Cost of Attendance and Automobile Expenses

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DownFracture

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As you may know, the cost of attendance for all dental schools cannot include car payments. For those of you with car payments, what are you planning to do?

There is no way I can pay off my car loan before dental school starts...in fact I owe more than the car is worth. But in any case, it seems like one must live under the budgeted living expenses in order to pay for something such as a car.

Do any current students or anyone else have valuable insight? What are you doing/planning to do?

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I have the same issue, but how do they know where the loan money is going? Besides tutition, how do they know how much we need for food, living, etc...? I'm sure some people have a 1 bedroom apartment for maybe 500 while two people share for 600-700, but how would the lender know... Food costs is very variable too. I was just planning to live cheaper and use loan money for my car payment. Mine is 200 a month so I'm pretty sure I can get by. Our first year we get 1000 allowance for a labtop, but if I buy a 600 dollar laptop and use the other 400 for loan payments, who would know?
 
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I have the same issue, but how do they know where the loan money is going? Besides tutition, how do they know how much we need for food, living, etc...? I'm sure some people have a 1 bedroom apartment for maybe 500 while two people share for 600-700, but how would the lender know... Food costs is very variable too. I was just planning to live cheaper and use loan money for my car payment. Mine is 200 a month so I'm pretty sure I can get by. Our first year we get 1000 allowance for a labtop, but if I buy a 600 dollar laptop and use the other 400 for loan payments, who would know?

Yeah, you're right...that's what I am planning on doing. I wanted to see if anyone else was in the same boat (current students, accepted students). It seemed at my interviews that the financial aid people spoke as if everyone should enter dental school without any debt and huge amounts of savings. That's great in an ideal world...but I don't think it speaks of the majority of students.
 
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At my interview they said to pay off all your debt too. HAHA! Also i have about 7 more months to work so I'm thinking about trying to save up 6 months of car loan money (1200) to use and then use loan money and I feel like I could always charge my payments to my CC if push came to shove since I'm sure the minimum payments would be less than my car payment of 200. I shutter to think about having to do that, but NO WAY IM GIVING UP MY CAR.
 
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Where did u get in? here in the Northeast it's easy to live w/o a car, i'm saving a huge chunk of cash by
not making payments
no insurance
no gas
no taxes
no maintenance
no parking fees
no shoveling outta the snow

Public transportation and proximity of stores should ultimately decide what you're gonna do with the car. BTW if i need a car for shopping i can either rent it by the hour or by the day.
 
Where did u get in? here in the Northeast it's easy to live w/o a car, i'm saving a huge chunk of cash by
not making payments
no insurance
no gas
no taxes
no maintenance
no parking fees
no shoveling outta the snow

Public transportation and proximity of stores should ultimately decide what you're gonna do with the car. BTW if i need a car for shopping i can either rent it by the hour or by the day.

I also live in the northeast and I don't know where you live, but if it's so easy to live without a car then more power to you. But to say the whole northeast has a great public transportation system is HILARIOUS!
 
I also live in the northeast and I don't know where you live, but if it's so easy to live without a car then more power to you. But to say the whole northeast has a great public transportation system is HILARIOUS!

being in boston that is.
but yeah once i'm outta here i'm getting my ride back that's for shizzle.
 
if you need a car, and cant afford your payment, sell the damn car and get one that you can afford. from what i heard, d-school is not a contest to see who is driving the best car. wherever i get in, i will be riding on my POS 92 honda nighthawk 250. even with all the turn signals hanging by the wires, and other things held up by duct tape. but the damn thing still runs.

dont be an idiot. unless that is your modus operandus
 
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