If some of y’all heard a giant sucking sound yesterday afternoon, do not be alarmed.  That was just the sound of me paying my spring tuition bill.  I used my debit card online, and before I could even log off the college website it had been vacuumed out of my account!  SWOOSH!  Gone - just like that and in the blink of an eye.

Y’all have heard my rant on college textbooks, and will probably be treated to it yet again when I find out what book I need for my evening class.  So far I haven’t gone on a rip about the tuition and fees…but today I am giving into temptation.

Here’s the breakdown according to the school website (my commentary in parentheses and italicized):

• Undergraduate Tuition  $1,246.00  (This is for ONLY 7 credit hours and has been increasing every year)
• General Access Fee $227.85  (Just what is this anyway?  Access to campus?  Access to the website?)
• Debt Service Fee $84.00 (OK, y’all know I have an issue with this!  Just whose debt am I paying a fee for?  I am getting OUT of debt!)
• MC Technology Access Fee $78.75 (So I intend to print off $78.75 worth of notes on the school computers!  Gotta get my money’s worth since I have no choice in paying this.)
• Science Consumable Fee $15.00 (Fair enough, I am taking science labs.)
• Sustainable Campus Fee $10.00 (OK, just what is this??  They can’t sustain the campus with all the other fees I am paying??)
• SGA Fee $5.00 (And we get what we pay for…I need an eye-rolling smiley most desparately for this blog…)

And that is the bad news for this semester (so far…haven’t bought the book yet).  The good news was I got a Pell Grant this school year so that was a $515 credit this time around (actual award is based on number of hours taken).  The even better news is I have had $1400 in my savings account since October specifically to pay my tuition.  I am whining yesterday and today because I got very used to seeing that money n my balance…and it disappeared so fast I didn’t even have a chance to say “good-bye” to it.

Oh for those of y’all with kids in high school who intend to go to college: TAKE NOTE!  This is only a part-time tuition bill!  I am only taking 7 credit hours (12 is full-time status) because organic chemistry is the rock that will not move in my schedule … and my academic advisor has threatened to hurt me if I even think of taking any more early morning classes LOL since she taught gen chem 2 at 8 AM over the summer and has seen for herself what I look like at that time of day.  When I took a full-time semester in spring of 2005, tuition was over $2100.  This is for in-state also.  It’s gonna be even uglier in five years when my son gets ready to start college…