Question of the day for students about COA

[openstage]

This is not an overly vital question...

It's interesting (terrifying) to read about the posted cost of attendance at each school, in different cities. One common theme I've heard a few times is that schools seem to overestimate the COA for their city or area. In particular: room and board, transportation, insurance, food, various for a single student. Now that you've lived there a year or two, my questions are as follows:

• How much did your institution overestimate the annual COA vs what you actually needed to spend?
• Or were they pretty accurate overall?
• What are some areas that you have been able to save money on?

Thanks for your time,

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[Chibucks15]

So in my mind schools have to account for people with families, etc on that COA so that they call allot more loan money to those people. The max amount of federal loans you can get is the COA.

Obviously if you’re a single person you shouldn’t really ever need to take out full COA if you’re smart about money. correct me if I’m wrong but that’s the impression I’ve been under

 

[openstage]

Very interesting - never occurred to me.

 

[bananafish94]

I live in a high COL city - not as bad as California or NYC but high. Overall, it’s manageable but money is usually tight. The majority of my money goes towards rent, even when I lived with two other people in a two bedroom apartment. I don’t really buy things for myself (eg, clothes, etc) and can’t pay for vacations or anything like that. I save money overall by having a pretty simple lifestyle. For example I don’t have a car and walk or take public transit most places. Also remember that schools have not yet caught up to the realities of the application process so you will have to spend much more in M4 year on applications and interviews than you’re allotted. The one thing I splurge on more than I probably should is takeout and going out to eat from time to time and I know it’s a little fiscally irresponsible to say this but it really is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of money you have control over, and I don’t want to just eat rice and beans for four years.

 

[medstar11]

My institution seems to have really over estimated our COA. I am fortunate enough my husband works and covers all of our expenses but we as a family of 3 live off of less than the cost of attendance allowance for my school. We do live on the cheaper side and try to budget our food. I do know of classmates who were single, had a low rent and no other expenses who took out the entire loan every time and I don’t think they realize how much that will cost them compared to living like a student for a few extra years. My advice would be to write down all the known expenses such as rent, insurance etc and then start figuring out how much you need for variable expenses such as gas and food. My school is awesome in that if you need extra loan money from what you took out all you do is ask and it will be deposited in less than a week


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[GoSpursGo]

Please don't post the same thread in multiple places. Those wishing to reply may do so in the pre-med forum: Question of the day for students who are M1 and beyond