnished, and unlimited utilities. They charge $630/month for a one-bed/one-bath.

WOW! That's ridiculously cheap!

 

[Doctor Strange]

No one is forcing you to take out the maximum cost of attendance in loans. Schools like to give students a little wiggle room for emergencies, etc.

 

[imadome]

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[darklabel]

Yeah, what I did was overestimate for the first year. They give you plenty and I know I can easily take out ~15k-20k of my CoA, but I only rejected 10k of my loans to account for things like emergencies and such. I always look into the Resident forums too to remind myself how loans can be damaging in the future if they aren't handled with care.

 

[DrBowtie]

You'll probably need liquid 5k by the time 4th year rolls around for residency applications.

Just keep that in the back of your mind.

Also COA is usually for only X months of in school time so you may have to stretch 10 months of COA into 12 during second year.

 

[SN12357]

Yeah, what I did was overestimate for the first year. They give you plenty and I know I can easily take out ~15k-20k of my CoA, but I only rejected 10k of my loans to account for things like emergencies and such. I always look into the Resident forums too to remind myself how loans can be damaging in the future if they aren't handled with care.

The amounts they are now, they're damaging even handled with care. I'll be minimizing my COL as much as possible but can't do much about the tuition bill....

 

[darklabel]

The amounts they are now, they're damaging even handled with care. I'll be minimizing my COL as much as possible but can't do much about the tuition bill....

I know but there isn't much we can do about it.


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[kyamh]

I was looking at one of my home school's COA and it seems as though the school's estimates are incredibly high.

For example, they estimate ~$10,000 a year for housing. As this is my home school, I'm obviously familiar with the cost of an apartment. There is an apartment complex less than 1/4 of a mile from the med school that is newly renovated, fully furnished, and unlimited utilities. They charge $630/month for a one-bed/one-bath. That comes to $7500/year for housing. Most people I know here in town share their apartment with a few roommates and live in a less fancy place. I have some friends who share an apartment and pay around ~$400-450/month including utilities and live within 10 minutes walking distance. Unless I'm missing something, there is no way housing can cost $10,000 a year in this town.

For food, they estimate ~$5500 a year. That amounts to over $100 a week. I assume I will be eating out quite often as a busy med student, but that still seems very high.

Further, they estimate ~$7000 a year for transportation for IN-STATE students. That's ~$135 a week for gas. There is just no way. This school is ~5 hours away from home and round trip costs me $100 in gas. (This one might be less applicable to my question if car insurance is factored in. Still not sure that it would amount to $7000 a year though.)

I could go on and on...

Am I completely missing something?

Food can add up, $100 a week can fly by when you eat alone.

$10 lunch 5 days a week if you don't pack it....$50 a week. Coffee twice a day 6 days a week, another $24 ($48 if you go to Starbucks and get fancy lattes). That leaves you about $25 a week for breakfast (minus coffee), dinner, and weekend lunch.

Even if you pack your lunch and brew your own coffee the money still adds up: go out for dinner one day a week and get a drink, $25; niceish bag of beans for home coffee, $10; $8 home cooked dinner meal 6 days a week, $48; that only leaves $17 for a week of lunches.

It's actually easier to spend less money when you feed more people. If you cook with a group you can buy in bulk without risking letting food go bad, have more variety available in terms of interest and nutrition (again, hard to not let food spoil if you're eating alone), and take advantage of programs like CSAs for fresh fruits and veggies (a single share is way too much for one person).

Edit: sure, you can cook a single large meal once and freeze it so you can spend a lot less per dinner portion....but I enjoy cooking as hobby so I assume you are cooking a new meal every day with leftovers going towards lunch/snacks.

Edit 2: also, you have to consider the fact that the money you can save in certain areas of your budget can easily be sucked away by "other" purchases: warm boots and a coat for winter, new clothing to replace the ones you have been wearing since high school, a place ticket to visit your family.