In an off-handed comment to a fellow student, my Marketing professor asked how much we were paying for the class, per hour. He estimated it at $45 per hour, and I, with a thirst for numbers that rivals the thirst of Tantalus, decided to actually do the math.

Congratulations to the two of you who are still reading after that intro, and have not yet been scared away by my obsession with math.

I did a rough calculation in class, based on the number of credit hours I was taking. But when I got home later, I started thinking about the other factors involved. Don’t I pay to take the final exam? Aren’t I really paying for the privilege to do homework and study?

The final question comes down to: How much do I pay, per hour, for school, and am I getting good enough grades to justify that price?

So I made a spreadsheet. In fact, I made it and posted it on this site, so if you want to download it, you can. You can download it just to see my calculations, or you can download it to calculate the rate you’re paying for your schooling!

The Hourly Cost of College – click to download!

Observations from my Own Data
As you can see if you grab the spreadsheet, I’m paying $52.51 per hour for my college education. This is based on doing only 5 hours a week of homework outside of class – which is pretty accurate for my current habits, and also a little sad.

The good news is that I can lower that hourly rate by putting in more hours of work. $52.51 sounds pretty high for my current B average – but if I put in more hours, I can pay less per hour for a B+!

Most professors have told me that each class is probably going to require twice the number of hours outside of class as homework and studying. For example, my 4-hour-a-week class should require 8 hours a week of studying and homework. That sounds a little crazy for my liberal arts classes, but it certainly was true of my film classes – plus some! So I guess it evens out.

So if I change the number of homework hours in the spreadsheet from 5 to the recommended number, 20, my rate drops to…. $25.93.

Obviously, this sort of number is extremely arbitrary. The total amount I pay for tuition has nothing to do with how many hours of work I put in. But the purpose of these numbers is really to re-frame my education in terms of finances – to trick myself into procrastinating less by telling myself I’m saving money by studying more.

Observations from a Friend
Everyone is going to use this spreadsheet a bit differently. When I made the “other” category, I was thinking of hours spent doing homework and studying outside of class. But when I sent the spreadsheet to a friend, he included all of the clubs and activities that he wouldn’t be doing if he weren’t in school.

This is an entirely valid way to look at it – not only is he paying to be educated, but he’s paying for all of the campus activities he engages in.

His rate, since he’s much more studious and active than I am, came to a sweet $23.44 an hour.

After calculating that, he did something else I didn’t do: he factored in his scholarships. I decided not to bother, because I knew if I started down that road, I’d start trying to factor in my loans and the interest I’d pay on them – and then there’d be too much math – even for me!

After factoring in his scholarship, his rate dropped down to $14.12 an hour. Lesson learned? Scholarships matter.

Your Turn
I would love to see what some other people get. I’m not very studious, and I go to a rather expensive school, some I’m interested in the rates others are paying. If you are comfortable sharing your rates in the comments or by email, I’d love it!

Poorer Than You means a great many things to me these days. It’s the first thing I check on when I wake up in the morning (obsessive much?) and I’m constantly jotting things down in a notebook when I get ideas for entries. It’s held me accountable for my own finances, giving me a push to keep going. Without it, I honestly don’t know if I would be where I am today.

I’ve known about The Blogging Scholarship for some time – longer than Poorer Than You has existed, actually. I’ve had many different blogs for many years, but all of them before PTY were personal, and never seemed appropriate to submit for the scholarship application. But this year, with PTY healthy and nearing its first anniversary, I decided to throw my hat into the ring.

And wouldn’t you know it, I’m a finalist. The scholarship committee reviewed my application and, along with 19 other finalists, I’m enjoying a position of honor right now. I’ll tell you: I’m truly ecstatic just to have been chosen as a finalist. And now the decision is up to voters. So here’s my humble plea:

 
(Voting ends October 28th)

Added bonus for PTY stalkers: They listed my last name! It’s cool – I’m not the only Stephanie Collins in the world. In fact, I’m no where near the first result that comes up on Google – that honor goes to Stephanie Collins the renowned body builder! (Or maybe that is me… you don’t know!)

I hope that you check out the blogs of the other finalists as well. I know I’m making my way through the list! I also hope that those among you that have blogs will take the time to write a post about the Blogging Scholarship. I think it’s an excellent idea that rewards people for a sometimes-thankless activity. Not to mention we could all use a bit of help paying for school!

I get this question a lot. Some people want to know if I, personally, would have avoided film school in the first place because of all the debt I wound up with. Some people are aspiring filmmakers that wonder if film school is a good idea for them. And some people are just trying to reaffirm their own suspicion that art school of any kind is a waste of money. So, what’s the answer? Is a film degree worth the price? The answer is, of course, absolutely maybe.

I found a couple of articles on Digital Video Guru that outline ten reasons you shouldn’t go to film school and ten reasons you should go to film school. If you have any interest in film school (or in skipping it and going straight into the industry or independent films), you should definitely read those two lists. If you’re just curious, here are the 20 reasons without explanation:

Reasons Not to Go to Film School:

1. Your favorite filmmaker didn’t go to film school.
2. Digital Video.
3. Film school is expensive.
4. The Internet.
5. The Long Tail.
6. Netflix + books = critical studies.
7. Learn by doing.
8. You can’t teach art. Can you?
9. Don’t study film, study life.
10. You either have it or you don’t.

All of these are true, but #3 and #7 are perhaps the most important. The “learn by doing” principle is why I picked the film school that I go to – the moment you enter the door, they shove a camera in your hand and tell you the only way to learn to make films is to make films.

Reasons To Go to Film School:

1. Peer connections.
2. Industry connections.
3. Technical know-how.
4. Intelligent feedback.
5. Mentors to push you.
6. History and theory.
7. Credibility.
8. Time for your projects.
9. Stay the course.
10. You either have it or you don’t.

I agree entirely with this list as well. #1 is the reason I always cite for film school being a near-necessity. That old adage of “In show business, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” is 80% right. What you know is important, but you can know everything there is to know about filmmaking and not be able to make anything because you don’t have a network. Film is still a collaborative art.

There are a few things I would like to add, as well. Film school is a huge undertaking. If you take two years of film school and change your mind, you might have trouble getting your credits to transfer into another major. Additionally, film as a major isn’t offered by most state schools (except, of course, California), so you’re likely looking at an expensive private school (or the high cost of out-of-state tuition for California, unless you happen to already live there).

So is film school worth the cost? I’m still not sure for myself, so I certainly can’t answer the question for you. It’s a highly competitive industry with some huge barriers to entry. And a film degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on if you decide to go into any other industry. But if film is really what you want to do, then film school could give you the leg up you need to break into the industry or to start yourself off in independent work.

Ahh, the first day of class – the day I am reminded that my school does not believe in holidays. That’s right – I’ve got class on Labor Day! Luckily, my first class isn’t until 4pm.

After stepping off the plane last week, I ran around to take care of all the paperwork needed to let me go to class today. This included finally making a decision about my financial aid dilemma. Aside from the usual chastising myself to look for more scholarships, the question really came down to the Federal Loan, a Private Loan, or a Lending Club Loan.

After much talking and deliberating and looking up of interest rates, I decided to apply for the federal loan again this year. This loan will have negative consequences for my parents no matter what – if it’s approved, they will be the ones on the hook for the loan, and if it’s denied, then I will be awarded a Unsubsidized Direct Loan, and they’ll get a black mark on the credit report for being denied the loan.

Even so, we decided this was the best move. Every year we go through this, and every year we decide it’s the best option… which really, in a word, sucks. But it’s the best option because no matter what, I get the loan I need, and the interest rates aren’t too high. My parents just wish I would go ahead and graduate already, so that this stops happening every year!

I can’t wait for the loan to go through (whichever loan that may be) so that I can stop thinking about this for the rest of the year.