Students Living with Parents

Students Living Away from Parents

Notes about College Expense Budgets
CUNY uses federal guidelines to formulate standard budgets of college expenses. These budgets are used to determine your cost of attendance and degree of financial need.

A student budget has two components: expenses directly related to attending college (tuition, fees, books and carfare) and living expenses. The direct expenses are the same for all BMCC students. Allowable living expenses differ according to whether you live with your parents or not.

CUNY makes certain assumptions in coming up with the some of the cost estimates listed. For example, it is assumed you will use the New York City transit system to travel to and from school. If you are not living with your parents, the expense budget assumes you are sharing housing costs with someone else. It is expected that you will have some measure of control over many of these expenses and will be relatively frugal.

An adjustment of $2,916.00 can be added to the 9 month budget of any independent student who must pay for care of a dependent or dependents in order for the student to attend college. Dependents may include children 12 years of age or younger, and elderly or disabled adults (including student's spouse).

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