Monthly Archives: May 2011

Held Up at Penpoint.

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Dear UBC,

I am a 2nd year student at Sauder and today I am an unsatisfied student.  I’ll just be direct, I feel like I’m being robbed.  Please explain yourself.

Below is a screenshot of my tuition for 2010W Term 2 tuition.


All of my 3 credit courses cost $669.42, I have 2 Arts faculty electives: Japanese 200 level and social psychology.

Below is a screenshot of my friend’s tuition for 2010W Term 1 tuition. He is a 2nd year Arts student.

All of his 3 credit courses cost $451.80.  Notably, PSYC 305A which is a personality psychology class.

We are both 2nd year students, entered in the same year, same age, same citizenship, but different faculties (ok he also took personality psyc and I took social psyc but either way…) How is this fair?  Even if I took PSYC 305A 002 with the same prof in the same room, at the same time, learning the same things, I would still be paying $217.62 more.

In first year, both of our 3 credit courses cost $442.95.  Excluding first year, to graduate with a BCOM we need a minimum of an additional 18 credits of non-commerce electives.  Without factoring in annual tuition increases and tuition increases due to being in a higher year (which doesn’t make sense because arts doesn’t get that increase,) and the “time value of money” for you finance kids out there, this translates to $1305.72.

I suppose you can say that is a small price relative to a whole degree but that doesn’t mean it is justified.

Perhaps Sauder students should have to pay more because of our teachers/facilities.  No, that doesn’t justify why we have to pay more for courses not in our faculty.  I’m sorry, but this feels like robbery.  I paid it, but that doesn’t mean I signed up for it.  The school did not tell me I was paying more for my courses by being a Sauder student.

UBC, I’d like some answers.

Sincerely,

Paulina Tsui

@readers, What can I do about this?  I actually don’t know, someone please help me with a next step.

By the way, does anyone know how much non-commerce students have to pay when taking a commerce course?

Financial tip to incoming business students: take summer school in first year.  You get to pay first year fees for those courses and knock of some requirements at the same time.

Push it, push it.

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Back from a short vacation in New York…  first thing I do after arriving home at 3 am?  Check my marks haha.

Surprisingly, I did better than I thought.

2nd year was much harder than 1st year and my marks reflect that.  Strangely though, I mentioned it before, I feel very chill and almost apathetic when it came to studying and putting in any extra effort.  I think I’ve reached that point where I have accepted that I am not going to score in the top percentiles anymore, so why not just enjoy the other joys of life more and settle.

*Steve Job’s commencement speech pops into head: DON’T SETTLE!*

I think I’m still recovering from that “you’re no longer one of the smart kids” blow.  Sometimes I find myself pushing the limits of the minimum amount I need to study and still get above my minimum standard.  What happened to the me that chased ideals instead of heading backwards to my minimums?

I did it back in high school too, just not with my grades.  I did it with my wake up times.  How late can I wake up and still make it to school on time?  Then everyday I would wake up later and later until the day I was late.  Then I realized that showing up late wasn’t a big deal and my new limit became how late can I be before the teachers start caring.

Thank god for summer vacation.  I don’t want these mind sets anymore.

Still the best part of University: I feel like I’m growing up faster than ever before.  (which I probably would anyway but “University” is the title of this chapter of my life)