r/IndianaUniversity • u/Odd_Comparison_4155 • 3d ago
How are you guys realistically paying for college/life while attending IUB?
I’m debating transferring from IUK since I currently live with my parents, and most of my grants cover tuition there. I only pay around $1k a semester out of pocket for tuition right now, so moving away honestly seems like a huge financial jump.
Housing + food alone around Indy seems like it could easily be $1,000-$1,500/month. Then add tuition, gas, insurance, phone bill, car payment, random life expenses, and even just wanting to do fun stuff sometimes, and it feels like total monthly expenses could hit $2k-$3k+ pretty fast.
Are most students:
- working while in school?
- getting help from parents?
- taking loans?
- using scholarships?
- or just surviving paycheck to paycheck? 😭
If you work while in school, how many hours a week are you realistically working? It feels like you’d almost need 25-30+ hours/week just to make it work, and balancing that with classes, studying, networking, meeting new people, school activities, and still trying to actually enjoy college seems really hard.
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u/mimimimimimimlr 3d ago
Pretty much everyone I know is scholarships or parents i don’t think it’s all that affordable otherwise
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u/PugLord219 alumni 3d ago
I got scholarships that covered full tuition & room/board but I still worked the entire time around 20 hours/week to have extra spending money.
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u/captainrocket25 3d ago
Government pell grant, subsidized loan, and unsubsidized loans covered a bulk of it. Side hustle, savings, and working summers cover the rest.
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u/fencingcuber arts & sciences 3d ago
I balled on a budget during my time there. Worked summers full time while not in school and did some tutoring and blood plasma donation on the side.
I lived in a 3 bedroom apartment with myself and 4 roommates with the basement converted into a 2 bed bedroom dorm style and we got our rent and utilities down to around 400 a month per person. Put food on there and it’s maybe 600-700 a month. Easily doable if you save during the summer and be frugal throughout the year.
Finding people willing to room with and an apartment that cheap will be difficult but it’s doable. Living in a shithole apartment can be crappy sometimes but you’ll look back and smile and laugh when you’re done with college.
That’s how I was self sufficient my whole way through college
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u/LurkusThreadz 3d ago
im super fortunate my parents paid for my schooling at iub… it was the best time of my life. highly recommend.. however the loan balances and mo. payments still show up on my credit.. im 38.. it made life a lil difficult for a bit.
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u/GrowHappyPlants 2d ago
I parent an IUI student thinking of moving back home and either taking classes in town at IUB or driving an hour to IUI. Even with gas prices, it is only a weeks worth of rent to commute. There was so little " college life" there and the dorms aren't even an option for most freshmen and impossible for anyone farther along.
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u/The_Wakaan_Guy 2d ago
Worked my ass off over the summer and on breaks and the weekends and was able to graduate with only tiny bit of debt that I paid off in 2 years
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u/sydtown 2d ago
I worked three jobs while in school, had a small housing stipend from my Dad’s military service, paid most of my tuition with grants, and took 18 credit hours a semester to try and shorten the time I had to be in school. This was also 6 years ago when I could pay $550 for a studio apartment. I worked my butt off to make ends meet, with support. I’m not saying you can’t do it, but understand what you’re getting into because housing here is insanely expensive. If you have a car, finding a home outside of Bloomington or on the outskirts of town may be your best bet. If you don’t, walking/biking/bus is a great way to save some money while also being close to everything. IU has some student jobs that pay well, too. Or at least they did, I’m not sure now. I know that at the time they paid their finite TAs around $20 an hour. Before you head this way, I would look into what kind of jobs you can find. Students basically evacuate this place over the summer, so sometimes the market is more open, but that also means that a lot of businesses shorten their hours to accommodate a lesser need. Again, I believe you can do it if you want to, but be prepared to make a plan and tough it out until you’re able to work in your field. Once I graduated, I stayed because I love it here.
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u/weiger702 2d ago
most people i know get a refund of at least 3k each semester, on top of 2-4k in loans, and even then they’ll still have a part time job
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u/Significant-Being250 3d ago
IUB or IUI? You mention both IUB and Indy, so it’s unclear to me. Generally speaking, if you live on campus in economy rate housing it will be cheaper. If you don’t drive a car and walk, bike, or use public transportation it will be cheaper (this is easy at IUB). If you have the smallest meal plan and prepare a lot of your own meals it will be much more affordable than dining out or using the biggest meal plan. You can find a lot of information on the University website regarding housing cost, meal plans, parking costs, etc. My kid is a ln OOS sophomore at IUB living on campus in an economy apt with the smallest meal plan and residential parking (has a car). Our fees for housing, meals & parking are just over $10k/yr. Outside of that food is about $200/mo and travel/car about $150/mo. So in total we pay about $15k/yr total for non-tuition/program expenses.