Selecting a College

Consider colleges that friends or family members have attended, institutions close to home, or even those associated with a favorite sports team. These initial connections can spark interest and provide a starting point for further exploration.There are a few factors that can help you narrow down your choices.

• If you live in the same state you’d like to attend, that’s great! In-state students have lower costs and often are eligible for scholarships from the chosen school. If you don’t live in the same state, that’s okay, but remember that many schools charge more for out-of-state students.
• Even if you’re not sure what you’d like to study when you get to college, its important to remember that not all schools offer all areas of study. For example, if you wanted to major in insect science, you’d have to attend University of Nebraska Lincoln, because the Omaha campus doesn’t offer insect science.
• Some colleges have multiple campuses. Though the areas of study offered at each location can vary, the different locations may have different extracurriculars, scholarships, or housing than other locations. It is important to remember that one campus of a college can be completely different from another, so be sure to take that into account!

There are two more things we should talk about before we get started with comparing costs.

•  In this activity, we’ll be discussing how much a “year” of college costs. When we say year, we mean one academic year. We’ll be using University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL) as an example. UNL’s academic years are split into two semesters, fall and spring semester. This is what’s most common in the United States, though you may come across some schools that are split into three trimesters: fall, winter, and spring trimester.
• This activity focuses on calculating the cost of college, and one important cost is where you live. We’ll assume that you plan to go home and stay with family in the summer, which is usually free. However, many students choose to live at or near their school for the full year. This impacts cost, so be sure to take where you’re living into consideration.

With all of this in mind, take a moment to choose three colleges or vocational schools. Write the name of each college or vocational school on your worksheet. This will be the first step in comparing costs. In the next section, we’ll gather some important information on each of the schools you chose, including average tuition costs tailored to your specific circumstances.

Tuition and Fees

Tuition and fees are what you will pay to attend the school. Tuition is the associated charges or fees for learning at a college or university based on which major you choose, the number of classes you take, and whether you attend a school in your state or in another state.

Often there is a category combined with tuition, called fees. These are for fees like computer access, access to recreation facilities, etc. Also, note that some schools combine fees for tuition, fees, and room and board into one comprehensive fee.

Did you know?

It is important to note that most schools change their tuition yearly, so you should check your school’s website the year you are applying and every year after to determine tuition costs.

Let’s see how we can figure out the tuition and fees for each of the three colleges you chose. We’ll use the University of Nebraska Lincoln’s website as an example. On the homepage, we’ll click the “Admissions” tab.

Then, we’ll go to the “Cost and Aid” section.

Decide which type of tuition applies to you. As we discussed in the last section, where you live and what you’d like to major in can play a role in your tuition cost. For our example, we’re going to be a Nebraska resident who wants to major in insect science, so we can use the in-state tuition fees. If you’d like, click the tabs to see what tuition might look like for an out of state or international student.

The website mentions that any courses in the Colleges of Business, Architecture, or Engineering will have different tuition rates. This is where our chosen major comes into play! Since we want to major in insect science (which is part of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources), we can use the standard tuition cost of $10,434 per academic year.

Fill in the tuition cost for each of the three schools you chose. In the next section, we’ll  discuss some other costs associated with attending school.

Room and Board

Let’s look at how room and board works for college students. You may not have heard of this term before. This is the cost for staying in a dorm room and paying for meals (aka “boarding”).

In the previous section, you may have noticed the “housing and food” estimate on the cost and aid table. This is another way to say room and board. UNL estimates a student will spend $14,120 on room and aid in a year. However, there are usually many options for meal plans and housing available at schools that affect your total cost.

Let’s take a look at some examples from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. We’ll go to the Life at Nebraska tab. Then, we’ll click on “University Housing” or “Dining Services” to learn more about room and board.

Housing options at colleges can include traditional dormitories, suite-style rooms, and apartment-style living. As a freshman, you’ll likely be living in a traditional style dormitory. Each type provides unique amenities and living experiences.

Here are some of the meal plan options at UNL. Depending on what a student chooses to eat on campus and where they’d like to eat, different plans will be best for different students, but notice that they all have different costs.

For our example, let’s pretend we’re a college freshman who will choose a meal plan option 3 and choose to live in a traditional style hall. That brings our total cost for room and board to $13,020, a little less than the price estimated on the cost and aid table.

Like the tuition and fees, you may have to explore the website’s of the schools you chose to find the room and meal plan rates. If you’re stuck, try typing “dining plan” or “room and board rates” into the website’s search bar.  On your worksheet, fill in the room and board costs for each of the three schools you’ve chosen.

Book and Supplies

In college, students are expected to buy their own books and supplies for each class. Unlike high school, where textbooks and materials are often provided, college students must plan and budget for these additional expenses. This can include everything from textbooks and lab materials to software and specialized equipment. It’s an important part of managing your college finances and ensuring you have all the resources needed to succeed in your courses.

To figure out how much books and supplies might cost us, we’ll use the College Board estimate of $1,298. There are a few ways to save money when it comes to books and supplies.

• Textbook Rental: Renting textbooks can be a great way to save money. When you rent a book, you pay to use it from websites like Chegg and Amazon.Campus bookstores offer rental options.
• eBooks: Your school’s library and online bookstores often have digital textbook options. It can be cheaper to purchase a digital copy of a textbook rather than a physical book, but not always!
• Used Textbooks: Depending on what subject you’re studying, older textbooks may still be a great option while being a bit cheaper. You may even find some helpful notes or highlights from previous students! You should always check with a professor if using a previous edition of a book is acceptable.

Personal Expenses

The last two costs we’ll look at today can be hard to estimate, and can vary, depending on your circumstances. They are personal expenses and transportation costs.

These costs really depend on you, so take a moment to brainstorm what you think it costs to live. Think about doing your own laundry (unless you plan to bring it home!), cell phone and cable bills, fitness classes, and anything else you buy on a regular basis. If you completed the Getting Ready for College and Career activity, you may already have a good idea! On your worksheet or in the space below, write down some ideas and some potential costs.

For our example, we’ll estimate that we would need about $1,000 for personal expenses per year. This includes $200 for laundry, $300 for cell phone and cable bills, $200 for fitness classes, and $300 for other regular purchases. Add your estimated personal expenses to your worksheet.

Transportation

Now, let’s think about transportation. During this activity, we’ve been using the example of a Nebraska resident who will go to UNL as an insect studies major. Let’s see what transportation costs might look like.

The costs of going home to see your family will depend on many things, like where your family lives, how often you go to see them, and how you plan to get there.

• Let’s pretend we’re from Scottsbluff, a small town in Nebraska near the Wyoming border. If we go to UNL (on the other side of Nebraska), we’re going to be about 400 miles away from home. That means, round trip, it’d take us about 12 hours to drive home to visit family, and it’d cost around $80 for gas.
• What if we’re from Scottsbluff, but we don’t have a car? We could always fly home. A flight leaving from the Lincoln airport to Scottsbluff would be around $350, and it would take about 4 hours, since the plane stops in Denver.
• What if we’re from Lincoln? Well, as a UNL student, you can ride the local bus system, StarTran, for free! Depending on where you live in Lincoln, it wouldn’t take long to take a bus home, and it’d be free as long as you have your UNL student ID.

The three examples we discussed are just a few ways a student may choose to travel home. Consider your unique situation and the transportation options available to you. These costs might be the cost of a bus or train ticket or the cost of gas and maintenance if you own your car.

For our example, we’ll assume we plan to drive back home to Scottsbluff from UNL about five times a year, making our transportation costs $400. Write your estimated transportation costs for each school on your worksheet.

Adding it All Up

Throughout this activity, we used an example student. Our example student is a Nebraska resident from Scottsbluff who plans to major in Insect Science. The total cost for a year for that student is $26, 152.

That sounds like a lot, but if you completed the CLOVER Activity Financial Aid and the Net Cost of College, then you know that’s just a “sticker cost.” Check out the activity if you want to learn more!

Add up the costs for each of the three schools you’ve chosen. Price is an important factor when choosing a school, but it is just one factor! Throughout this process, we hope you learned a lot about the college research process.