It is no secret that college is expensive. However, it is important to remember that students have to pay for much more than just tuition.
The best way to know how much you need for your college education is to have a list of all your expenses. You can organize them into groups to have a better understanding of how much thus attending college cost you.
Major expenses: these include your housing, tuition, fees, foods.
Recurring costs: these include utilities (electricity, cell phones, internet connection, gas, cable, water and others), personal cost (laundry soap, paper towels, deodorant, shampoo and the like).
Other expenses: these include all the expenses for your supplies (textbooks, pens, notebooks, backpacks…), medical care, replacement or repairs of damaged electronics, and plane tickets during vacations or holidays.
After listing them down into categories, you can now compute the total costs by just adding them all up.
Major expenses + Recurring costs + other expenses = Total cost of college
Students have many options for getting the money for college. Some of the common ways are summer jobs (on and off campus jobs during the whole school year), student loans, and scholarships. Knowing how much you will need up front is important. It is especially easy to forget some of those other costs besides tuition, room and board. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail!