How much is college tuition?

[txex86]

The costs at my alma mater, The University of Texas at Austin are:

Tuition/fees (Texas resident): $7,600

Room/board: $9,400

We were fortunate enough to pre-purchase our daughter's tuition/fees through the Texas Tomorrow Fund 9 years ago for $18,000. This covers costs for 4 years at a state school. The state of Texas no longer offers this plan.

The real killer is room/board. By the time our daughter goes to college, it looks like we'll be paying $11,000~$12,000/year. So, we've saved another $35,000 for this. We could possibly add more as she four more years until college.

[aida2003]

State schools do too. Look at that link I posted earlier from Kiplinger's. One of the things they use to rate the schools is % of need met with financial aid. I believe Kiplinger's also published a similar list of private schools. If not, MONEY or U.S. News probably did.

I meant FREE money . Scholarships and grants don't need to be repaid, do they? Maybe a prospective student would have to commit some time and work for the sponsor for a certain time period, but no money to repay. At least that's my understanding of a scholarhip or grant. I never had them, so I might wrong.

But you have to repay financial aid, I thought (???)

[pearlieq]

But you have to repay financial aid, I thought (???)

"Financial Aid" is a broad term that lumps all kinds of aid together. It can mean loans, grants, scholarships, tuition waivers, and even work-study programs--often some of each.

Some of it, like scholarships and grants, don't have to be repaid. I got some of those, and the most I was ever asked to was to write a thank you letter to the donors.

Work-study is usually an on-campus job in the dining hall, library, bookstore, etc. where the money earned by the student is used for education costs.

Loans, of course, definitely need to get paid back.

[aida2003]

Thanks for clarification on fin.aid.

[JanH]

DD is paying approximately 6400 per year tuition. Not including the summer sessions she takes. Books are extra of course and so are her living expenses. She now lives off campus with a roommate, but housing is getting to be pretty expensive. When DS started it was about 5000 per year tuition. So, if saving for college, I would count on it increasing!

[Cassandra]

I paid about $1,200 for the Fall and Spring semester. Books were another $700 (give or take). I don't live on campus and don't have a meal plan.

Room and board would come to about $7,000 (I think that's for the entire year, but I'm not sure). Non-residents usually pay around $6,000-7,000 per semester. Prices have been raised by $6.00/credit for next year.

Thankfully I'm getting more scholarships (one of the benefits of being one of the few women in math) sophomore year so I'm hoping all I'll have to pay for is books next year.

Cassandra