by Steve Brun

Usually when I ind myself in conversa- ion with a group of my ellow students within he halls of academia, I m habitually the only ne who is not griping bout student loans and he problems that go long with them. This is ecause, in my three

have never needed

ind even more surpris- ingly, have not yet been booted from any semes- ter because of late pay-

ears of attending UPEI,

inancial aid of any kind,

ments.

Now my friends, I will divulge my secret method (which goes against my lawyer's wishes) of how I've man- aged to pay my own way through school thus far.

I do realize that I'm probably not some sort of supernatural phe- nomenon, and that there must be others like me out there who have never used the services of the provincial or federal government so as not to owe their lives and first- born after they graduate. If there are such people,

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however, I have yet to meet one that has not used a bursary or won a scholarship of some sort, which I hope is not some sort of reflection on my social life.

I am here to tell you that all it takes to save enough dough for your education - even in this time of inflated tuition costs - is simple time and money manage- ment. Some of you cur- rent University 100 stu- dents may have recently become acutely familiar with the philosophy of time management, and some of you alumni from this pro- gram may now want to do vile things to me for even bringing up the term. As redundant as it is though, managing your time and school- work in regards to your part- time employment can be help- ful, and takes away only in

miniscule amounts from your social life.

For instance, | worked for the provin- cial government direct- ing tourists (or "guests", as the government would have it) to various points of interest across the Island for the past two summers. Apart from the fancy title, this is a far from glamorous job and tends to be a bit repeti- tious, for probably not the best wages that the department could dole out.

This brings up another point about careers, which is the type of employer you work for. | am no stranger to burger-flip- ping and fast food myself, but there must be a better alternative to these jobs where you can be happy and less stressed for equal or more pay. Even waiting tables garners better tips, and less involvement with crappy management in most instances. | believe anybody is capa- ble of finding and occu- pation at which they can enjoy working.

Back to the real issue though: how much you can save. My plan was to allocate the nec- essary amount each pay- check all summer long,

The Secret to My Tuition Success

and use the rest as spending money. Whether that amount be twenty or fifty dollars for the next two weeks, that was as much as | was going to spend no matter how bad I wanted to dip into that savings account. It's all about will power really, which is harder then you may think when you're still two hours away from last call, and you only have 2 bucks left to your name. The point is it can be done without sacrific- ing your freedom or a good time at the expense of your education.

Ok, ok’- I'll admit that despite this simple, ingenious method of sav- ing, my parents have probably had to pay for about a quarter of my university education so far.

But hey, this only about a semester and a half's worth of money which can easily be paid back with little or no interest. As long as your parents aren't completely tyrannical and dictatorial this shouldn't be a prob- lem, and plus, despite what you might tell yourself, they usually offer a better system than the government.

-:page [3] September 15 2003:.