I was lucky enough to know somebody who’s in college and knows how much it costs. Although I won’t say his name, he was pretty informative and answered all of my questions that I had for him.
He has a $50,000 scholarship for four years, and even then, out-of-pocket costs for him were somewhere from $4000-$6000 per year. He also pointed out how freakishly expensive books are, with science and math text books starting at $300. He said that he saw books that were $1,200 for science and math! Liberal arts textbooks were cheaper, costing somewhere from around $10 and going up to maybe around $300.
The single biggest expense outside of classes that he has are on books. That’s how expensive they are!
When I asked him what an unexpected expense was for him, he said that he knew practically every expense, but he didn’t expect just how expensive books were.
The question I asked him next what how much do dorms/living quarters cost around the campus, and he said that they cost somewhere from $2,500 grand to $3000 grand. I asked him how much time he usually spent on homework, and he said that there wasn’t a lot of homework in the college that he went to, but the homework was long. He brought up an example of him saying that when he had to write an essay, it had to be 15 pages long.
The final question I asked him was what he would have done differently if he could do his first year over again, and almost before I even finished the question, he immediately said “not party.”
What I learned from this was that colleges charge colossal rates for their books, higher than what even I expected (and I expected a lot). Colleges also in general cost a lot, somewhere around $27,500. Another one of my predictions that had come out wrong was that I thought something like food or entertainment would’ve been the biggest expenses. Turned out it was books!
The final thing I learned, well, more like reinforced, was the fact that I don’t need to party. If this party-animal said that he shouldn’t have, then I definitely know I’m not going to.
Lesson 115 Assignment: 150-200 Words on an Interview You had with a Person Who’s been in College Within the Past 5 Years.
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