What is the best way to estimate cost per school?

[Aero SSX]

Of course it's important to look at tuition (in state vs out of state), but what about things like cost of living for that given area? Is there a good way to get an idea for that? Any other specific things to consider per school?

I'm not worried about general stuff that will be needed regardless of which school you go to (books and supplies, furniture, etc.) but I just want a clearer picture of how to estimate costs per school.

I have a spreadsheet of a couple dozen schools I'm considering, but all I have for cost is tuition, and I feel that is probably a poor overall picture of what I would end up paying.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[jblil]

Food costs are pretty uniform across the states. Gas can be expensive in CA. I think the biggest variable would be housing. Try to look for rooms available on the local Craigslist to get a feel for how much you'd have to pay for accommodations.

 

[DesertPT]

Agree with jblil. It's impossible to know with exactness, you just have to see what you can find out there on the Internet to give you the best educated guess possible.

If you google cost of living estimator you will find a number of sites with calculators that will compare the cost of living in two cities to each other. I don't know how accurate these really are but you could try a few of them and maybe get a ballpark estimate of the difference between where you are moving from and where you are moving to.

 

[ptisfun2]

Of course it's important to look at tuition (in state vs out of state), but what about things like cost of living for that given area? Is there a good way to get an idea for that? Any other specific things to consider per school?

I'm not worried about general stuff that will be needed regardless of which school you go to (books and supplies, furniture, etc.) but I just want a clearer picture of how to estimate costs per school.

Every school that is 'regionally accredited' (students can get federal loans) can give you a cost of attendance, which covers everything. As our Financial Aid folks told us, it is based on federal laws, and a pretty standard formula. Because of that, you should be able to compare between schools... at least reasonably close. This is one of the few times I will say to not contact the PT Program, as they will probably have very little idea. The Financial Aid or Bursar web site for each school should have the information, or at least a contact person.