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Home > Let's Talk College Costs...Part Two

Let's Talk College Costs...Part Two

May 9th, 2017 at 03:26 pm

There is a lot to discuss when sharing the nitty gritty of college costs. I expect to break my posts down about this over several days. I even need to check with my daughter on how many credits she took each semester.

First here is a screen shot of the annual expenses for a full time undergraduate student taking 30 hours from the 2015-2016 Common Data Set at the school she is attending.



Living on campus is required at this school the freshman year if the student is under 19.

She is an out of state resident. She did receive a renewable four year scholarship of $14,000 per year. That is equal to $56,000. She also received an art scholarship her freshman year equal to $4500. And because she is an Honors student, she receives $500 per year towards books. Because the way the billing is, the Honors scholarship is really like any other scholarship and reduces tuition costs.

I do want to say that even I see areas where costs could be reduced. But we all make choices for our spending that are not about dollars and cents. I'm not going to go into justifying the decision. We are simply grateful that we have had the ability to pay the costs so far without taking out student loans.

In my next post I will try to break down actual costs for freshman year.

6 Responses to “Let's Talk College Costs...Part Two”

  1. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1494343609

    Stupid question why did you think each girl would get 18 months of GI? Versus the 12 they got? And how does it work? Is it a month per month basis so that's worth 3 semesters? I'm sorry for a dumb question. Does the value of where you go matter?

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    1494345913

    @LAL, let me first say this is a government entitlement with many rules and regulations, so I can't cover all questions because each soldiers situation is unique as is their benefit. We thought they would each get 18 months because for the length of service my husband has since 911, qualifies us for 'up to' 36 months at the 100% rate. We didn't see anything in all of our time of reading about this program that this newer education program would take into account other benefits received.

    My husband transferred 18 months to each of our daughters in February 2015. We have a letter to the VA in writing confirming this. Unfortunately, as we have found out, the VA sends that to EVERY soldier that transfers benefits, they don't look at their individual situation to see if they qualify to transfer the full amount. The next step, when our daughter applied for the benefits transferred to her was for the VA to look closely at my husband's service and determine what her actual benefits were. (Yes, I have a problem with the way this is handled, but I'm not asking for more than the program is intended to provide).

    The VA does make monthly payments to the school. If it's a quarterly class, it's three months. If it is a semester that is considered four months. Not sure how summer classes that can range for 3-8 weeks count. The VA will be making monthly payments for housing to us the month after the fact. So if the housing covers September, we receive it in October.

    The value of where you go can matter, but it's really hard to explain...again thanks to our congress people! Ugh. Each state is different and there is something called the Yellow Ribbon Program, that will actually benefit my daughter in the state she is in for the out of state tuition, which means no cap on the benefit at this institution. Other institutions do have caps. Go to the
    Text is VA website and Link is http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/
    VA website to read more about it if you are interested.

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1494346133

    *letter is FROM the VA.

  4. Carol Says:
    1494357515

    Well,I am glad someone "I know" is going to school on this program! ( Does seem extra complicated though. )

  5. creditcardfree Says:
    1494357769

    That's sweet, Carol. Yes, we are getting the benefits my husband qualified for. I don't think we are getting wrong information at this point. They just aren't as upfront with some things as they should be. Complicated is what the government does best! My husband made the phone call to the VA yesterday and a coworker of his overheard. Same thing happened to her thought she would get to transfer the full amount to her kids, but then later realized other benefits already used had to be deducted. It's still worth it in the end.

  6. livingalmostlarge Says:
    1494388944

    So confusing!

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