Hello everyone: Chris Garbutt here, manager of the UpbeaT project at Student Life. You've probably read all the goodbye posts from this year's bloggers. It's been a great year at UpbeaT. Week after week, our bloggers told you about the…
A Perfect Storm
I find it particularly worrisome that tax time and exam time mesh so intimately; the period from the end of March to mid-April transforms into a perfect storm of anticipatory stress. The time of year to give or, more rarely,…
On The Summer Job Hunt…
Don’t allow yourselves to be fooled by how miserably grey it looks outdoors – summer will soon be upon us. Well, by “summer”, I mean the end of the 2010-2011 school year. And with the end of this semester comes,…
Om-Ombuds… Ombudsperson?
Hello, dear readers! Happy institutionalized day of romance! Any Valentine's plans? Have you ever seen the posters around campus telling you to contact the Ombudsperson? Or ever wondered what that is? I did. The office has been around for more…
Roaming the world with free and safe internet
Hi readers! It's Monday. I'd like to ignore all the nasty stuff that I'm going to have to deal with this week. I feel like a chained escape artist with four walls closing in who just found out the key…
“Can’t manage without …”
New School-year Resolution Le Deux. This year I will… 2. Manage my time better … Though I really, really don’t want to jinx myself, I usually do pretty well in school. And I should… after all, as any of you…
Just text me!
Okay, so everyone anticipates university being expensive. Tuition costs can be found online, and you can also look up how much it’ll cost to live on or near campus. Of course, you’ll still have to mortgage your iPod and maybe set up a payment plan on your liver, but there’s comfort in knowing how much you have to pay. In fact, the costs associated with university are generally set, or slightly variable under your control—your phone plan, food, rent, are all chosen by you, at least to a degree. Your tuition, gym membership etc. are set, and also invariable, so they can be planned for.
This leaves the big unknown, the real outlier, the forever elusive… textbook costs. Sometimes, a class will have a course materials pack costing $20 flat (though there are the hidden costs of the copy store potentially being swarmed by cops and “busted”). Other times there will be a textbook for $175, or a whole bunch of books (and the prof always says the specific editions matter…) for a cumulative $250.
All totaled, textbooks can cost as much as $1000 in a given semester, or as little as $250, in my experience, and their prices are completely out of your control.
EXCEPT! Oh, happy day! As in all things money-related the market has worked its magic and ways to save money (with additional costs in the form of time, travel and inconvenience, unfortunately) have appeared over the years.
Leader of the pack
When I was packing for university, it was more like I was packing for The Island than Canada’s capitalist capital. I would stress out that I had to buy, like, a stapler before I left, and my mother would tease me mercilessly: “You do realize there may be a few stores in Toronto, Lizzie?” or “Yes, if need be we can ship you deodorant, but I think you’ll be OK just buying 17 sticks for now.”
As a jaded fourth-year, I can happily say that I was both right and wrong in my packing technique. Here’s my philosophy: you can buy anything you need in Toronto. Or, at least, if you can buy it elsewhere in Canada, you can probably get it here. That said, when you’re new to a city with so much to adjust to, it’s comforting to already have everything you really need. If you don't take it from me, take it from her. (I was going to embed the link, but the words "storage," "spruce" and "dorm room" lost their meaning.)
The kids are alright!
Hello student lifers! Here’s the thing about campus in the summer: it looks the same, it sounds the same, but it just doesn’t feel the same. This being my third summer on campus-ish (first summer I lived on campus, second I took…
Now is the summer of our discontent?
Summer school can be brutal. No matter how much I rationalize, justify and bargain with myself about it, summer rolls around and I just can’t bring myself to go back to school. That was certainly the case last summer. I…