College Student Pays Tuition in Dollar Bills

Filed under: In The News, Education: Teens

You know that cute piggy bank perched atop your kid's dresser? Don't pooh-pooh the fiscal power those nickels, dimes and dollar bills could add up to one day. They could just pay the college tuition.

Just ask University of Colorado, Boulder sophomore Nic Ramos, who recently marched into the bursar's office and emptied out a 33-lb.duffel bag filled with $14,09.51 in $1 bills, a 50-cent piece and a penny to pay his out-of-state tuition bill, according to The New York Times.

The money exchange was part stunt and also statement, as the economics major from California was trying to help university leaders visualize just how much tuition is costing students (and their moms and dads), according to the Times.

"It kind of started as a joke," Ramos, whose parents foot his tuition bill, tells the Times. "But when I thought about it more, it's just an absurd amount of money. I wanted to give the school a different way to look at tuition."

In an age of credit cards and checkbooks, collecting all that cash was quite a task.

He says it took him two days to withdraw the money from several banks.

Bronson Hilliard, a spokesman for the university, tells the Daily Camera that it took three people nearly an hour each to count the tuition payment.

Ramos insists in the Daily Camera that his unconventional method wasn't meant to be snarky or as a protest over high tuition and fee costs. Instead, he simply wants to show how much an education costs. And, he says he feels fortunate that his family is picking up the tab for his education.

"Everybody says money talks," he tells the Daily Camera. "When you have that many bills in front of you,! it puts things in perspective."

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