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Son just got accepted for Fall 2022

stateofmind said:
Ah, thanks, I should've looked there. Looks like I could pay for room and board with my golf membership. :( But I'm still going to golf, so I really need to look at that more.

I've been trying to convince the wife to buy a house in Ames to rent out while he's there for 2nd year+, but of course now is not the best time to be buying a house with the market the way it is.
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If it's only one student, it may not be worth it. But if you are expecting having two students over the course of 6-8 years, I would definitely go for it. College towns are stable rental markets due to consistent demand.
 
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stateofmind said:
OK, follow-up question on this topic.

What kind of expenses are we looking at the first year?

Any parents on here paying for their child for the first time at Iowa State? I'm trying to figure out how much we will need to expect that first year or two. Room/Board/Books for the standard 12 hours. My wife thinks dropping my club membership is the way to pay for it and of course I would rather not do that. :)
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I have a third-year daughter at ISU. First, let's just say it isn't inexpensive.

Am guessing if you have a golf club membership you aren't likely going to qualify for any need-based aid/grants. We're by no means wealthy ourselves, and we didn't qualify for need-based aid. Our daughter got a little bit of academic scholarship. We had her take out some student loan (I believe she should have some skin in the game), and the rest we covered from college funds and savings. For her first year when she was in a dorm with a standard meal plan we paid around $5,500 per semester, so $11k for the year for tuition, room, board that we paid out of our own funds.

I was surprised at how inexpensive books were/are. In my day they were crazy expensive, but hers were just a few hundred bucks for the year. That was nice. Something to keep in mind is just the day-to-day living costs that you may not think about when planning. My thinking was 'she has a meal plan, her food is covered'... nope. She'd still want to go out with friends to Blaze, Big Acai, Chick fil A, etc. So we helped out with that too.

Is your kid going to have a car? Ours did not her first two years but if yours will that'd be another expense... parking, gas, parking tickets, etc. Is yours going to be in a frat/sorority? Not sure if they're all the same but our daughter's sorority her first year was around $200/month minimum (with additional costs when they buy house apparel or stuff for Greek events), then that jumped to >$900/month her second year when she lived in the house.

Basic rule-of-thumb I've learned to date is whenever I think I have it figured out how much something is going to cost, plan on it costing more.
 
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stateofmind said:
OK, follow-up question on this topic.

What kind of expenses are we looking at the first year?

Any parents on here paying for their child for the first time at Iowa State? I'm trying to figure out how much we will need to expect that first year or two. Room/Board/Books for the standard 12 hours. My wife thinks dropping my club membership is the way to pay for it and of course I would rather not do that. :)
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This doesn't answer your question at all but it made me think of an important detail to keep in mind.

If your kid considers taking summer classes at some point to try and get ahead in school make sure you look in to if it is really worth it. I took summer classes a few summers just to get gen ed's out of the way and it ended up costing more than I expected. If they plan to do a full time credit load during the summer it would probably be a similar cost, but taking just a few credits might not be worth it.

When I took summer classes I was unaware of all the additional fee's I still had to pay on top of the course credits, such as:
  • Engineering student fee's (keep in mind, I wasn't even taking engineering classes. I was taking a humanities general elective but I still had to pay the engineering student fee because I was registered as an engineering student taking credits)
  • Science lab fee's
  • student health center fee's
  • Other random fee's that added up quickly
By the end of all of this, my one (3 credit) summer class ended up costing just shy of 1/2 of what a normal full time (usually 15-17 credits for me) semester would have cost me.

In the end my personal advice would be, don't feel rushed to finish college just to say you finished. To me it seems way more worthwhile to skip out on the summer classes and hunt for those internships and co-ops instead. These will look way better on a resume and will help counteract some of the cost of college/provide some money for the bars and fun activities.
 
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SCNCY said:
If it's only one student, it may not be worth it. But if you are expecting having two students over the course of 6-8 years, I would definitely go for it. College towns are stable rental markets due to consistent demand.
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Yeah, he has buddies, I call the nerd herd, that I would feel comfortable living with him. But I would keep the house long after he leaves, this is just a way for my wife to get behind being a landlord. Her parents have a few rentals, not sure why she's so scared of it.
 
SCNCY said:
If they are staying on campus, their room and board should be on Iowa States webpage. I don't know what the dinning options are anymore, but I assume you want at least a 14 meal plan (this may be required for on campus living) so they get lunch and dinner every day. If they get up for breakfast, then you may need to get higher meal plan to cover that. So a lot of those expenses should be listed on ISU's housing webpage.

Books can probably be anywhere from $500-$1000 depending on classes. You can try and get discounts on books by shopping amazon or other discount textbook websites.

Outside of those, if you want to provide some entertainment funds, that will be up to your discretion.
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Many of the classes now are online books and you have to rent them for the semester. Professors are writing their own stuff to make a few bucks also.
 
stateofmind said:
I'm super excited that my to-be senior in HS has applied and got accepted. (No surprise there, but still really cool as his mom and I met at Welch Ave Station.)

Anyway, he went to accept the offer today and they want $330. I assume that's all normal and it's a lost chunk of money if he decides over the senior year he wants to go elsewhere? So he should be fairly certain before sending the money.

The big reason he's wanting to do it asap is to get the best choice of housing. This is where I'm really looking for advice from you all. 1, I never lived in dorms and my wife hasn't for close to 30 years. So what's the pros and cons of dorm life and which ones should he and his buddies try for? I assume Friley so that you are in the middle of everything.
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Your son's name isn't Kayden Proctor is it?
 
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jsb said:
Back when I was accepted, getting on the list for first choice dorms was a big deal. You didn't want to get sent out to Towers. Not sure what the situation is now or if it is hard to get in the dorm of your choice.
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Same here. I remember pushing my roommate to get his stuff in because I wanted to be on the west side (helser, friley ect) to be closer to the engineering buildings.
 
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stateofmind said:
Yeah, he has buddies, I call the nerd herd, that I would feel comfortable living with him. But I would keep the house long after he leaves, this is just a way for my wife to get behind being a landlord. Her parents have a few rentals, not sure why she's so scared of it.
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My son's buddy bought a trailer next to vet med and then rented a room to my son. Lots of vet students do this, but there are a lot of other student there too. The cost of the trailers is relatively low and they seem to remain consistent year over year. Financially, it was a great savings for both my son and his buddy.
 
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stateofmind said:
Ah, thanks, I should've looked there. Looks like I could pay for room and board with my golf membership. :( But I'm still going to golf, so I really need to look at that more.

I've been trying to convince the wife to buy a house in Ames to rent out while he's there for 2nd year+, but of course now is not the best time to be buying a house with the market the way it is.
Click to expand...


We also looked into that before our daughters first year because of how many of her HS classmates were going to ISU thinking heck.....save everyone money. But then we decided not because of the college experience of being away from parents. Can't really cut the cord if you are living in mom and dad's house.

Now she is a sophomore, off campus in an apartment with some friends, taking a full load, working a few hours at Windows in Friley and loving life.
 
SCNCY said:
After I had graduated, I lived and worked in Ames. I lived with an Engineering grad student and on days when the Dinning centers had their specials meals, I would pay the fee to eat there. Totally worth it.
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Isn’t it like $11.50 a meal? I remember it being a lot.
 
stateofmind said:
OK, follow-up question on this topic.

What kind of expenses are we looking at the first year?

Any parents on here paying for their child for the first time at Iowa State? I'm trying to figure out how much we will need to expect that first year or two. Room/Board/Books for the standard 12 hours. My wife thinks dropping my club membership is the way to pay for it and of course I would rather not do that. :)
Click to expand...

IMO the estimates on the iSU website are high. My daughter is a sophomore, and last year we came in around $17,500. She lived in MWL and had a meal plan. Her books were less than $300 for the year. She works in Athletics, so that was her spending money, plus working over Christmas break, and the money she saved from working in the summer before going to school.

Things to remember - some of the textbooks are electronic and you will be charged a fee on the ubill. Any scholarship money is split over each semester not all at once. So if you kid gets a $2500 scholarship, they get 1/2 in the fall and the other 1/2 in the spring. Same thing if you have/use a student loan, you get 1/2 in the fall and the other 1/2 in the spring. Also, you do not have to take the maximum amount offered.

If bringing a car add $119/year minimum for parking on campus. Attending athletic events and getting a sports pass, add $300. If you decide to do a payment plan for tuition, there is a fee.

My daughter took her student loans both semesters in addition to the money we had set aside for school. We then paid on the student loan immediately, so her loan for the fall semester was paid off in December and spring semester was paid off in May. The loans are in her name, so it is helping her build her credit, and we were able to repay them interest free because of student loan payments being suspended due to COVID-19. We are following the same playbook again this year in regards to loans. The only thing that changed is she moved off campus and no longer has a meal plan. Our gift to her when she graduates will be that she is debt free and can start her professional career without the worry of student loan debt.
 
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Gunnerclone said:
Welp…off to buy more Powerball tickets. ISU is going to cost 30k a year by the time my kid is a freshman.
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Had a financial advisor tell me I needed to save $60k for a State school, thinking Im going to need more then that as mine is 2 years away. At least my other kid is still years away so got time on my side for that kiddo.
 
I lived in the dorms from fall '11 to spring '12; I was in 4th floor Helser. The dorm was a dump, but I'm still great friends with many of the guys I lived with at the time. I just went to one of the guys' weddings a few weeks ago.

If he's in engineering, then Helser/Friley are the best options. The suites (martin/eaton I think?) are very nice and also in that area, but it's WAY more expensive, and honestly, living in a tiny brick cell is part of the college experience!

As long as he's not at towers, it'll be fine. MWL are newer and slightly better rooms, and seasons dining hall is great. Richardson court is also solid.
 
Three4Cy said:
IMO the estimates on the iSU website are high. My daughter is a sophomore, and last year we came in around $17,500. She lived in MWL and had a meal plan. Her books were less than $300 for the year. She works in Athletics, so that was her spending money, plus working over Christmas break, and the money she saved from working in the summer before going to school.

Things to remember - some of the textbooks are electronic and you will be charged a fee on the ubill. Any scholarship money is split over each semester not all at once. So if you kid gets a $2500 scholarship, they get 1/2 in the fall and the other 1/2 in the spring. Same thing if you have/use a student loan, you get 1/2 in the fall and the other 1/2 in the spring. Also, you do not have to take the maximum amount offered.

If bringing a car add $119/year minimum for parking on campus. Attending athletic events and getting a sports pass, add $300. If you decide to do a payment plan for tuition, there is a fee.

My daughter took her student loans both semesters in addition to the money we had set aside for school. We then paid on the student loan immediately, so her loan for the fall semester was paid off in December and spring semester was paid off in May. The loans are in her name, so it is helping her build her credit, and we were able to repay them interest free because of student loan payments being suspended due to COVID-19. We are following the same playbook again this year in regards to loans. The only thing that changed is she moved off campus and no longer has a meal plan. Our gift to her when she graduates will be that she is debt free and can start her professional career without the worry of student loan debt.
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Tuition Goes up for juniors.
 
You should go ahead and pay the $330 admissions acceptance fee now so your son can submit his housing contract and be near the front of the line in terms of getting his housing preferences. There's virtually no risk in doing so. If your son should decide not to enroll, he will be refunded all but $30 of this fee as long as he informs the admissions office by May 1 of his senior year.
 
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SCNCY said:
If it's only one student, it may not be worth it. But if you are expecting having two students over the course of 6-8 years, I would definitely go for it. College towns are stable rental markets due to consistent demand.
Click to expand...

Kind of wish we did this leading up to the year we had three at ISU
 
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