I have discovered that I attend a very smart university institution. I came to this conclusion without examining the facilities, quality of teaching, or measuring available resources. I drew this simple conclusion by the fact that my school has managed to increase tuition by six hundred dollars in the last three years without anyone noticing. Six hundred dollars! Thats over half a thousand dollars (meaning more than a course for 1 term); making my annual university tuition a whopping $6212.88 (this is the first year it has hit the six-thousand range) for 8 months of university education, not including books (which generally total $1000, even when buying used copies) or travel expenses ($324/mos, or $2592 per school year).

With my total costs for the year hitting almost ten-thousand dollars ($9,804.88, to be exact), you can’t imagine how much I am peeing my pants. And my school is getting even smarter: in recognition that students are having a harder time paying school fees, the university now expects you to pay a minimum deposit well before classes start in order to register. “Minimum deposit isn’t so bad!” you think to yourself indignantly. No, no – wait for it – my educational institution’s conception of “minimum deposit” is 65% of the total tuition cost. This means I have to come up with $4038.32 to simply register – and the real kicker is, I have only one month to come up with this money. One month.

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