Room and Board Costs
Contents |
[edit] Board
| Plan | Flex | Cost/year | Requirements |
| OSCA standard | 0 | ~$2100 -2200 | None |
| CDS 19 meals | 40 | $3624 | None |
| CDS 14 meals | 150 | $3624 | None |
| CDS 10 meals | 180 | $3590 | Sophomore+ |
| CDS 7 meals | 320 | $3310 | Off-campus (or village housing?) & junior/senior |
| CDS 5 meals | 270 | $3060 | Off-campus (or village housing?) & senior |
| Brown Bag Co-op | None | ? | Off-campus/village housing |
[edit] Housing
| Type | Cost/year | Requirements |
| OSCA single* | ~$4000 | Luck, seniority, special circumstances (see below) |
| OSCA double* | ~$3400 | None |
| Res Hall double/triple/quad | $4,020 | |
| Res Hall single | $4,620 | |
| Res Hall apt (in Asia, Burton and South) | $5,020 | |
| Village housing | $5,020 | |
| 3 rm apt | $5,020 | |
| 2 rm apt | $5,020 | |
| 1 rm apt (single studio) | $5,020 | |
| 1 rm apt (double studio) | $4,020 | |
| Fuller | $225/mo (~$1575/yr?) | |
| Off-campus | varies; typically at least $300-350/mo (plus a $750/yr tax from the College, if you get financial aid) | junior/senior status |
(Note: OSCA prices are rough estimates because I think the rates have gone up, and all I could find were the figures from 03/04 )
[edit] Off-campus housing in more detail
Lowest possible cost: Fuller (in OSCA; $225/month with all utilities paid). There's a house on North Professor that is roughly the same.
Highest possible cost: Some apartments run almost $400/month per person, not including utilities.
Bottom line: Generally, bank on being able to find a place for between $250 and $300 a month, without utilities.
Utilities: Utilities can really add up: in my experience, it's been roughly $40-50 per person per month for water/electric/sewage. I haven't lived in a place with a phone line for a while (yay cell phones), so I don't know what that costs. High-speed internet costs in the neighborhood of $50 a month, which can be split between housemates. Gas is the real killer: about $25/month in the summer months, but exorbitant in winter. I live alone in a small apartment and had a $380 gas bill last January; we got an $800 gas bill one month in our 5-person house last winter. This is, mind you, with the heat turned down to 55 degrees.
[edit] Questions
Is there any way to guarantee getting a single in OSCA? In other words, if someone wants to guarantee getting a single for next year, and they don't have any special circumstances (except being a rising senior) do they have to go with ResLife or off-campus housing? It's hard to guarantee getting a single in OSCA. That said, Keep and Tank have many singles, and generally there's a meeting held in late spring that, in part, determines who gets a single. Seniority will play a big role in it, as will psychological woes and other circumstances. I once got a single in Keep on the basis that I have frequent, loud, and kinky sex.
What's the best way to go about finding good off-campus housing? When's too late? Where are the best houses? The best houses generally get rented very early (i.e. fall semester of junior year for the place you're living in senior year. Some of my friends actually signed a lease sophomore year for an apartment they live in now, our senior year.) Good houses to live in include Hot Tub House (way, way, way south), and the apartments above the hardware store (great location, gorgeous apartments, but super-pricey and the landlord is a little slow about fixing stuff that breaks). There are a lot of houses on Groveland Street, which usually don't get all rented out until early April, but they tend to kind of be slums. Generally, you should get on the housing thing in March or so if you don't want to live in a craphole.
