[www.nytimes.com]

"The student, Nic Ramos, paid his entire spring semester tuition — all $14,309.51 of it — using dollar bills, a 50-cent piece and a penny. "

In 1981 I paid my last semester's tuition at Engineering school in cash. A briefcase loaded with $1's, $10's, and $20's. All in bank bundles, with the bank withdrawl slip. I appeared in my "interview" 3 peice suit, flanked by two other members of the fencing team, also in suits and wearing mirrored sunglasses as my 'bodyguards'.

We also brought a dozen doughnuts, coffee, and a dozen roses for the ladies in the bursar's office. And I gave them the briefcase as well.

It wasn't staged as a hostile act, more as a 'funny pranky'. The coffee, doughnuts, and the roses took the edge off. (Never, ever, ever piss off the clerks in the office. They can make your life HELL.) The Bursar came out of his office to see what the ruckus was, laughed, smacked me on the back and (appropriately) called me a smart-ass. And had a doughnut and a cup off coffee.

That is still a fond memory.

When I went to college in 1949 I paid $400+ per semester for University tuition.(still have those activitiy cards, too) That included an activity card to all games and concerts. My books cost less than $100 because we could buy "used" books then. Sell our used books back to the bookstore. Not like now where when a word is changed you can't sell last years text book.

So sad what tuition is now. My room and board at the sorority house was $100 per month and we screamed when it went to $125 !



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2012 08:27AM by samintx.

Well sure, but you could buy a loaf of bread for a nickel ! (etc...) Inflation, inflation. Money just isn't worth what it was. I was ecstatic to get a job earning $2.15 per hour back in 1976.

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samintx

So sad what tuition is now. My room and board at the sorority house was $100 per month and we screamed when it went to $125 !

Sounds like you think higher education should be a right and not a privilege? Interesting.

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MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

WHAT? are you gleaning from an innocent statement of FACT? Please don't try to constantly read into words meanings that just are not there. I was simply stating my tutition was not costly and unhappily it is so dear these days.

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Black

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samintx

So sad what tuition is now. My room and board at the sorority house was $100 per month and we screamed when it went to $125 !

Sounds like you think higher education should be a right and not a privilege? Interesting.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2012 08:47AM by samintx.

$2.15 in 1976 would be quite a salary. My first job in 1990 or 91 included a $2.75/hr salary. I spent hours on end pushing dozens of shopping carts up hill in 90+ humidity at 85-95 deg. I could probably run circles around the football team by the time the summer was over. I quit that job to become a dishwasher at Denny's for $.05 more per hour. I had a summer internship at Delphi Packard Electric which netted more money in 3 months than I'd earned in the previous 3 years combined. That sealed the deal. White Collar was the way for me.

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Nothing to see here, move along.

samintx... I remember my mother commenting that her father gave her an allowance of $20 per month while she was in college, and had her keep a record of all expenditures.
My daughter needed about 5x that last year, and felt I was not 'giving her enough'.

I encouraged her to find other sources of funding and told her this story:

My mother found a source of pizza and beer money one morning in the psych department of her college and participated in some human guinea pig testing. Which turned out to be MKULTRA... CIA testing. Fortunately she didn't get slipped LSD... they did pain tolerance testing. The tester asked her if she was interested in a career in intelligence, becuase her pain tolerances were 'off the chart'. She declined.

Having me as a child probably tested that pain tolerance.

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samintx
So sad what tuition is now. My room and board at the sorority house was $100 per month and we screamed when it went to $125 !

A 25% increase is outrageous indeed! I remember my tuition was going up at about 10% a semester towards the end and people thought that was bad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2012 09:03AM by mikebw.

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samintx
When I went to college in 1949 I paid $400+ per semester for University tuition.(still have those activitiy cards, too) That included an activity card to all games and concerts. My books cost less than $100 because we could buy "used" books then. Sell our used books back to the bookstore. Not like now where when a word is changed you can't sell last years text book.

So sad what tuition is now. My room and board at the sorority house was $100 per month and we screamed when it went to $125 !

In today's dollars, that's $3,862.44, which is roughly what California State University students are paying for tuition today. They are screaming bloody murder about it.

[www.bls.gov]

At UC Davis, the annual cost is pushing $25K a year...

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freeradical

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samintx
When I went to college in 1949 I paid $400+ per semester for University tuition.(still have those activitiy cards, too) That included an activity card to all games and concerts. My books cost less than $100 because we could buy "used" books then. Sell our used books back to the bookstore. Not like now where when a word is changed you can't sell last years text book.

So sad what tuition is now. My room and board at the sorority house was $100 per month and we screamed when it went to $125 !

In today's dollars, that's $3,862.44, which is roughly what California State University students are paying for tuition today. They are screaming bloody murder about it.

[www.bls.gov]

At UC Davis, the annual cost is pushing $25K a year...

All I know is that when I went to college in the 70's, if you lived at home, you could pretty much pay for college as you went by having a work study job during the school year and a full-time job during the summer.

I don't think that is possible any more, as evidenced by the debt load many students graduate with. Perhaps the real culprit is that wages have not kept up with inflation?

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Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde

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Ammo
Perhaps the real culprit is that wages have not kept up with inflation?

Tuition during my first year in school was $175 a semester — at a good school. IIRC, room and board at one of the dorms was $1800 for the year. 3 meals per day, if you wanted them. The only meal I remember eating there regularly was breakfast. Getting back there for lunch was difficult on a campus that size.

$100 a quarter tuition, plus $8.50 in misc. fees at UCLA while Reagan was governor here in CA.

Boy have things changed...






hmmm, wait a minute, actors and guys named "Brown"..., maybe not as much as I thought.

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samintx
WHAT? are you gleaning from an innocent statement of FACT? Please don't try to constantly read into words meanings that just are not there. I was simply stating my tutition was not costly and unhappily it is so dear these days.

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Black

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samintx

So sad what tuition is now. My room and board at the sorority house was $100 per month and we screamed when it went to $125 !

Sounds like you think higher education should be a right and not a privilege? Interesting.

We still meeting up for barrel-fishing later, Black?

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rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

In '68 I paid $4 per quarter credit hour at State U. Room and board was $300 a quarter. Books were dirt cheap although only occasionally did I buy one.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

At Chico State in the late 70's, early 80's I think I paid $300 hundred something a semester. I couldn't afford it at all. I worked at Taco Bell, La Comida, the school Library and Cal Skate. I picked fruit, packed almonds/walnuts and still didn't make enough to pay rent every month or buy enough food. I got food stamps for 3 months until a certain administration decided students couldn't have them. I ate the hell out of Taco Bell and Jack in the Box food (my roommate worked there). We bathed with Taco Bell soap (they used Lava). My boss at Taco Bell gave me all kinds of stuff to take home (toilet paper etc), tomatoes, cheese, lettuce. To this day I revere Taco Bell.

Me: Hi, how can I help you?
Customer: I'd like a taco.
Me: Will that be a regular taco or a taco supreme?
Customer: Uh, regular. And a beef burrito.
Me: Will that be a regular burrito or a burrito supreme?
Customer: Uh, regular... and a Coke.
Me: Would a Pepsi be ok?
Customer: Yeah
Me: Will that be a large Pepsi?
Customer: Uh, sure.

I recall my first semester at UNO (University of New Orleans) back in Summer 1984 being about $400 to $450, with another $100 for books.

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