Eating out and frivolous spending may be the first to go for students coping with rising tuition costs.
While universities across the country continue to raise costs, the University of California at Berkeley will join the 50K club as the first public university to charge over $50,000 in tuition.
And although it probably won’t be quite as high, students at UNC could also see tuition rise yet again for the 2011-2012 academic year.
“The out of state students get the worst end of it,” said UNC senior biology major Matt Howard. “We kind of anticipated tuition would go up by some degree throughout the years I’ve been here, so it’s definitely something I have had to sometimes be mindful about.”
“I won’t eat out as much,” said sophomore Pang Yang. “Don’t go out partying as much either.”
“I’ll probably just be more conscious with my money,” said Sinead Loughran, a freshman psychology major from Ireland. “Definitely less unnecessary buying.”
Freshman psychology major Cherish Khang, who enjoys cooking with her friends, said she hopes to share eating costs with others.
“Next year I was planning on not getting a meal plan to cut down on costs,” she said.
Sophomore pharmacy major Mai Vang said she plans to try to work more hours to help ease the strain of tuition hikes.
For other students, the burden of the cost increases may fall more on their parents.
“My parents support me, so it’s really how they handle it, not how I handle it,” said sophomore Taylor Smith. “I don’t think I’ll directly see the effects of it.”
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