Various schools have all sorts of fees, an increasing trend as the price of college at state-supported school climbs. They have to do something to keep the "tuition" down, so let's have a bunch of mandatory fees. Some fees fall under the usual suspects: technology fee, student activities fee, health services fee, lab fee, etc. Other fees fall under the "you've got to be kidding me" category. I recently heard about a fee called the "graduate student differential fee." Also, sometimes graduate assistantships cover fees, but the key word there is "sometimes."
Textbooks can be another thorn in a student's side. I think my worst semester of damages was $700 for books alone. (Yes. the joys of taking 4 engineering classes at a time....)
School supplies fall under the category of "highly consumable and/or misplace-able."
I generally approach the crazy "Back to School" budgeting using every trick in the trade to develop a good estimate so I can siphon my funds off into a designated account in the previous semester.
Questions for the comment leavers:
- The most ridiculous fee ever
- Favorite ways to minimize textbook and supply expenses
- Creating your "Back to School" budget
7 comments:
Most ridiculous fee: Transportation fee (It makes the city buses "free" to ride."
Minimize expenses: Half.com all the way. I have too many specialized books for craigslist. But that's the best way I've found for textbooks.
Budget: Add up all fees and books and pray for money to appear. Seriously, I try to save up a little during June, July, and August that helps. And my university will allow a payment plan for fees (for graduate students). Also, I "borrow" office supplies from the lab.
re: textbooks
have you tried buying your books online? You just need the ISBN number (it's a 10- or 13-digit code on the back of the book). Go on any price-comparing site (like www.campusi.com), punch it in, and it'll show you the best deal available online. It saved me a lot of money when I went to college. :)
I spent the summer looking for a new textbook for my business law class. The book that I used last year cost almost $200.00! Ridiculous for an undergraduate to spend that much money. I found a very good textbook for about $100.00. Still a lot of money, but at least it's better.
Buy school supplies in bulk when they are cheap (and store them where you can find them so you don't end up having to re-buy due to disorganization).
I use addall.com to comparison shop books.
I buy school supplies in bulk - it took me 4 years to use up the pens and pads of paper I purchased when I started, even though I felt completely ridiculous when I bought them!
I also sell off old textbooks and/or the free ones I get sent to me by book reps, in order to have some extra cash.
And, I'm pathetic enough that I hoard free pens. Sad, I know. That's what grad school does to you!
Buying books online is huge. I was astounded at the price difference this year. My books were $400 more used in the school bookstore than new on Amazon.
I borrowed whatever books I could from my advisor! Also, LargeU had every class textbook on reserve, so for classes with ridiculously high numbers of rarely-used books, I just went to the library.
Also, don't forget that textbooks and other school supplies are tax-deductible! I did my own taxes online through H&R block (for free), and they made those types of deductions really easy to figure out.
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