I think the price of certain trips is reasonable, but some are not. For example, the $50 for Canobie Lake Park is appropriate since the ticket is already $39 and the rest is for the drivers or the school bus. However, the trip to Boston common which is $35 is a bit high as we will also spend lots of money when we get there shopping and getting food. In my opinion, the Target trip, which is $3, is also pricey because it isn’t a long bus ride. In past years the Target trip used to be free and now we are charged $3 to go to a department store, where not everybody spends money.
The textbook prices seems too high for the majority of the students, especially since some of them have been used before. A lot of people think that it’s unreasonable to pay for textbooks as the tuition fee is already very high and it should include everything. Students also weren’t told which textbooks to purchase beforehand, so we couldn’t even get a sense of how many books and what type of books to purchase.
— Ellen Wu
Personally, I think the textbook prices aren’t very fair for the students with scholarships as not all of them have a financially stable background. Some of the textbooks can be as expensive as $130, even when they were previously used. Many of the students need to purchase more than one textbook as they are required to buy one for every course. The books come in all different conditions, varying from brand new to some that are filled with notes and doodles. In my opinion, I think that there should be a system where students can rent the books and return them at the end of the summer in the condition they got it. Many of the students will not be using the books after the summer and bringing them back home can be very arduous. As for the trip fares, I believe that they are mostly reasonable because some of the trips like to Boston Common require a lot more drivers. Not only do we need to hire a lot of buses, places like the Boston Common are all very far. Many of the drivers need to wait for us at the destinations and need to invest a lot of energy and attentiveness when driving on highways, especially when it’s dark.
— Jessie Liu