Assisted Living for Young Adults

If only Nursing Homes were like this!

Earlier we talked about how tuition is just a small part of the picture - in our particular case only 40% of the $12,121.00 bill and the rest is all about the fees, insurance, and room & board.  Fees and insurance add their share, but dorm life and cafeteria are 50% of the cost.

$6,018.00 is for room and board this semester.  Semester.  As I have to continually remind myself, this not the cost for a year or even have a year - but a semester which only runs from late August to late December.  This is four months.  

Backing up to my wallet

The Residence Hall Association Strikes Again

Another letter arrived from Residence Hall Association of VBU this time in large shock all cap and bold letters at the top: 

"DON'T LET DATA LOSS RUIN YOUR STUDENT'S GPA."

Actual insert in the mailer exhorting me to avoid midnight
calls and destroyed Graduate School Dreams from  Data Loss.

The letter gets right to the point: "Over 40% of students experience a data loss during college.  10% of hard drives outright fail each year.  A crash can wipe out months of work, slash grades for the semester and reduce cumulative GPA."   (Italics mine).

Thus the caring folks at the Residence Hall Association have teamed up with the equally compassionate "CAMPUS BACKUP SERVICE" and they will - for $150.00 dollars - backup A's laptop computer for four years.  (Tax not included).  This is - they tell me the "Best Value" because I will save $90.00 compared to paying their yearly rate of $60.00.  

As a computer literate adult I have experienced failing hard drives, so my complaint is not that they raise the issue.  Data protection is almost as important as the other kind of "protection" so I get it.  My complaint is that they don't tell you to check you options.  Dropbox, for example is free, for 2 GB of storage - which I understand is a pittance.  I also understand that $150.00 for unlimited storage for four years is a great deal compared to Carbonite.    As a smug, roll-my-eyes-at-Windows, member of the Apple Computer Cult my back up needs are solved using Time Machine.  Of course that assumes that A will actually attach her external drive to her laptop on a regular basis and both drives will not simultaneously fail or disappear.  

Instead the blatant scare tactics annoy me to no end.  For example,  the Letter ends with this ominous post script:

Apparently after the Campus Pack Selection of the "Specially Sized Sheets" - the next parent favorite is this service which prevents these midnight calls and destroyed futures and prospects when data loss causes GPAs to be cut to the bone.  Frankly if I get a midnight call from A during College I expect it to be from either the Police Station or the Emergency Room - so I am fairly certain buying into this plan won't protect my sleep.  Given that, I am waiting for the Residence Hall endorsed "Legal Defense and Bail Service Program" pitch to come next week.

Fees Glorious Fees!

It's not just tuition that keeps the cost of college humming along, but a litany of fees.  Sixteen items make up the bill for A's VBU and eleven of them are fees.  Two others - the Student Alumni Membership and the Student Bus and Bike Programs might as well be fees.  After all of that insurance, tuition and room & board seem to be an afterthought.  

The fees range from five dollars to $336.04 just for the semester.  Then there additional fees for participating in sports, for declaring certain majors, and certain classes.  For A - the fees alone add an additional 20% to the tuition.  

Bottom line: When planning for college - don't think that the tuition is the end of the story.