You have GOT to be kidding me...

[Myoti]

After much hassle (MUCH hassle...), I managed to get in Japanese 1001 at our local College in a Joint Enrollment system (I'm still in High School, but can attend the class with little extra charge).

I've been in for three weeks, when I'm suddenly called in and informed I must fork up $104 or be dropped from the class. $104 for "Student Activities," which I won't even be apart of and, best of all, I was NOT previously informed that I must do so (and they tell me that EVERYONE in the school must pay for this, even Joint Enrolled students and Graduates).

Though we're going in the morning to pay this off, we (me and my parents) are beyond ticked-off at this and the general Education system in our county.

[/rant]

Let's pray they don't pull this junk on us next semester. -_-

[HitomiYuriko]

Well Brad

I have to say that when you sign up for a class even if it in a college, you need to pay the teacher for his or her time.

[Myoti]

The teacher is paid. The school and HOPE scholarship payed for the classes. HOPE, however, said they wouldn't pay for the books, and we were fine with that.

However, when I finally got in the class, we were told everything was fine and we needed no other payments/registrations/etc.

Then they spring this on us out of nowhere, and our counselor can't seem to explain why we weren't told beforehand. Now see why I'm a bit miffed? =/

[HitomiYuriko]

The teacher is paid. The school and HOPE scholarship payed for the classes. HOPE, however, said they wouldn't pay for the books, and we were fine with that.

However, when I finally got in the class, we were told everything was fine and we needed no other payments/registrations/etc.

Then they spring this on us out of nowhere, and our counselor can't seem to explain why we weren't told beforehand. Now see why I'm a bit miffed? =/

I don't blame you and but fun in the class anyway.

[Kaligraphic]

They usually do have a student activities fee. It's a common thing, and it goes to stuff like student clubs and activities, student council stuff, and basically all of the stuff that you would have opportunity to participate in if you were a regular student.

They're going to demand it every semester you take a class there. Even if you take only online stuff (if they offer online stuff) they'll require the student activities fee. It should have been detailed in the catalog.

[Yeshua-Knight]

i think that at least in the case of my school system, when they offer a class that high school students can take and earn college credit for, it's usually what's called AP (advanced placement) or something along those lines, and it's usually taught in the high school rather than at the college which eliminates the need for the high school student to have to pay so many of the college fees, however since it's just an activities fee you are paying, you're still really not paying for the course

[Warrior4Christ]

Yeah, we had a $163/semester 'Student Services Fee' that we had to pay, or be dropped from your courses.

But this semester was the first time that they made it voluntary.

[Sammy Boy]

Hey Myoti, I understand your frustration.

I had to pay 200 dollars in student association fees every year for the 4 years I was at university. After paying it, I didn't get any special deals. It was just money towards the university, on top of my university fees.

If I don't pay it, I am not given a student ID card, which basically means I cannot borrow books from the university library or sit for any exams. Talk about daylight robbery.

[Agent Anderson]

Activity fees, parking fees, it never ends

Just wait until you're billed for an "Oxygen rental fee"

[Myoti]

i think that at least in the case of my school system, when they offer a class that high school students can take and earn college credit for, it's usually what's called AP (advanced placement) or something along those lines, and it's usually taught in the high school rather than at the college which eliminates the need for the high school student to have to pay so many of the college fees, however since it's just an activities fee you are paying, you're still really not paying for the course

We have AP, but that's not what this class is. This one is actually taken at the College, but it's the only one I take there.

Hey Myoti, I understand your frustration.

I had to pay 200 dollars in student association fees every year for the 4 years I was at university. After paying it, I didn't get any special deals. It was just money towards the university, on top of my university fees.

If I don't pay it, I am not given a student ID card, which basically means I cannot borrow books from the university library or sit for any exams. Talk about daylight robbery.

Indeed. Basically what it's starting to feel like. :/

Activity fees, parking fees, it never ends

Just wait until you're billed for an "Oxygen rental fee"

"Walking on the pavement fee," "talking fee," "pay-this-and-we-don't-send-a-mad-wolverine-to-your-frontdoor fee..." XD

If I was participating in any of these "student activity" things, fine, but I'm not a regular college student, so I won't. :|

[RubyJewelStone]

Cripes! We have to pay more? I already don't know WHERE I'm getting money to do the college level courses at the nearby university (the PRIVATE university on top of that). My school doesn't have AP it has an agreement with the nearby college to let juniors and seniors do a dual enrollment deally.

[Radical Dreamer]

Student activity fees are quite common in schools, and I'm not really surprised that you had to pay one. The main problem here, though, is that they told you that you wouldn't have to pay anything else, and that all your fees were settled. They should have told you about the activities fee ahead of time. But yeah, that's pretty messed up. :/

[Hitokiri]

It's how the ball bounces.

You want to attend classes? Fork over some cash. They are not in a position to say "all regular students must pay this but all high school students taking college courses don't need to." It's not the schools fault. That's how they do business. It's your counslers or whoever was the go between with the college to inform you that you will need to pay this to attend classes.

Parking passes are there for a reason. I have to pay $20 for a parking permit per semester and I don't mind. It's there so that idiots don't park there when students need to get to class. My campus on the frist 2 weeks of school is a zoo with people trying to park since it doesn't have dorms.

College is a business this they need to treat it as such. Is it unfair? Yes. But many things are unfair. Gas prices are unfair. But sometimes you need to put your hands in your pockets and deal with what life throws at you. At least you have a chance to take college classes while still in High School and have the class be Japanese even! I have a friend who, in order to have a roof over his head, food to eat, and transportation, he needs to work every day. He REAALLY wants to go to school but 1) his job won't let him and will fire him if he does 2) can't afford it and 3) will be thrown out of his apartment due to lack of funds.

[mitsuki lover]

I agree with Radical Dreamer on this,they should have told you about the fee for student activities when you registered and not throw a curveball at you and tell you you needed it after everything was said and done.Someone must have been asleep.

[Puritan]

You might have just missed the info from the organization paying for your classes. I know in my case the grad school payed all the fees for my classes because I was a researcher, but the activity fees were seperate (more like $300 for my school) and I had to pay them myself. I knew about that ahead of time, but I could see how it might be overlooked, giving me a nasty shock when I found out I actually had to pay for all the fun organizations on campus. While it sucks, I have to say it isn't all uncommon, and the fact you had to pay these fees probably just got lost during the set-up process.

[LorentzForce]

My uni fee is $11080 a single semester. AUD, so that's... $7500 US? This is without any "voluntary" fees. Now, there's 4 years in my degree, so 8 semesters and...

Yes, I pay a lot. And I pretty much have to earn my way through. Life's hard, but one just has to do. It is one of the best unis in the world anyway, so...

[QtheQreater]

Yeah, they make you pay through the nose in just about every college...
You want to know what's unfair? That in my town public high school students can take college courses for free for dual credit, but homeschoolers have to fork over the full amount. No exceptions. THAT is unfair...

...so is making a person pay 51 freakin bucks for a stupid binder with some paper in it(this is required, people!) that won't be used for more than half a semester....AAAAAAAARRRRG!

(Q nearly started a rant in the bookstore today over this)

[Sammy Boy]

My uni fee is $11080 a single semester. AUD, so that's... $7500 US? This is without any "voluntary" fees. Now, there's 4 years in my degree, so 8 semesters and...

Just curious, are you an overseas student in Australia? I only had to pay 5,000 AUD per semester, but that was back in 1997-2000, so it may have gone right up.

If you are on HECS, a tip about paying it off is to save up a huge amount and pay it off in one go - otherwise if you pay it by bits all you end up paying off is the interest.

[Myoti]

Er, turns out this thing we had signed up for payed off some of it, so we ended up only having to pay about $20. Still, dropping me from the class without us knowing we had to pay kinda ticked us off... >_>

[mitsuki lover]

Well $20 is better than $101.

[Myoti]

True, true, thank God (and it was $104 Xp ).

[Mithrandir]

Many colleges have these same fees. Usually there are two steps to getting in classes:

1. Application for admission.
2. Enrollment in classes.

It's usually during step 1 that you'll be (occasionally briefly) exposed to the list of fees you'll have to pay. Likely that went past quickly. It's unfortunate the college wasn't better at explaining the fee structure, but I can't same I'm surprised the don't wave them.

BTW: Most community colleges don't pay their instructors from your tuition. Usually, the colleges collect your tuition and give it to the state. The state then pays them based on the number of students they serve.

[Sephiroth]

heh, man i know how ya feel, half a year aftert i got my university honours degree i got a letter through the door saying that i owed them £2000 (very roughly $4000) for it and if i didn't pay they'd revoke my degree & take the issue to court. the normal uni fees had already been payed. but a while ago the government brought in some stupid law about having ppl pay for there qualifications now or something, i had never heard a think about it until i got that letter. at least i got the oppertunity to pay it back as a student loan so i don't pay em anything untill i star to earn £12,000 a year or something, then it starts coming off in installments.

[FaerieChica]

I had a similiar experience. I was going to take a music course from a nearby college, specialized for select students to take online. I was never informed of any payments due or the such. They made it sound like it was a scholarship deal because of my good grades. Then a week or so before the orientation, I got info that I would be billed ALOT of money that I knew nothing about. Fortunately, I spoke to the professor and come to find out the course was about stuff I already knew, so I didn't take it. However, I was slightly irritated that they didn't inform me of the bills till that late in time.

[LorentzForce]

Just curious, are you an overseas student in Australia? I only had to pay 5,000 AUD per semester, but that was back in 1997-2000, so it may have gone right up.

If you are on HECS, a tip about paying it off is to save up a huge amount and pay it off in one go - otherwise if you pay it by bits all you end up paying off is the interest.

I am an overseas student indeed, and have been for last, what, decade?

[Warrior4Christ]

Just curious, are you an overseas student in Australia? I only had to pay 5,000 AUD per semester, but that was back in 1997-2000, so it may have gone right up.

If you are on HECS, a tip about paying it off is to save up a huge amount and pay it off in one go - otherwise if you pay it by bits all you end up paying off is the interest.

Wow... I'm paying only approx. $5500 a year...

And also, there is "supposedly" no interest on HECS... It's just increased by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

[Sammy Boy]

LorentzForce - wow, that means you have to pay the full fare for public transport as well. I feel for you mate.

Warrior4Christ - as long as you don't earn money over a certain salary bracket (I forgot the range, check the ATO site) you won't have to pay any HECS back. But it's very easy to get over that bracket after working for a year or so. The government will then decide that you are too "wealthy" and thus need to pay back HECS. Lovely system, isn't it?

[mitsuki lover]

Considering what everyone has been saying about fees and such like stuff,if I had to do it all over again and were going to school today I would probably wait a few years and start to work first.That way I would have enough money earned up for
college later plus expierence.But that's hindsight for you!

[Myoti]

It's unfortunate the college wasn't better at explaining the fee structure, but I can't same I'm surprised the don't wave them.

Yeah, our local college in general seems to be kinda laughable (especially with rather important stuff such as this), so I hear (shoot, the whole education system here; no wonder Georgia is one of the lowest rated states for education >_> ).