Schools Estimated Cost of Attendance

[brsboarder]

I'm wondering how close their estimations are to the actual costs. There are some schools that say tuition is 20k, but then their yearly budget it in the high 40's. Are these usually fairly accurate. I'm comparing two schools, and the difference between their tuition is 20k, but total costs only 10k. Could living outside of an expensive city really cost that much less. I could see the difference in housing alone be 11k vs 5k, but where is the extra 4k difference really going to come from.

Thanks

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[p30doc]

tution is tution, the rest is for everything else you could possibly need as a student or to live, books, rent, car, gas, food, evening gowns, bail money, etc. Everyone will have different costs of living, depending on how you live. The number the school gives you is just an estimate the school probably has pretty arbitrarly come up with but it is also the maximum you can take out student loans for.

 

[brsboarder]

right, I understand that, but you didn't answer the question. that being, how realistic is that number. I'm guessing that it tries to take lots of things into account, and I would hope that it gives you a realistic number, not one that could easily be 10k off.