Classes have started, which means early mornings and late nights in the library with frequent trips to Starbucks just to make it through it all.
It's easy to complain about the workload and take classes for granted, but for many students, the reason they are in these classes is because they are paying for them themselves.
Students at Auburn paying for tuition can seek support and help through student financial aid.
Michael Reynolds, executive director of Student Financial Services, said because a lot of the payments are made with credit cards, it is difficult to say exactly how many students pay for their tuition themselves.
Rebecca Smith, a senior in physics, is one such student who pays for her own tuition.
After two years at a junior college, Smith transferred to Auburn.
She received financial aid from the government, but because she was living at home, she invested it until she transferred to Auburn.
Smith took out two subsidized loans in the past two years.
"If your parents are paying for it, you know, if you have to drop a class or fail one, you know who cares... I've got to take 18 hours this fall and then 15 to graduate," Smith said. "It's pretty high stakes because... if I have to drop one or fail one, then the chances of me finishing this year are slim and then I have to go another year and have the money for that."
Smith said her parents support her decision to go to college, and she is the youngest in her family. Both of her brothers also went to college and paid for it themselves. Chelsea Butler, senior in communication disorders, said if she had to pay for her tuition, it would change her lifestyle.
"I already have a job, but I guess I would definitely work way more [and] take out loans," Butler said. "(I) probably wouldn't be as social as I am now."
The situations students have come to Reynolds with vary in background.
"A lot of times, they'll come in and their parents will have just cut them off," Reynolds said.
"It can be for an occurrence, maybe they've done something, maybe it was their grades; I've had cases where because of the student's sexual preference the parents cut them off, they have no contact with them from that day forward."
When situations such as these occur, students can use the Free Application for Federal Student Aid for help. Reynolds said FASFA was black-and-white when it came to financial aid.
When a particular circumstance changes the student's situation, the federal government allows Reynolds to analyze it, using what they call professional judgment.
"It's a very complicated, heavily documented event," Reynolds said. "We generally have to have a letter from family members, other than the parents who cut them off."
They also receive letters from other people who know the student, like clergy, counselors and high school principals. Reynolds said most of the students he helps with financial aid have parents who support them. But these parents are doing all they can, and the student is doing all they can, and they still don't have enough money.
Reynolds also said tuition and fees are $4,926 per semester for in-state students, and $13,182 per semester for out-of-state students. Reynolds said many students start working more than one job to cover the fees.
One of the strangest ways Reynolds said he has seen a student pay for their tuition was a graduate student who paid for his whole tuition using rebate credit cards.
For Butler, paying for her tuition would change her perspective.
"I think I take it for granted sometimes whenever I go to class," Butler said. "I think it would make me appreciate it more."
After Smith graduates, she is considering becoming a high school physics teacher.
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