Is it worth an extra $200/month to live next to your med-school? and similar questions.

[NegativeMargin]

Would love advice from those who've decided for or against this, or a discussion with people debating it themselves. I know a large portion of our education has been online these days, and a large portion of med students study in their own homes as well. That said this apartment is literally across the street from the multi-hospital campus that houses our learning centers, less than 1000 feet away. Here are a few things that make me want to think about it:

1. This apartment is new, includes parking (which usually costs $100-200/month), a gym pass with actually decent gym equipment, laundry, A/C, Gigabyte speed internet, dish washer, etc. But the kicker is that it quite literally is across the street from the med school portion of the campus. The rent is $1300, $200 over the monthly financial aid budget, but with a prime location and all the amenities one could want. Still, it's twice what I've ever paid in rent.

2. The average 1 bedroom apartment costs $1200 here, though technically the average rent is $1365 for 850 sq.ft., which is somewhat important, but what is even more important is that the COA for the financial aid package is $1100 for rent, $2200 /month total.

3. My state is the drinking capital of the country, and my school is the drinking capital of that state. I'm a non-trad and will be 30, so the days of living in frat houses or even on frat house streets are beyond me, and while I am getting to know my class, I am still very much hoping to live alone.

4. To qualify for a parking pass for this side of the campus you must live outside of a 1-mile radius of the bus-route, which is in a 1-mile radius of the school. And even then the passes are extremely expensive and are offered on a lottery system. The parking is so bad that the housing department itself tells people to look on craigslist for people renting out their driveways for parking. Once you hit the clinical portion you get passes for slightly less money.

5. I got a full-tuition scholarship, but that in no-way will likely increase the amount of money I will be able to budget with per month, it will only reduce the portion of that money being paid by loans. I do not know if I will qualify for private loans, or if I should even consider them. I have a 700 credit score, but I will not use a cosigner and I have a $20,000 loan out on my car.

6. I currently live on a $1500/month budget paying $600 in rent. By that same token if the budget is $2200, I would then be able to afford $1300 in rent, ceteris paribus. Obviously I'm here because I know it's naïve to think I can just make that comparison and it'll hold true, which is why I'd like some feedback on this.

7. I have a nice relatively new car and for this school you need a car within the first few months. I'm willing to commute, I have done a 15-minute commute through undergrad. The issue is to make that 4-mile commute in this city would take twice as long, and if I didn't win the lottery system for a parking pass I'd have to buy a shuttle pass which would put me 1-mile away from campus riding the bus anyway, which would end up making the commute nearly 45 minutes to an hour.

8. I do like to study on campus. Despite large portions of my work being online, and even having an online winterim class that ended just last week, I still like waking up at 5-6am, getting to campus as soon as the doors open, and studying. It makes me feel productive, and living at this location would allow me to wake up and walk directly there.

9. The school offers grad-housing for $100 less per month, but it's filled with students, has paper-thin walls, is being used as over-flow housing for COVID positive undergrad students, and it is more than twice as far away from the hospital. Other offers are slightly more expensive or slightly cheaper with relatively the same amenities and space. I've been looking for months and I do think I'll find something great around $1100, though I have no idea if it'll be filled by the time I get to it.

10. Landlords started taking apps for August of 2022 in October of last year. Also the majority of leases in the student living sections of town start Aug 15th, with med school starting on Aug 15th. It's really only the more upper-class locations or the slums that go month-to-month.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[lanzhou_lamian]

If you believe your happiness and quality of life will be better in the more expensive apartment, go for it. $200/month is $2400 a year. Over 4 years of med school, you'd spend an extra ~$10k. That's less than 1 month of attending salary. Plus, you have a full-tuition scholarship, so your loan burden is already gonna be lower than most.

Med school is stressful enough without having to worry about being in a housing/parking situation you don't like. Financially, both options you've presented are fine, so just choose the one that will make you happier.

 

[Tenk]

Yes. You had me at gym pass.

 

[Dobermann]

I'd do it. $1300 rent a month + free parking is mathematically the same as $1100 rent + $200 parking a month. Seems worth it to me, and like the additional rent includes added value.

 

[NITRAS]

The rent is okish to me if there wasn’t a bunch cheaper option. Your car is way out of line though.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Would need to know which region and urban/suburban/rural to gauge value

 

[NegativeMargin]

The rent is okish to me if there wasn’t a bunch cheaper option. Your car is way out of line though.

Yeah the car is too much in retrospect, but I needed peace of mind. I went to college in 2012, had a car break down and was in no way able to get it fixed. This caused me to lose 2 jobs and drop out of school. Fast-forward to when I decided to go back to school in 2018, had a different car break down twice, and decided if I was going to do this I needed a car I could count on for 8 years. So I got one. This one has only 30,000 miles on it now, well within warranty, and while I've had to live more cheaply it's a decision I'm happy I made. The other 2 vehicles are the types of vehicles people here say you should get and they just were not worth the trouble.

 

[LizzyM]

Go for it. Your time is the one thing you can't buy more of. Is there a way to cut your budget by $200/mo (50/wk) in some other way. Will the savings on gas and maybe fewer meals away from home (because home is right across the street) help you close the gap?

 

[deleted1079620]

It kind of sounds like you want us all to tell you it's ok to do what you want to do, which is take the more expensive apartment closer to campus. I know med students who get $5 starbucks twice a day, so there are definitely worse ways to spend your money.

Why wouldn't you qualify for federal student loans though, as opposed to having to take out private loans? Does your scholarship cover your entire COA and therefore disqualify you?

 

[NegativeMargin]

It kind of sounds like you want us all to tell you it's ok to do what you want to do, which is take the more expensive apartment closer to campus. I know med students who get $5 starbucks twice a day, so there are definitely worse ways to spend your money.

Why wouldn't you qualify for federal student loans though, as opposed to having to take out private loans? Does your scholarship cover your entire COA and therefore disqualify you?

On the contrary, what I'd like is for people to see that I clearly am leaning a certain way and be even more open and honest about why I might be convincing myself of something I shouldn't be. This really is the point of any post I make here, to find out where I'm wrong and to have someone fill me in. I don't know what disqualifies me from what, all I know is this city I'm moving to has a cost of living twice as high as my current one and I'm trying to wrap my head around a stable living environment to aid in this transition.

I know some college students can swing eating out and having coffee every day, I'm probably not going to be one of them. That said there is a considerable amount about my financial aid situation I still do not really know. The scholarship covers the full tuition, but it looks like that is it. This leaves the ~$27k that is quoted as cost of living to be covered by loans. I had a considerable amount of grants in undergrad, I do not know how that will carry over. And I also don't know what limit there is to my borrowing through federal loans.

It doesn't seem completely unreasonable that the federal loans I am allowed to have can only go up as high as their quoted cost of living would cover, and beyond that I am expected to have private loans cover anything additional. Am I wrong in that? That's the way it works in undergrad. I can petition to have an increase in my cost of living if I show proof of a need, but even then there are limits.

Ideally this extra cushion from the tuition scholarship will allow me to take out as many federal loans as I'll need to live quite comfortably, but I see no reason to assume that's going to happen, especially if it leads me to make bad fiscal decisions before I educate myself. I do know the wording of the scholarship stated explicitly that "these scholarships will not be included in financial aid packages from Office of Student Financial Aid." But I don't really know how to quantify that. It could mean that I quite literally am getting a check for full tuition on-top of any financial need that is determined ahead of time by the financial aid package, which does include cost of living. If that's the case it would mean I suddenly have $39,363 more wiggle room each year.. but that's a pretty big if isn't it?

edit: And all of this without mentioning the fact that I do not know what expenses my specific school will throw at their students. With certain text books, online resources, clothing requirements, etc. That could add up to thousands of dollar as well, before even considering things like STEP prep, residency applications, and all of the other things I can foresee as a future expense for any med school I go to. Understanding the full financial picture now, before my first day, is going to allow me to set myself up for a stable and successful experience. And where I lay my head at night is a pretty big part of that stability.

 

[wysdoc]

On the contrary, what I'd like is for people to see that I clearly am leaning a certain way and be even more open and honest about why I might be convincing myself of something I shouldn't be. This really is the point of any post I make here, to find out where I'm wrong and to have someone fill me in. I don't know what disqualifies me from what, all I know is this city I'm moving to has a cost of living twice as high as my current one and I'm trying to wrap my head around a stable living environment to aid in this transition.

I know some college students can swing eating out and having coffee every day, I'm probably not going to be one of them. That said there is a considerable amount about my financial aid situation I still do not really know. The scholarship covers the full tuition, but it looks like that is it. This leaves the ~$27k that is quoted as cost of living to be covered by loans. I had a considerable amount of grants in undergrad, I do not know how that will carry over. And I also don't know what limit there is to my borrowing through federal loans.

It doesn't seem completely unreasonable that the federal loans I am allowed to have can only go up as high as their quoted cost of living would cover, and beyond that I am expected to have private loans cover anything additional. Am I wrong in that? That's the way it works in undergrad. I can petition to have an increase in my cost of living if I show proof of a need, but even then there are limits.

Ideally this extra cushion from the tuition scholarship will allow me to take out as many federal loans as I'll need to live quite comfortably, but I see no reason to assume that's going to happen, especially if it leads me to make bad fiscal decisions before I educate myself. I do know the wording of the scholarship stated explicitly that "these scholarships will not be included in financial aid packages from Office of Student Financial Aid." But I don't really know how to quantify that. It could mean that I quite literally am getting a check for full tuition on-top of any financial need that is determined ahead of time by the financial aid package, which does include cost of living. If that's the case it would mean I suddenly have $39,363 more wiggle room each year.. but that's a pretty big if isn't it?

edit: And all of this without mentioning the fact that I do not know what expenses my specific school will throw at their students. With certain text books, online resources, clothing requirements, etc. That could add up to thousands of dollar as well, before even considering things like STEP prep, residency applications, and all of the other things I can foresee as a future expense for any med school I go to. Understanding the full financial picture now, before my first day, is going to allow me to set myself up for a stable and successful experience. And where I lay my head at night is a pretty big part of that stability.

You will not regret living in a close convenient place and skipping the hassle of driving and parking daily.

 

[NITRAS]

Yeah the car is too much in retrospect, but I needed peace of mind. I went to college in 2012, had a car break down and was in no way able to get it fixed. This caused me to lose 2 jobs and drop out of school. Fast-forward to when I decided to go back to school in 2018, had a different car break down twice, and decided if I was going to do this I needed a car I could count on for 8 years. So I got one. This one has only 30,000 miles on it now, well within warranty, and while I've had to live more cheaply it's a decision I'm happy I made. The other 2 vehicles are the types of vehicles people here say you should get and they just were not worth the trouble.

Look, you do you. A $20,000 car will depreciate much faster than a $10,000 car. You are likely burning an extra 8 or 10 grand instead of buying a 5-8 thousand dollar car and replacing it with another 5-8 thousand dollar car. The car market is real wonky right now (like everything else). Plus if you can avoid a car payment, you have way more margin in your budget.

And trust me, sometimes you have car problems. My buddy’s $90k Escalade died. I mean, red transmission fluid on the pavement died. The important thing is that you make a decision from wisdom, and not to rationalize a decisions based on fear. Your car payment is like what, $360-$400 a month? I see a way to Fix your budget problem.

Again, I wish you the best. Good luck in medical school! Remember when it sucks, it goes by so fast when you look back at it.

 

[IMGASMD]

Yeah the car is too much in retrospect, but I needed peace of mind. I went to college in 2012, had a car break down and was in no way able to get it fixed. This caused me to lose 2 jobs and drop out of school. Fast-forward to when I decided to go back to school in 2018, had a different car break down twice, and decided if I was going to do this I needed a car I could count on for 8 years. So I got one. This one has only 30,000 miles on it now, well within warranty, and while I've had to live more cheaply it's a decision I'm happy I made. The other 2 vehicles are the types of vehicles people here say you should get and they just were not worth the trouble.

I had a new Honda Civic. It survived undergrad, a trip to the mountain west from the East coast, med school, residency….. thank God. Finally got rid of it at like 140K. They gave me $500 trade in as a courtesy….

It is important to have a reliable car. For 20K, I would probably get a brand new Kia or Hyundai and call it a day.

 

[NegativeMargin]

Look, you do you. A $20,000 car will depreciate much faster than a $10,000 car. You are likely burning an extra 8 or 10 grand instead of buying a 5-8 thousand dollar car and replacing it with another 5-8 thousand dollar car. The car market is real wonky right now (like everything else). Plus if you can avoid a car payment, you have way more margin in your budget.

And trust me, sometimes you have car problems. My buddy’s $90k Escalade died. I mean, red transmission fluid on the pavement died. The important thing is that you make a decision from wisdom, and not to rationalize a decisions based on fear. Your car payment is like what, $360-$400 a month? I see a way to Fix your budget problem.

Again, I wish you the best. Good luck in medical school! Remember when it sucks, it goes by so fast when you look back at it.

Oh you don't have to tell me about the possibility of car problems. And you're absolutely right, I'm not discounting the idea that having 2 cars break down causing me to stop being able to go to school may have colored my decision making.

I will say it's not crazy to think a car with 30,000 miles on it will have less problems than one with 130,000, especially if I treat it properly.

Also the owner of the dealership is a family friend, and they gave me a great deal. It had just over 3,000 miles on it and I got it for $18,000 + fees, loan came out to just over 20. At the time the car could have been sold for over $30,000, and today the bluebook on it is still over $26,000. I'm not a car salesman, and frankly I don't care about depreciation values right now.. I care about getting through med-school with minimal headache. It was objectively a fantastic deal, and in light of 2 beaters breaking down causing me to have issues with school in a way that would not be acceptable in med-school, it was a no-brainer. It went from 3,000 to 30,000 in undergrad, and will likely go from 30,000-60,000 in med school.. and most likely, the car will still have fewer problems than the two I had before it. This school also has away rotations up to 1.5 hours away, and it's Wisconsin.. I don't really want to be driving a beater 1.5 hours in the middle of winter.

 

[Schadret]

Look, you do you. A $20,000 car will depreciate much faster than a $10,000 car. You are likely burning an extra 8 or 10 grand instead of buying a 5-8 thousand dollar car and replacing it with another 5-8 thousand dollar car. The car market is real wonky right now (like everything else). Plus if you can avoid a car payment, you have way more margin in your budget.

Have you looked at the used-car craziness right now? It's crazy.. some are going for almost the price of new cars. Definitely not a buyers market.

My current car - 2020 Hyundai Tuscon - MSRP when I got it 2 years ago $34000. I have 37K miles on it and Carmax will give me $30800 for it right now, and I'm sure sell if for around $34k.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

A new car is a big financial commitment. Unless you're in a used BWM? Trade that thing in for a 2012 corolla OP!

But the car alone can't be the reason your budget is tight enough to quibble over a couple thousand a year in extra rent (or what would total to about half of your car over the course of 4 years). Wish I could see the whole picture before opining. Have you maxed out your loans or are you trying to avoid taking them out entirely? You can PM me more details if you want. I'm fairly confident managing this level of personal finance, having paid for my undergraduate degree on a barista salary.

But to answer your question directly, your comfort and well-being is worth a lot more than $200 per month if it keeps you happy and that keeps your grades good.

 

[NegativeMargin]

A new car is a big financial commitment. Unless you're in a used BWM? Trade that thing in for a 2012 corolla OP!

But the car alone can't be the reason your budget is tight enough to quibble over a couple thousand a year in extra rent (or what would total to about half of your car over the course of 4 years). Wish I could see the whole picture before opining. Have you maxed out your loans or are you trying to avoid taking them out entirely? You can PM me more details if you want. I'm fairly confident managing this level of personal finance, having paid for my undergraduate degree on a barista salary.

But to answer your question directly, your comfort and well-being is worth a lot more than $200 per month if it keeps you happy and that keeps your grades good.

There is no secret extra expense, it's more so just ignorance.

I simply do not know. I don't have maxed out credit cards or anything, CR is ~700, I do have the loan out on the car. My monthly expenses right now are $1500 in total, with $560 going to rent. I haven't received a financial aid package because it's still early in the cycle, but the school I'm going to is in a city where housing is pricey and goes fast. I'll link the cost of attendance below and know that I have a full-tuition scholarship. This creates a scenario where I need to make housing decisions with incomplete financial aid information. It's my understanding from the few discussions I've had with financial aid advisors at med schools that they budget your cost of living into your overall package, and the amount you get back is equal to what they budget you out at. Which looking at the attached document shows $2,303/month. With the apartment in question at $1300/month, that's 56% of my monthly budget on rent, which is usually a bad move, though it is under the average rent of the city.

I have no idea what extra loans I will be able to get through federal loans or even private loans, hence the post. Most folks here and on reddit act as if getting extra loans for housing or expenses is easy, but I haven't really seen anyone prove that in any way so I'm trying to budget off of this $2303 to be safe. It's also my understanding that a scholarship like this doesn't mean extra $$$, you still only get to borrow up to that budgeted amount through federal loans. Is that right or wrong?

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

There is no secret extra expense, it's more so just ignorance.

I simply do not know. I don't have maxed out credit cards or anything, CR is ~700, I do have the loan out on the car. My monthly expenses right now are $1500 in total, with $560 going to rent. I haven't received a financial aid package because it's still early in the cycle, but the school I'm going to is in a city where housing is pricey and goes fast. I'll link the cost of attendance below and know that I have a full-tuition scholarship. This creates a scenario where I need to make housing decisions with incomplete financial aid information. It's my understanding from the few discussions I've had with financial aid advisors at med schools that they budget your cost of living into your overall package, and the amount you get back is equal to what they budget you out at. Which looking at the attached document shows $2,303/month. With the apartment in question at $1300/month, that's 56% of my monthly budget on rent, which is usually a bad move, though it is under the average rent of the city.

I have no idea what extra loans I will be able to get through federal loans or even private loans, hence the post. Most folks here and on reddit act as if getting extra loans for housing or expenses is easy, but I haven't really seen anyone prove that in any way so I'm trying to budget off of this $2303 to be safe. It's also my understanding that a scholarship like this doesn't mean extra $$$, you still only get to borrow up to that budgeted amount through federal loans. Is that right or wrong?

You will be offered an absurdly high amount of financial aid. All medical school pad their numbers. For example, you say an average apt in the area is $1,300/month. This document from your school intended for students says $1,100/month. But the school likely tells financial aid lenders that students may need up to $2,000/month. They do this with everything else too so that the amount of financial aid offers far surpasses reasonable need. Just to give a ballpark, I was offered around $100k per year. I'm at a DO school so tuition is more expensive than MD, about $60k. But that still leaves me with $40k for all other expenses per year. (Of course I don't plan on being $400k in debt when I graduate so I take out as little as possible.)

Talk to the financial aid office and ask them how much the financial aid package usually ends up being for students with your financial background. I don't think the scholarship should change it significantly, just the lender will probably not offer you tuition. But in my case, to attach some concrete numbers, that would mean they don't offer me $60k of tuition but they still offer me $40k for everything else. I would be willing to bet you're going to offered at least $30k per year for living expenses.

The only people who may need to take out private loans are students who aren't US citizens or US citizens with a criminal records because they don't have access to federal loans.

Edit: corrected numbers

 

[cincincyreds]

Would love advice from those who've decided for or against this, or a discussion with people debating it themselves. I know a large portion of our education has been online these days, and a large portion of med students study in their own homes as well. That said this apartment is literally across the street from the multi-hospital campus that houses our learning centers, less than 1000 feet away. Here are a few things that make me want to think about it:

1. This apartment is new, includes parking (which usually costs $100-200/month), a gym pass with actually decent gym equipment, laundry, A/C, Gigabyte speed internet, dish washer, etc. But the kicker is that it quite literally is across the street from the med school portion of the campus. The rent is $1300, $200 over the monthly financial aid budget, but with a prime location and all the amenities one could want. Still, it's twice what I've ever paid in rent.

2. The average 1 bedroom apartment costs $1200 here, though technically the average rent is $1365 for 850 sq.ft., which is somewhat important, but what is even more important is that the COA for the financial aid package is $1100 for rent, $2200 /month total.

3. My state is the drinking capital of the country, and my school is the drinking capital of that state. I'm a non-trad and will be 30, so the days of living in frat houses or even on frat house streets are beyond me, and while I am getting to know my class, I am still very much hoping to live alone.

4. To qualify for a parking pass for this side of the campus you must live outside of a 1-mile radius of the bus-route, which is in a 1-mile radius of the school. And even then the passes are extremely expensive and are offered on a lottery system. The parking is so bad that the housing department itself tells people to look on craigslist for people renting out their driveways for parking. Once you hit the clinical portion you get passes for slightly less money.

5. I got a full-tuition scholarship, but that in no-way will likely increase the amount of money I will be able to budget with per month, it will only reduce the portion of that money being paid by loans. I do not know if I will qualify for private loans, or if I should even consider them. I have a 700 credit score, but I will not use a cosigner and I have a $20,000 loan out on my car.

6. I currently live on a $1500/month budget paying $600 in rent. By that same token if the budget is $2200, I would then be able to afford $1300 in rent, ceteris paribus. Obviously I'm here because I know it's naïve to think I can just make that comparison and it'll hold true, which is why I'd like some feedback on this.

7. I have a nice relatively new car and for this school you need a car within the first few months. I'm willing to commute, I have done a 15-minute commute through undergrad. The issue is to make that 4-mile commute in this city would take twice as long, and if I didn't win the lottery system for a parking pass I'd have to buy a shuttle pass which would put me 1-mile away from campus riding the bus anyway, which would end up making the commute nearly 45 minutes to an hour.

8. I do like to study on campus. Despite large portions of my work being online, and even having an online winterim class that ended just last week, I still like waking up at 5-6am, getting to campus as soon as the doors open, and studying. It makes me feel productive, and living at this location would allow me to wake up and walk directly there.

9. The school offers grad-housing for $100 less per month, but it's filled with students, has paper-thin walls, is being used as over-flow housing for COVID positive undergrad students, and it is more than twice as far away from the hospital. Other offers are slightly more expensive or slightly cheaper with relatively the same amenities and space. I've been looking for months and I do think I'll find something great around $1100, though I have no idea if it'll be filled by the time I get to it.

10. Landlords started taking apps for August of 2022 in October of last year. Also the majority of leases in the student living sections of town start Aug 15th, with med school starting on Aug 15th. It's really only the more upper-class locations or the slums that go month-to-month.

$200 a month isn't going to wreck your medical school budget.

 

[deleted1079620]

On the contrary, what I'd like is for people to see that I clearly am leaning a certain way and be even more open and honest about why I might be convincing myself of something I shouldn't be. This really is the point of any post I make here, to find out where I'm wrong and to have someone fill me in. I don't know what disqualifies me from what, all I know is this city I'm moving to has a cost of living twice as high as my current one and I'm trying to wrap my head around a stable living environment to aid in this transition.

I know some college students can swing eating out and having coffee every day, I'm probably not going to be one of them. That said there is a considerable amount about my financial aid situation I still do not really know. The scholarship covers the full tuition, but it looks like that is it. This leaves the ~$27k that is quoted as cost of living to be covered by loans. I had a considerable amount of grants in undergrad, I do not know how that will carry over. And I also don't know what limit there is to my borrowing through federal loans.

It doesn't seem completely unreasonable that the federal loans I am allowed to have can only go up as high as their quoted cost of living would cover, and beyond that I am expected to have private loans cover anything additional. Am I wrong in that? That's the way it works in undergrad. I can petition to have an increase in my cost of living if I show proof of a need, but even then there are limits.

Ideally this extra cushion from the tuition scholarship will allow me to take out as many federal loans as I'll need to live quite comfortably, but I see no reason to assume that's going to happen, especially if it leads me to make bad fiscal decisions before I educate myself. I do know the wording of the scholarship stated explicitly that "these scholarships will not be included in financial aid packages from Office of Student Financial Aid." But I don't really know how to quantify that. It could mean that I quite literally am getting a check for full tuition on-top of any financial need that is determined ahead of time by the financial aid package, which does include cost of living. If that's the case it would mean I suddenly have $39,363 more wiggle room each year.. but that's a pretty big if isn't it?

edit: And all of this without mentioning the fact that I do not know what expenses my specific school will throw at their students. With certain text books, online resources, clothing requirements, etc. That could add up to thousands of dollar as well, before even considering things like STEP prep, residency applications, and all of the other things I can foresee as a future expense for any med school I go to. Understanding the full financial picture now, before my first day, is going to allow me to set myself up for a stable and successful experience. And where I lay my head at night is a pretty big part of that stability.

I think you need to reach out to your school's financial aid office and get all these questions cleared up before you can even begin to make this decision. This is much bigger than is it worth it to spend an extra $200 a month to be close to the school...and for the record, it would be worth it for me, based on the traffic & parking situation you describe.

 

[AnonymousXYZ]

In my experience, schools will offer you the full COA, the proportion of that comes from loans vs. scholarship will vary for student, but you should still get the total amount. If I were you, I would totally take the apartment near the school! I spend quite a bit of my budget on rent, more than recommended, but it's so worth it to me because I truly value my space. And I happen to spend a lot less than most on other things like groceries, eating out, personal expenses, etc. So I think it's totally doable!

 

[NegativeMargin]

I think you need to reach out to your school's financial aid office and get all these questions cleared up before you can even begin to make this decision. This is much bigger than is it worth it to spend an extra $200 a month to be close to the school...and for the record, it would be worth it for me, based on the traffic & parking situation you describe.

Agreed. Unfortunately, they haven't gotten back to me and even if they did they wouldn't know the ins and outs of my specific use-case until a financial aid package came in, which certainly wouldn't help me months from now with my schools volatile housing market. They would likely hesitate to tell me much of anything outside of standard answers until that time, or continue doing what they are doing which is likely waiting for the standard financial aid spiel that gets sent to every student and ignoring me in the mean time. It is what it is. Realizing this, I figured I could try to get those standard answers here.

I think I have gotten some answers, and while I am willing to defend my own decisions I certainly appreciate those willing to tell me there may be things I am missing and helping me figure all of this out.

 

[LunaOri]

Take the apartment across the street. It will be worth the extra money, for the convenience and time saved. Since you have a full tuition scholarship, you won’t graduate with huge debt anyway.