Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). Today I have good news to share. I got the bill for MM(23)'s last quarter of tuition. I am transferring funds now and will make the final payment tomorrow.
Take it with a grain of salt because life be cray cray. He's having problems getting a couple of classes that he needs. I don't think it's necessarily a big problem. He was just running down some red tape for two classes he couldn't simply register for.
I am just being realistic re: if everything doesn't go to plan... I've had front row seats (for 5 years) of nothing going to plan for his fiance (and also her sister). Both went away to college healthy but have had massive health issues and lots of school quarters missed. & MM(23) was in the ER last week, so there is also that.
'Only if everything goes right' aside... Here's the final numbers.
MM's FINAL net college costs:
$43,242 Tuition/fees** (4 Years)
+$11,589 5th Year Tuition/Fees
-11,000 Tax credits (Estimate)
-19,642 CA middle class grants
- 7,500 Scholarships
---------
$16,689 Net Tuition cost
**Includes $1K for one summer school class
****Side note: MM(23) only got that 4th year middle class grant because he added a double major and extended another year. Net tuition costs would have been about the same, for 4 or 5 college years.
MH and I will go out for a nice dinner at some point, to celebrate. & will have to celebrate again when we make the last rent payment. (He should be graduated at that point. His lease runs into July).
MM(23) is the only one in our household that 'went away' to college. It's such an unneccesary expense (moving away) in my opinion, that it was never my focus as we planned for the college years. But... As we near the end, MM(23)'s big college expense was housing. Fair enough. It hasn't been my focus but it is clearly a necessary expense for MM(23) to attend this particular college. I will do a final wrap up of all college costs when he crosses the finish line. Quicken tells me we spent $57,000 on housing, so far. We have a few more months of rent to pay.
Housing costs will end up being about $12,000 per year. I don't know what you think about that, but it's dirt cheap compared to any point of comparison that I have. My housing set point is sky high.
I have to give the housing credit to MM(23). He did the work and kept costs down. I don't know that he personally benefitted much from that (if we are paying the rent). But he is very frugal at heart and did very well managing costs.
For now, I am just so happy to be done with keeping track of these extra 3 tuition due dates every year. Going forward, just the two due dates for DL(20)'s semester college. Everything about DL(20)'s college is so much more simple. Just living at home, and all that. Counting down the days until our lives get a lot more simple.
February 26th, 2026 at 01:32 am 1772069555
February 26th, 2026 at 07:49 am 1772092167
In any case, congrats!
February 27th, 2026 at 09:57 pm 1772229432