Amid all the recent buzz about student loans, the skyrocketing price of higher education is a hot topic across America — but the financial impact of college extends far beyond mere tuition payments.
Plenty of secondary expenses that aren’t factored into the annual college “sticker price” lighten many students’ wallets every semester. Sadly, many of these expenses aren’t known until after students have already registered for classes.
But there is one question left that often remains a mystery to Elon University students until classes begin: What do I actually need for my class?
This isn’t a plea to change the way we register for classes, nor is it a demand that Elon students should not be required to purchase extra class materials.
Rather, it is a request for Elon professors to be more forthcoming about what materials will be expected from students registered for their classes.
Students would be helped financially by having access to the syllabus before the semester begins. Letting students know ahead of time gives them more time to find and buy books and other required materials through cheaper alternative websites.
Every semester, when class registration time rolls around, Elon students usually have a general idea of what classes they are signing up for, but are not entirely sure of what to expect when it comes to expenses. Too often, the expectations that Elon students create toward the classes they choose are based entirely off the narrow and biased accounts of other students.
These expectations are usually curtailed to that student’s personal opinion of the professor and the amount of required work, and often lack more substantive details. The class registration process here at Elon needs to become more transparent by outlining what will be required from students for each class.
Most students usually know well in advance if there are additional fees for a class, with additional fees sometimes noted in the course book, as well as a breakdown of the class’ required books on the campus bookstore website. But many students at Elon are still subjected to pricey last-minute class expenditures that whittle away the little money students have left for buying food, paying the rent or other living expenses.
But every semester, many students, regardless of their majors, are required to fork over the extra cash to accommodate last-minute fees they did not know would be incurred when they signed up for the class.
These fees typically include books that are not listed on the bookstore’s website, additional technical equipment and software for artistic design or multimedia production courses, or the possibility of students needing to travel off campus in order to complete class assignments or service work.
Having access to course syllabi before the semester begins would help students allocate their spending money more appropriately before starting the semester.
Elon already has the technology to facilitate constant communication between students and professors via Moodle: Why can’t this system be used to publish course syllabi earlier for student review prior to registration?
The benefits of attending a private university like Elon are immense and obvious to all of us who are lucky enough to attend this school.
But with annual tuition costs currently hovering around $30,000, last-minute class expenses are the last thing students need when they are already shelling out thousands of dollars on required costs in order to attend college.