Ucla 1098: Fill & Download for Free

This question was interesting, especially because I graduated from UCLA literally in mid June of this year (2019). I was curious about my total cost to attend UCLA over my undergrad study. So I took a look back through my 1098T forms and my dorm costs and briefly looked at my credit card transactions.Before I get into the cost breakdown, just want to clarify that I’m from the Bay Area, so I had in-state tuition costs.Ok, so for my first year, I paid around $10.1k in tuition and near $16k for room and board (that includes the largest dining plan, which is 19 meals that can be used at any time during the week). I also paid around $1.1k for textbooks. Outside of those costs, I occasionally went out to dinner with friends and the movies (side note: there is a beautiful historic site theater in Westwood called The Regency and a sister theater across the street called The Bruin Theater; I went to see many movies at these theaters over my time at UCLA).In the second year, I paid around $11.3k for tuition, near $18.5k for room and board (with the same dining plan from freshman year), and near $700 for textbooks (there were some PDFs that I was able to buy this year that were cheaper than the hardcover textbooks from freshman year). I also had other charges for restaurant outings and movies, just like freshman year.In my third year, I paid around $13.5k for tuition, near $19k for room and board (with the same dining plan as always), and maybe $100 for textbooks. I really did not have to buy many textbooks this year because there were a lot of free/online textbooks. Plus, I was doing basically all upper division classes by this point and many of my professors favored their own curricula and teaching materials over textbooks (and they were right to do so in my opinion). Add in some extra costs for restaurant and movie outings as usual.In my fourth year, I paid around $13.5k for tuition, near $14k for room (I was living in an apartment with one other roommate), near $2k for food over the academic year (which was only 9 months because I was doing an internship at home over the summer), and next to $0 for textbooks. I did not go out to restaurants for dinner nearly as frequently as the previous three years (probably because I was a lot busier), but I did continue going out to the movies with friends.For my last year of undergrad, I don’t have the total tuition cost yet (since the 1098 for this year has not been pushed to UCLA’s tax forms portal for students yet), but I can tell you that my rent was roughly the same as the previous year, and so were the food costs and the textbook costs.Some notes:As you can see, tuition definitely did rise over the years and I would expect it to continue to rise, even for in-state students.My room and board costs are a bit high compared to some other students and many of my own peers. In my first year, I lived in what UCLA calls a Residential Suite, which was a 3-person room that shared a bathroom, shower room, and two sinks with a twin 3-person room on the same side of the hall. UCLA does offer standard residential dorm buildings with 3 people to a room and shared restrooms per floor. I also opted for the highest dining plan because I knew I wouldn’t waste it (I was constantly snacking and UCLA has a fantastic quick service program with multiple cafes in the residential area outside of standard dining service restaurants).In my second year, I lived in a Residential Plaza, which was a two-person room with a private bathroom. I also had that same large dining plan.In my third year, it was the same setup as the previous year.In my fourth year, I lived in an apartment and cooked basically every meal I ate.Same for my fifth year.So if you decide to live in an apartment starting from your second year, you can really cut your costs down.ConclusionI hope this summary gave you a good idea of the costs of attending UCLA over 5 years! Costs are definitely going up and there is a huge disparity between what out-of-state students pay vs. what in-state students pay (not to mention the huge cost difference between in-state and international). UCLA does offer a lot of different room and board options though while you live on the Hill (what the residential area is called, because it’s literally up a hill that you will come to both love and detest, especially when walking back from late night campus meet ups) and that can affect your cost a lot.Don’t worry too much about textbook costs. I think that as more departments start switching to online offerings, this cost will go down.And for food, if you’d like to make your own meals while living in an apartment, know that Westwood has a Ralph’s, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods, all easily accessible to you. Beyond the supermarkets, there are some fantastic restaurants in Westwood and in the surrounding area, so you should definitely explore!