Financial aid

A good place to roughly calculate how much you will need for financial aid!

The College Board Financial Aid Planner

Take a look!

Choosing the right housing Part 2: Living at home

Living at home: the often forgotten option
When you say college life, living at home might not be the first thing that comes to mind. For many the choice is generally between dorms or off campus. However, if your parents have offered to let you stay at home and your college is reasonably close, this is hardly an option to scoff at. (photo: howstuffworks)



Living at home is a great and very undervalued housing option. Even if your college is far away, if you're thinking about summer school at a nearby college, living at home is something you should think about. Here's the rundown:



Pros:

1. It's cheaper
   The cost of college housing is only the beginning of what you'll be spending - tag on laundry, eating, toiletries, and all those other small things and living at college is very expensive. You do have to spend on transport to go to college, but it's proably far less than what you'll be saving on everything else.


2. The transition
   This can be a huge reason. Getting new friends, adjusting to a new location, and having to do a lot more for yourself in addition to studying can be tough. You might have a good group of friends, a significant other, pets, or even relatives you don't want to part with. Also, parents can be a huge support through this process when they can readily help you with problems and issues.


3. Cafe food
   This may sound like a cliche, but college food is pretty bad. The freshman 15 is not a joke: people DO gain a lot of weight just because they eat a lot of unhealthy food and are not exercising. If you have food constraints, you might have extremely limited choices (note: vegans/vegetarians). Eating at home even if you are doing the cooking is probably much better.


4. Comfort
   Your home is probably a lot more comfortable. And you're not forced to live in a room with some one you don't know. Sure, dorms are an experience but who wants to experience living with someone who snores like a train. For special ed students, living at home can provide you with facilities that the college may not be suited to provide.
   
5. Privacy
   Most housing options at college require sharing something with someone else you don't know that well. Your home can give that privacy and security you want.

Cons

1. The experience
   A big part of college is experiencing new things. Living at home can get in the way of that. Immersion, like in the case of languages, can be the only way to learn certain things and living at college can give you that. At home, your parents may shelter you from certain things that you would get exposed to and learn from living alone.


2. Convenience
   Being able to pull all nighters or meet friends late at night can become inconvenient living at home. Forgot something in your room? That's a hour trip back and forth. Living at college can make you more mobile and help you get things done that require you to be in the college.


3. Privacy
   Parents and siblings can be nosy and you might not want them to know the details of your college life. Even if they are not, there are some experiences that you might want to be private or you might want alone time. This can be difficult at home even if you can go to college to escape.


4. Home-based obligations
   Living at home can involve you spending a lot of time on other things. Babysitting siblings, buying groceries, and all those small home obligations can take a toll on your time.

Choosing the right housing Part 1: Dorms

Congrats. You're in. That fat envelope is sitting in your lap. You've chosen your school and given your deposit. Now comes time for another choice: where will you live at college. This may not be that big a choice for some. The university may have chosen housing for you or only given you limited options to begin with. But if you do have options, you should seriously think about each one before you make your decision.

Any marketing student will tell you: its all about Location Location Location. Sure location is important. But there are a few more things you should think about: transportation, dining, the type of people who live there, costs, facilities, and social activities. Let's start this series by discussing the general choice: dormitory housing.

Dormitories: the tried and true option
Dormitories are the option that most new students are going to take. The generic dormitory consists of a host of rooms, generally housing 2-3, with communal baths, a Residential advisor (RA), and some facilities. Sharing a room can be a new experience and many college have a matching process and give you the name of your roommate before you come, so you can get to know eachother beforehand. Rooms are usually on the small side, but with time you will really make good use of it and make the most out of it. (photo: parentingteensblog)

Dorm rooms are usually convenient, have a good social environment, and are often mandatory for 1-2 years. They are usually well connected to the campus especially libraries and dining halls which makes getting around less problematic. Dorms also usually come equipped with several facilities: bathrooms, cable, internet, telephones, electricity, garbage disposal, parking, and some cleaning. They also usually come equipped with furniture and a bed.

Dorms often also come with other conveniences: study areas, lounges, cafes, kitchens, vending machines, laundry services, rec facilities. Some even have perks like saunas, weight rooms, and pools. Dorms are also usually safer than other options, requiring card access for entry and monitored by college police. Residential advisors are at dorms are also excellent sources of information and can help in making you familiar with college facilities and things to do. There's also a lot of social interaction and it's possible to make friends within the first few hours of moving in. All in all a great place to start getting to know the college and the surrounding area.

Of course not everything is peachy. First off, everything is for everyone. Bathrooms are generally communal and so are TVs, lounges, study areas, washing machines, and almost everything else. So while you get to interact with people while you're in the lounge, it also means you could be stuck watching the news when you really wanted to see the game or waiting an hour before you get to play a game of table tennis. Even your room isn't that private with roommate(s) around and thin walls. This can really be an issue if you don't like your roommate.
However, everyone who goes to college should give dorm housing a try at least once even if just for the experience. This will probably be the only time you get to do it and it's a really good option.

Sometimes choosing which dorm can also be a bit puzzling. If you can visit the college, ask some people where they stayed and what they thought about it. Take a look at the dorms and the different features they may have and where they are located. Even if you can't visit, colleges generally have dorm features accessible online. Take a look at a college map to see where the dorm is located relative to other key locations to get an idea of what you will be living near. Also, see if the dorm is substance-free or has some special interest (such as living green) to see if you will 'fit the mold'. (photo: TIME)

Take a look at your college's website for more information.

Things I wish I knew: College staff

We're starting this new section on The Frosher which will cover factors that you probably wouldn't think of when you're choosing a college but might go on to affect your life there. The first one is college staff.

I'm assuming that you probably do what the average person does when they apply: look at the rankings, the website, maybe visit the college, maybe hear from admissions staff, maybe even stay there for a weekend. Well, unless you ask specifically or dig a little deeper, you might not hear much about college staff changes unless they have just occurred and the positions were quite important.

Nonetheless, college staff - more specifically changes to college staff can really effect how a college works. Let me give you an example, one of the colleges I was at was one of the top ranked party schools for quite a while. It reeked of that 'white frat boy' image and was known for partying pretty hard. That was before the college shuffled the president and other positions. Of course this was pretty big news, but you might not have heard or might not have realized the significance of it.

Let's just say the new staff were not pleased by the image - they wanted to give the school a classier, harder-working, and more marketable 'stereotype'. They ramped up security, started stopping a lot more parties, and started giving a lot more police referrals. This was to the extent that when two drunk frat boys got mugged, the college police first referred them for underage drinking and then worried about their injuries and lost property. Within a year, the college was off the top party colleges list. College rankings also improved (helped by other initiatives taken) and the entire ordeal really redefined, maybe permanently, the school.

Now this is of course an extreme example that would probably only happen rarely. But a lot of schools in the past few years are trying to shrug off the frat boy party image and you should know if one of the schools you are thinking about is. New staff often means new policies and a college that will probably be different compared to what it was in the past. And since it is how the college will be, not how it has been, that will define your life there, knowing about these things can help.

So, how do you find out? A good first step is to read the college newspaper. You can learn a lot just from seeing what students are talking (or in this case writing) about. If you visit the college, try talking to students to find what's new there. Also, look at news about the college (an easy was is google news search the college's name) to see what other people are hearing about.

So take a look. Just something that might help you make the right decision. (photo: hull-college.ac.uk)

The 5 minute review

There's a great studying method I've been used for a long time called the 5 minute review. It's pretty simple: just before you go to sleep spend 5 minutes to review whatever you learned that day. Flick through your notes, add post-its, underline, or do whatever helps grab your attention when you study later on.

This helps you in two ways:

1. It helps convert short term memory to long term
   The topics you think about and pay attention to will stay in your mind longer than something you just wrote down or only talked about once. It will also help make sure that you remember the right stuff: important topics instead of something funny that happened during class.
2. It improves your notes
   By improving your notes, you will also be able to study better later for exams or quizzes. Your attention will be drawn to the topics you underlined and you will also have dedicated time to add something in that you forgot rather than never doing it, or doing it on a later day when you might have forgotten some of the information

I would recommend starting off spending five minutes total. The main aim is that five minutes should be sustainable so that you can do it throughout the semester. If you find this method works for you, you can increase it to ten minutes or even five minutes for each class - it's up to you as long as you know you can maintain it. Also, try to do this just before you sleep so the topics are fresh in your mind the next day as well. If that's not possible, as late in the day as you can is the best way to go.

Try it out. Let me know what you think. (photo economics.ca)

Ten ways to reduce college expenses

Money can be a big problem in college, depending on what your background is. Juggling jobs and school work can also be tough. In college I often wondered where all the money I earned was going. That was when I started my first budget.

Cost of living in colleges are actually pretty high for the average student. Right from the basics such as housing and food all the way to cars and luxuries. But this cost can usually brought down dramatically. But remember, while cutting costs is simple it can require a lot of determination to sustain. (photo: getrichslowly.org)

Here are some steps to trim those expenses:

1. Never buy books at the bookstore.
   Ok, let me rephrase that: never buy books at the bookstore without comparing prices elsewhere (online including half.com, amazon, barnes & noble) and with your fellow students, who often may even let you loan that book free for a semester if they are your friends. Books can cost $500 for a semester: I never spent over $100 after my freshman year. Sometimes the college may update to a new edition that's not yet available anywhere but the bookstore: don't fret. The professor will often help you use the old edition since usually the material and questions don't change that much.
2. Make your own food
   At my college, the cost of a meal was $9, that's over 20$ when you account for full lunch & dinner with a coffee for breakfast. I found I can cook for almost a week in that much money. Simple math shows you that's a food bill of 100$ versus $600 - whew. Also, avoid shopping at corner shops or little stores right next to the college and go to a super market even if it's a little further away. Property prices near the college are a lot more expensive - and your food bill will have to pay for that.
3. Use buses or walk
   Of course try to use friends to hitch a ride first, but if you can't buses are usually much cheaper than driving your own car (especially with today's gas prices). If you're going to the mall or to watch a movie, colleges often have buses to them for free so look into that. For shorter distances, walking is always good and will keep you in shape.
4. Credit cards
   You most likely don't need them - especially not more than 1. One card may be a good idea if you buy all your clothes from one store and they offer one for better deals. Even then, only use that card for purchases from that store. Credit card debt is one thing that college students very often have trouble with and it's a very good idea to just not have a card to begin with. If you do have a card, pay it back every month: the interest rates will make that $200 into one grand very fast. Debit cards are a much better way to go to avoid debt - but again do not spend more than you have because the fees can be close to $100 per day. (photo: warungdigital.com)
5. Live at home
   If you can afford to live at home instead of at rented housing, give it some thought. Living with parents will definitely help reduce expenses and will also help you reduce food expenses. Going into college it may not seem the coolest thing to do, but ‘trying to be cool’ is something that you may regret later on. Plus you can bring friends back home and after eating college food and living in a dorm, this will probably be very refreshing.
6. Save the change
   Spare change jars have been a passive saving technique since change was first offered, but fewer and fewer transactions these days use real cash. If you do use cash, put the change in a jar and watch it save. If you use online banking. many banks (I use Bank of America’s Keep the Change) put round up differences into a separate account. This builds up really quick instead of spending that money on gum or a candy.
7. “Crap I just don’t need” list
   There is a lot of advertising that delivers to college students – and college students often do respond to it. We are famous for impulse buys and things that never end up being used. Instead, every time you want to buy something that you can’t live without, write it down on a list. Keep it on the list for a while, say 30 days, and then remove it if you still want it then. Eventually, you'll start noticing how long the list is, and how well you've gotten along without any of it.
8. Buy online
   Books are hardly the only thing that you should be comparing online prices for – check online for any big purchase. It’s a little out of your way, but most savings methods are. Firefox and its extensions can help you find deals, rebates, coupons, and sales. RetailMeNot automatically pops in to let you know when a site you're at has freebies and discounts available, while PriceDrop adds buttons to Amazon.com's item pages to help you get notifications when prices go down. For electronics and computers, tigerdirect.com and newegg.com are great places to look. Overstock and Price grabber are good places for other purchases as well.
9. Avoid tv
   As mentioned in the previous post, avoid purchasing a tv. You can watch most of the shows on a computer. Even if you already have a tv, try to minimize the time you watch it and do something else instead (note: go to the college gym).
10. Free college food
    There are probably a LOT of events at your college that involve free food. Go to them. Not only will they help cut that dining bill, college lunches and dinners are also a great way to meet new people – especially during the beginning of a year. These events may also help you find an interest that you didn’t think you had and help you build a good extracurricular for your resume. Sweet. (photo: farqs.org)
    

Those are our tips. There's also a great article about this in the Pittsburgh Tribune. Well, what do you do / did to cut money in college? Let’s hear about it in your comments.