Sure, college tuition may cost an arm and a leg, but when you figure all the other hidden costs, you can expect to spend your fingers and toes as well. It’s no surprise that you spend money beyond tuition, but you may be shocked by what the average college student purchases in two semesters and what it adds up to be.

Here’s some unbelievably costly college expenditures and how you can save on them:

Alcohol

The average yearly cost: $2,600

How you can save: When you go out, only get what’s on special, or mooch off of your peers, and drink at house parties. Even better, limit your drinking to only one night a week or a few times a month.

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Paying for college is something that can strap both students and parents for cash. Whether you’re going to college in state, out of state or planning on attending a community college, education is expensive. Many parents are looking for the best option to afford the costs. For those parents that might be planning ahead, there are 529 Plans available to help and have been since 1996. These plans are in place to help you pay for your child’s college education and receive some tax breaks and other incentives. There’s not a lot of attention given to 529 Plans so many people don’t know they exist. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone knows that the cost of attending college keeps rising and rising, but students at the University of Berkeley – a public school – are really starting to feel this trend.

The College Board recently announced that one year at Berkeley now costs more than $50,000 for students who do not qualify for in-state tuition rates. Berkeley is the first public school where students have to pay more than $50,000 a year to attend.

Berkeley isn’t the only school to recently increase the cost of attendance to more than $50,000. In 2008, there were only three schools in the country that charged this much, and soon there will be 100 schools in the country to hit the $50,000 mark in 2010-2011.

Tuition at Berkeley isn’t the only factor in this expensive equation: the College Board also included room and board, supplies, books, and “personal expenses” in this number. Tuition itself is somewhere about $35,000. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve paid the tuition bill, so what’s next? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, guys, but if you haven’t figured it out already, it doesn’t end there. There are hidden expenditures that come with college and, no, I’m not talking about keg rentals or midnight Starbucks runs.

Here’s a list of unexpected, but unavoidable, college expenses and ways to save on them:

Textbooks: Plan on spending $1,000 or more on textbooks if you purchase them in the college bookstore. Check out Craigslist.com, Amazon.com and Ebay.com for new or used books. Check out Chegg.com for rental books. You can also purchase electronic versions of textbooks which can be half the cost of a printed version.

Electronics: You’ve got to have a computer and an alarm clock, right? It’s estimated that students spend almost $750 on these kinds of gadgets. But do you really need all of them? Things like iPods, game consoles and digital cameras are nice to have but you can live without them. Before you decide which electronics to buy, pick ones that you know you will use the most. Check out pawn shops and Craigslist.com to find deals on used electronics. Read the rest of this entry »

For most people, $50,000 is an awful lot of money.  In fact, in the United States, the average yearly income of all households is a little over $50,000.  So it can be quite a shock to see that the most expensive colleges and universities in the United States actually cost about $50,000 a year when you figure in tuition, room, and board.

Here are the most outrageously expensive places to go to college in the United States.  These figures include tuition, room, and board.

1. Sarah Lawrence College, Yonkers, NY: $53,166

2. George Washington University, Washington, D.C.:  $50,312

3. New York University , New York City:  $50,182

4. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.:  $49,689

5. Connecticut College, New London, CT:  $49,385

6. Bates College, Lewiston, ME:  $49,350

7. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD: $49,278

8. Skidmore College, Sarasota Springs, NY:   $49,266

9. Scripps College, Claremont, CA:  $49,236

10. Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT: $49,210