Cost of attendance transparency

[u/Evening_Dimension639]

Would anyone be willing to share their total cost of attendance including housing, tuition, food, transportation(traveling back home, clinical rotations) books/fees, health insurance, and also money you spent to just feel like a human during school?I have a rough estimate using tuition costs per program but I would love to hear more specifics… especially if you went to Quinnipiac, WVU, or UTMB (but would love to hear from all programs) side note: did your program have breaks for summer/winter/spring, and if so, how many days off do you get ?

[u/gdefreese]

Spent about 200k on QU total if you want to include moving to CT, rent, food, gas, the whole nine. I took out the max in grad plus loans every year to cover tuition and living without stress. Any extra leftover I did not use I put right back into paying of said loans

[u/jmk338]

Quinnipiac was about $100,000 for two years of tuition. Additional costs include about $4500/year for health insurance and a handful of $100-500 fees. There wasn’t much else that was very expensive as far as I can remember

Then there is the cost of living: plan about $1500-2000/month for rent if you want your own place, cheaper if you can find roommates. I worked 1 day a week, I could have worked 2 but I wanted at least one free weekend day. You’ll definitely need to borrow for your living expenses, $20-30,000/year if you’re frugal

Clinical rotations are expensive, no way around it. If you travel you’ll be doing short term leases, and those will be expensive ($2000+/month). Cheaper if you can keep living in your 1st year apartment or live with friends/family near your site

[u/Geese4Days → u/jmk338]

I totally didn't even consider the clinical rotations. Were you doing the rotations with other students or did the program supply you with some places you could rent? Not sure if you moved for your school, but would you need to get a storage unit for your stuff and then just travel lightly with only luggage? Or did you pay two rents? Not sure if many people board on campus or live outside but I can see it looking complicated with leases.

[u/jmk338 → u/Geese4Days]

• there were a few rotations I did alongside another QU student, but never us rooming together
• the program didn’t provide any help with housing aside from recommending some rental websites. It was up to us to find a lease. furnishedfinder.com was good
• some of my classmates did two rents while traveling. Some sublet and some just ate the cost of two rents. A storage unit is far cheaper than an apartment 
• if you’re lucky enough to have any friends or family you can crash with while traveling for clinical, use that resource. Otherwise either try to stay entirely in CT for your two years  (not guaranteed but possible) or plan to live in CT for one year and travel for the rest
• keep in mind where you plan to work once you graduate 

[u/MooWithoutFear → u/Geese4Days]

It does depend on the program, but I believe the majority expect the student to find and pay for their own housing. Personally, I relied mostly on long term Airbnbs (ranging from 4 weeks to 2 months long at a time). Which were, unfortunately, pretty expensive.

You can also check for subleases, especially during the summers when most students are away. If you’re anticipating being in city X, check for Facebook groups like “student housing city X,” “short term rentals city X,” etc.

My lease from my 1st year ended right before I started rotations, which worked out in my favor, as I didn’t have to pay for rent and short term housing. Although some of the others in my program kept their leases so they’d have somewhere to store their stuff. I just packed up everything whenever it was time to relocate.

[u/zZINCc → u/Geese4Days]

If QU is making students now pay for their away rotations (they didn’t used to) it is another example of QU/Rob being greedy and changing it for the worse.

[u/fluffy0whining → u/zZINCc]

They have to pay for everything now. There are 1 maybe two rotations that still provide housing. Outside of those, students have to cover travel fees and lodging. It’s been like this for quite a few years now.

[u/turnbop]

I was about $70k all in at UTMB, but I had the advantage of in state tuition and a partner helping with living expenses. My classmates from out of state were all right about $90-110k as far as I am aware from what we discussed.

[u/turnbop → u/turnbop]

Based on the fall semester this year, tuition is about $60k for out of state, $30k instate. Here’s the link for the UTMB calculator if you want to check it out.

https://www.utmb.edu/shp/academics/cls/pathologistsassistant/costs

I think that ~$20k to $25k a year for two years in living expenses is reasonable for the area. The big factors for me were housing, transportation, and location for clinical. That’s where my partner helped out a lot with his income.

[u/lmccracke]

Drexel grad here. I spent about 100k including tuition and cost of living. Also saved 15k before I went in the program with helped a lot. Majority of clinical rotations are within an hour drive except 1 I had was 2 hours one way but I chose to commute everyday as the hours were later and I didn’t want to spend more on an Airbnb. Lived very cheap

[u/New-Assumption1290]

RFU was about ~80k in tuition and I ended up taking about $150k in loans. A lot of books I bought used or found free online pdfs of. Thankfully I was young enough to still be on my parents insurance but I know an option was available through the school for an extra fee. I meal prepped when I could to save a bit but I don’t eat out a lot anyways. Clinical year really gets you because of housing and transportation. We have one 10 month rotation or two 5’s so thankfully it’s not as bad as rotating. I lived on campus for the first year so that cut some costs. RFU did have breaks the first year and usually it was max a week. In clinical year we got 5 days to use whenever unless the lab was off, then we didn’t have to “take off”

[u/spooks112]

Out of state WVU tuition is ~135k for the entire two years not counting the non-billable expenses (housing, food, transportation, etc.) I kind of thought it was supposed to be a cheaper program and I don't regret the education but it definitely wasn't cheap lol

WVU has breaks the first year because you follow the academic calendar, but second year follows whatever hospital/ME facility you're at so you don't get the usual breaks

[u/cuttingirl78]

Everything all together from 2004-2006 (Duke program) was about $100K. This is obviously far out of date for what you’re looking for, but I figured I would comment anyway.

[u/Impressive-Two-7632]

QU grad here from out of state, total costs following clinicals was 200k in student loans and that was with short term rentals from all over.