Books & Other Costs

Books

In addition to tuition & fees, there are other costs associated with college.

Books are charged separately from your tuition and fees. IPFW’s bookstore is a separate entity, so financial aid cannot always readily pay toward your books prior to the start of classes. However, the Financial Aid office, the Bursar’s office, and the bookstore are constantly working on programs to help students get their books prior to the first day of classes. This program is called Bookstore Credit.

Bookstore Credit

The Bookstore Credit is set up by the student when the student accepts their awards. There are some key points to remember concerning the Bookstore Credit:

• Even if you check that you want the credit, not all students are eligible for it.
• To be eligible for the credit, you must have enough financial aid to cover your full tuition & fees, the full amount of your housing (if applicable), and have money left over to use toward the credit.
• The amount you use for the credit will be taken from your refund check.
• There is a limit on how much you can use for the credit. That limit is currently $650 a semester.
• There is also a limit on when you can use the bookstore credit. Usually this time limit is about three weeks prior to the week before classes begin.
  • i.e., if classes begin on August 20, the week before classes will be August 12-18. This means the credit would end on August 10 (the Friday prior to the week before classes).
• The time limit will be posted online when a student accepts the bookstore credit.

Other Costs

In addition to the costs previously mentioned, you may be responsible for paying for the following:

• Room: On the FAFSA you will tell us where you intend to live. Your choices are with your parents or other relative, in an off campus apartment or in on campus housing. We use the average cost of shared housing for the on or off campus choices and provide a small fund for expenses for those students who choose to live at home
• Board: This includes all costs for purchased food, both restaurant and grocery.
• Books: Based on currently average purchases
• Travel: Averaged travel costs to and from the university; additional mileage provided for work and recreation. This includes gas, insurance, tags, and maintenance.
• Miscellaneous: These dollars assist you with purchase of your hygiene and laundry supplies, clothing, insurance, telephone, and other household costs.

You may be wondering, where do we get these figures? Each year we survey our student community to make sure we are using real averages of real expenses incurred by real people. There are other costs that are also allowed, but not built into your budget unless you tell us that you need it and provide documentation.

• Child or Elder Care: If you are paying for child care or elder care so that you can attend school and have study time, please come to the financial aid office with copies of your care contract, or some recent receipts and contact information. We can work with you to include a reasonable allowance in your costs.
• Computer Purchase: This item can be included in your Cost of Attending once during your academic career. Bring a current receipt for a completed purchase to our office.

Some students will not need as much funds as the Cost of Attendance allows and others will think they need more. There are some great money management and budgeting tools available, and we have some booklets in the Financial Aid Office (Kettler Hall, Room 102) that you are welcome to pick up.

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