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I understand most people don't work during 1L.

So, if you come from an average middle class household.

Scholarships and loans are handling school expenses, what is taking care of your basic necessities: food, toiletries, supplies, entertainment..etc?

Does it come from your parent's, do you use your savings?

How much roughly do you spend on yourself during a semester?

usually those same scholarship and loans. This is incorporated into COA.

raven1231 wrote:usually those same scholarship and loans. This is incorporated into COA.

Oh, I see. So your loans don't just cover tuition and board (if you need it), it covers insurance, food, books and other miscellaneous expenses. This is why schools give the total school budget and the total academic budget...

lillawyer2 wrote:

raven1231 wrote:usually those same scholarship and loans. This is incorporated into COA.

Oh, I see. So your loans don't just cover tuition and board (if you need it), it covers insurance, food, books and other miscellaneous expenses. This is why schools give the total school budget and the total academic budget...

Correct !

Still paying for them

lillawyer2 wrote:

raven1231 wrote:usually those same scholarship and loans. This is incorporated into COA.

Oh, I see. So your loans don't just cover tuition and board (if you need it), it covers insurance, food, books and other miscellaneous expenses. This is why schools give the total school budget and the total academic budget...

Keep in mind that different loan amounts have different interest rates. Anything above the Stafford Loan's $21.5k is going to have a steeper interests rate. If you're okay with that, then go ahead and estimate as high as you think you need. You can always adjust at semester and going forward into 2L and 3L. I'd HIGHLY recommend getting some extra cash this summer and looking into some way to get funding for your 1L summer (paid internships after 1L are pretty difficult to come by). Do not try to work your 1L year! It didn't work well for any of my classmates.

I worked 1L year precisely because I didn't want to live on the rather modest CoA estimates.

In hindsight, I think I should have at least cut back on the hours and relied a bit on credit cards and made the money back over the summer.