Living On/Off Campus and Living at Home Forum

oceanmd · Post by **oceanmd** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:40 pm

Why do schools estimate COL Living On/Off Campus and Living at Home at the same amount?
Living On Campus $ 20,500
Living Off Campus $ 20,500
Living at Home $ 20,500

Thank you

rinkrat19 · Post by **rinkrat19** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:53 pm

Because they think that's a reasonable amount of money for both, and it would be stupid and unfair to punish or reward students for choosing one option over the other.

MistakenGenius · Post by **MistakenGenius** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:20 am

Post removed.

rinkrat19 · Post by **rinkrat19** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:32 am

MistakenGenius wrote:
rinkrat19 wrote:Because they think that's a reasonable amount of money for both, and it would be stupid and unfair to punish or reward students for choosing one option over the other.
Rinkrat, he's just talking about the estimated cost of living, you know, how people estimate the amount of money they need to fund their education. It's not like it's an official loan or anything, it's just a helpful tool to help people estimate their COA. Maybe I'm missing your point, but since it doesn't mean anything really, it doesn't seem like it's punishing the students one way or another.

Of course it doesn't mean anything. It's an incredibly vague estimate that covers either option. It was a silly question to begin with.

sublime · Post by **sublime** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 7:14 am

oceanmd · Post by **oceanmd** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 12:09 pm

The reason I am asking this question is the following: when allocating the scholarship money, does the school take into account that the applicant will or might be living at home, therefore, will not need to rent and will not spend on food as much as another applicant who lives on or off campus? Will the school offer the same scholarship to the applicants with the same numbers regardless of the living arrangement?

Sublime and MistakenGenius, thank you for your replies.
rinkrat19, we will all benefit from being tactful and from a more careful choice of words.

sublime · Post by **sublime** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 12:14 pm

MistakenGenius · Post by **MistakenGenius** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 12:21 pm

Post removed.

oceanmd · Post by **oceanmd** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 12:24 pm

Thank you

Nat Sherman · Post by **Nat Sherman** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:16 pm

oceanmd wrote:The reason I am asking this question is the following: when allocating the scholarship money, does the school take into account that the applicant will or might be living at home, therefore, will not need to rent and will not spend on food as much as another applicant who lives on or off campus? Will the school offer the same scholarship to the applicants with the same numbers regardless of the living arrangement?

Sublime and MistakenGenius, thank you for your replies.
rinkrat19, we will all benefit from being tactful and from a more careful choice of words.

First these are just semi-arbitrary numbers that put a cap on much non-dischargable debt you can borrow at 7.99%. You say it as if someone's cheating if they take out more than the bare minimum they need to get by.

Second, even if you were to live at home, not everyone has parents who will let them live at home for free and eat their food. There will be people who live at home and have to pay rent, car payments, food, etc. So should we punish the kid who doesn't have the most generous parents in the world simply because he felt his home was a better place to live?

McAvoy · Post by **McAvoy** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:23 pm

MistakenGenius wrote:This. I had all of my offers (maybe not Yale need-based since I wasn't accepted until March or April) before I even started to think about housing.

You should change your location to "Yale" so you don't have to take the time to mention it in every thread