Reddit reviews Your Money Life: Your 20s

2018 graduate here. Here's what got me through.

• Move out of the dorms. My rent was $1000/month when I was living on Mission Hill with two roommates. You can go a fair bit lower if you're willing to compromise on roommates or location.
  
• Ditch the meal plan and learn to cook. It's a great skill to have and you'll be eating tastier, healthier food while also saving money. An Instant Pot or a Crock Pot is a fantastic investment for meal prep.
  
• Use your savings from co-op to cover living expenses. If you can, get your co-ops extended. Get a part-time job so you have spending money. (Keep in mind that the amount of money you'll make on co-op varies wildly depending on your major.)
  
• Start budgeting and get your personal finances together. Mint makes it very easy to pull together all of your information and see what you're spending. I also found this book to be very helpful.
  
  Going more into my own experience: I didn't have a meal plan after freshman year, and I moved off-campus after sophomore year. I only had to take one semester of summer classes, so for my other summers, I convinced my co-op employers to keep me through August (I was on the January-June cycle). I often worked as a TA when I was taking classes, and there was one semester where I did part-time work for a co-op employer.
  
  I think that the viability/payoff of staying at Northeastern really depends on your major. Ideally, your co-op money will help you get through school and the experience/networking will help you quickly get employed after graduating. If the prospects don't look good, then I think it makes more sense to transfer instead of staying and taking on tons of debt.