College tuition is expensive. Everyone knows that, but nonetheless, here’s the obligatory jaw-dropping number from the nonprofit CollegeBoard.org: The average tuition for an in-state public college during the 2014-2015 academic year was $23,410. A moderate budget at a private college for the same year was $46,272.
But when you’re budgeting for college, in a way, the tuition — not to mention the room and board — is a bit of a red herring. Parents worry so much about the cost of college that it’s easy to forget to plan for all those other expenses.
Other expenses? Oh, sure. Even if you have a low-maintenance kid who keeps her head down, doesn’t socialize and just studies, you’re still going to encounter an array of college-related expenses, beyond the tuition, room and board, books and even dorm room furnishings, which is at least, mostly, a one-time expense. You’re also going to be paying for things like:
Travel. If your kid is going to community college or is just a couple hours away by car, you’ll probably do just fine here. But if your child is going out of state, and especially several states away, this will be a major part of your yearly budget.
That was an expense Taryn Duffy ran into when she sent her daughter to college in North Carolina.
“I certainly didn’t anticipate the expense of her going back and forth from New York to North Carolina so frequently, particularly coming home for important family events that she didn’t want to miss,” says Duffy, president of TSD Strategies, a communications and public relations consulting firm in the New York City area.
She also didn’t think about other travel-related expenses. “And the cost of storing her things between school years, or semesters when she studied abroad? No one ever mentioned that,” Duffy says.
Travel, Part 2. But even if your kid has a car and pays for his or her own gas, you still might be roped into spending more money on the vehicle than you planned.
Bruce Ailion, a realtor and attorney in Atlanta, has five kids, three of whom are in college. “There is always an expense,” he says, adding that last week he had to pay $210 in towing costs because his son, a sophomore, mistakenly parked on the wrong side of the street. Ailion also had to shell out $50 for the parking ticket.
“He has a job that covers much of his incidental expenses but spends all he makes such that $260 was an out-of-the-question expense for him,” Ailion says. And there’s more.
“Last month, it was tires,” he says, of the other car expenses he’s recently had to pay for.
Meanwhile, Amy Poblete, a publicist and digital marketer in Scottsdale, Arizona, says her daughter will be attending college this fall, and underclassmen aren’t allowed to bring cars to school.
Poblete is happy about that, but says a lot of freshmen ride scooters or mopeds because the campus is very large. Poblete is sympathetic. “They all need to get around somehow,” she says.
So she bought a moped for approximately $1,200, which doesn’t count what she spent for a lock, helmet or goggles. Or insurance.
Food — beyond the meal plan. If you went to college, you probably remember a lot of late nights eating pizza while studying. There’s a reason freshmen put on the famous Freshman 15.
Duffy, a single mom who spent years saving for her daughter’s education, also didn’t at first factor in that her daughter might want to venture beyond the dorm’s cafeteria.
“When your child is pulling a near 4.0 and living in the library, are you really going to begrudge her pizza, burritos, ice cream or the gallons of Starbucks coffee she’s relying on to keep endorphins elevated and brain cells awake and functioning?” Duffy asks.
Duffy didn’t begrudge her daughter. But not planning for those quality-of-life and inevitable expenses hurt her.
“All of those hidden costs ate up large portions of what money we had for tuition and meant more loans and borrowing. Colleges are far from being the all-inclusive destinations they’re presented to be,” she says.
Extracurricular activities. If your student is going to be involved in extracurricular activities, there may be random fees, or you may spend money on equipment.
But the most expensive extracurricular activity has to be pledging a fraternity or sorority, and if you’re excited by your kid experiencing that, just be aware of what you’re getting into financially.
“If your son or daughter goes Greek, there are annual dues, plus expenses related to events, T-shirts and parties,” says Todd Templin, a Plantation, Florida-based public relations executive. He has a son who was active in a fraternity all four years of college and a daughter who is in a sorority. He guesses that a typical parent will probably spend about $2,000 a year on sorority or fraternity related costs.
“You’re paying mostly for social activities and events, but you’re also paying a share of house costs and utilities, national dues and inter-fraternity council dues,” he says. You could easily spend more, depending how involved your kid is, he adds.
Unplanned, miscellaneous expenses. And then there’s this: The fact that most of your college-related expenses simply can’t be classified or planned. Kim Rowley, a single mom in Pierce, Nebraska, could be the poster child for parents who pay college expenses far beyond tuition, room and board.
“Last year, I had three kids in college: one at a university, one at a community college and one in cosmetology school … There were many unexpected expenses,” says Rowley, who has an affiliate marketing company and writes a shopping blog called Shoppingkim.com.
She details several financial setbacks that happened last year with her college-age kids, now 21 to 24.
— A hit and run to her son’s car. She had to pay a $1,000 insurance deductible for that.
— One of her kids got counseling after a failed romance, costing $225 a session.
— Another kid failed several classes, requiring makeups. “His major was too hard, which I knew, but I wanted to let him try it,” Rowley says. His setback set her back $300 per class.
“Then there is gas money, cellphone data plans overloaded, car insurance rates increased,” Rowley says. “Need I go on?”
On the bright side for Rowley, her three kids finished school this year, and they are all gainfully employed. But Rowley isn’t quite finished. She also has a 17-year-old.
“My youngest starts college next year, so I get to start all over again,” she says.
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Those Other College Expenses You Aren’t Thinking About originally appeared on usnews.com
