Tuition can come in two forms, either it's manageable, or it's not, and in my case, it’s not. I’m currently enrolled in Camosun Colleges Digital Production, Writing and Design program, and slated to begin the Film Production program at Vancouver Film School in January 2019, and I am in no way close to paying off my tuition for the latter.
Going to College full time makes it incredibly hard to work full time, as I should know full well as I’m in the midst of doing full-time night shifts while attending day classes, just to make enough to pay some of my bills; you see, the tuition for Camosun costs just over $10,000, which does not include parking (I’m not going to calculate this extra cost, I’ll just get sad) and the tuition for my Film Production program in Vancouver will cost me just over $35,000. While I’ve fully paid off Camosun, it’s left me with no cash left and close to $3000 dollars in debt (thanks to my car breaking down) so to try and pay off my debt, pay my rent, and keep food on the table (I’m not even making enough to save for tuition at the moment either) I’m working as much as I can during the night, which is incredibly difficult due to homework assignments and that one thing needed to keep a human sane; sleep.
Going to College full time makes it incredibly hard to work full time, as I should know full well as I’m in the midst of doing full-time night shifts while attending day classes, just to make enough to pay some of my bills; you see, the tuition for Camosun costs just over $10,000, which does not include parking (I’m not going to calculate this extra cost, I’ll just get sad) and the tuition for my Film Production program in Vancouver will cost me just over $35,000. While I’ve fully paid off Camosun, it’s left me with no cash left and close to $3000 dollars in debt (thanks to my car breaking down) so to try and pay off my debt, pay my rent, and keep food on the table (I’m not even making enough to save for tuition at the moment either) I’m working as much as I can during the night, which is incredibly difficult due to homework assignments and that one thing needed to keep a human sane; sleep.
The costs of tuition and lack of sleep, coupled with worrying about getting homework assignments in on time (this one will be late I guarantee you) is incredibly stressful, but that’s what whiskey shots at 4 in the morning is for.
Tuition should be completely free in some regards, or at the very least, have the cost of such lowered considerably. “If you're graduating high school with a 95 per cent academic average (or higher), Lakehead University gives you a free ride through your entire first year. And, if you can keep up a 90 per cent average while there, you can extend that free ride all the way through your entire university degree” (Huffington Post, 2017, November 6, Blog).
Tuition should be completely free in some regards, or at the very least, have the cost of such lowered considerably. “If you're graduating high school with a 95 per cent academic average (or higher), Lakehead University gives you a free ride through your entire first year. And, if you can keep up a 90 per cent average while there, you can extend that free ride all the way through your entire university degree” (Huffington Post, 2017, November 6, Blog).
I feel that Lakehead’s example of this is an incredible idea, not only does it push its students to work harder for a literal money reward, but it gives people hope who simply just cannot afford the entry fees, but also the 90 per cent average requirement would weed out anybody who was not legitimately serious about the programs offered.
If Camosun were to offer such an incentive I would have absolutely jump on that, and slash my working hours to compensate for homework time, rather then have to work so many hours and get at most 4 hours of sleep a night and be in debt for the next 10 years.
References:
“Yes, there is such thing as free tutiton in Canada”, Huffington Post , November 6, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/campus-rankings/yes-there-is-such-a-thing-as-free-tuition-in-canada_a_23268498/
First off, it's amazing what you're doing! I have no idea how you are still a functioning human being with all that you have going on. It's people like you that free tuition should be considered for. People that keep their grades up and stay motivated with all the other things happening in their lives. What Lakehead University is doing sounds like they are on the right path. I like the idea of rewarding students for good grades and hard work.
ReplyDeleteI think that the issue with tuition being free to students who get 95% and over is that people will complain. For example, if a student got a mark that was slightly under the required percentage they would be begging the teacher to raise the mark. The promise of free tuition would put a lot of pressure on students to get a mark that is unreasonable and unattainable for most people. I believe that this would encourage students to cheat on tests, assignments and ask teachers to raise their mark in hopes to receive free tuition for a year.
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