Nic Ramos, University Of Colorado Student, Pays Tuition In $1 Bills (VIDEO)

Nic Ramos's tuition payment this semester weighed 30 pounds.

Why? The University of Colorado-Boulder economics student decided to pay his $14,309.51 charge in $1 bills (and a 50-cent piece, and a penny).

"Just looking at [the bills] really sends a message," Ramos said in an interview with the Daily Camera.

Ramos, an out-of-state student, wanted to bring awareness to how much an education costs for non-residents and residents alike. Per his calculations, class comes in at $65 an hour.

Ramos said his idea started as a joke and wasn't meant to be a jab at the university, though it did take local bank tellers -- and the university's payment office -- by surprise.

According to the New York Times, three university employees spent three hours tabulating Ramos's tuition.

WATCH:

Comments

[hyestud]

02:48 PM on 01/20/2011

he should just claim to be an illegal alien, they get to pay in state fees wherever they are...

[DL3]

01:01 PM on 01/20/2011

Stop complaining about out of state tuition. If you care that much, take a year off of school and work for the entire year....PRESTO no more out of state tuition. It's crazy to think that people
pay $120,000 for their degree when the person next to them is paying half or less.

[JStading]

10:07 AM on 01/20/2011

That'll show them!  Next time, he might even give them $15,000 in $1 bills! Or $30,000!  He's gonna be laughing at the thought of them counting all that money that he used to have....

[Ricky Liebig]

12:07 AM on 01/20/2011

the article says it took 3 people ONE hour :)

[onwisconsin]

01:53 PM on 01/19/2011

I'm sure this guy made a real ass of himself to a poor employee at the Bursar's office. Otherwise, he got his name in the news and proved nothing else. We're all struggling in higher ed. Start voting for people who will stop cutting our funding and you'll see tuition drop. We hate that our students are hurting. We hate that this means that students without means can't come to our university. It changes the diversity of the student body entirely.

But all we've seen from our legislature and now our new governor is cut, cut, cut with the promise of more. How are parents supposed to send their kids to college anymore without incurring substantial debt?

[Just walkin the dog here]

12:40 PM on 01/19/2011

No message made, other than one guy can be a real dick to a group of financial technicians. Being an out-of-state student, no one forced him to go there. I am sure there were less expensive alternatives either in his home state or somewhere else. I am getting tired of some young people determining that they have to have to a given education regardless of what it costs. I only hope that he can expect a proper return on his (or more likely his parents) investment. If yes, then stop complaining, if not, then he needs to reconsider his choices. Yes education is expensive, we get it. I am still paying off a portion of my four kids educations, yes it was expensive, but I thought each of them worth it.

[twittyhombre]

07:10 PM on 01/19/2011

Haha, if there was no message made, then why did you take the time to write about it? Who cares who's paying, it's hurting them, it's hurting the kids that can't afford it, and it sounds like it hurt you a bit. And lastly, he's from California, check those in-state tuition prices and get back to me. Some of the highest in the country.

[Egghead]

11:46 PM on 01/19/2011

They are not the highest in the country. It's less than 5,000 a year to go to a CSU; 11,000 to go to a UC. NOTE: he would have SAVED MONEY if he had gone to an in-state school.

[Carlos Quintero]

02:25 AM on 01/19/2011

When I worked in retail, K-Mart, people like this really ruined my day. I recall one lady paying in pennies and dimes, about 60 dollars, it was not fun. Notice that it took an unspecified number of workers to verify the bills three hours to complete the task, a stunt that cost valuable time and money.

[Egghead]

11:47 PM on 01/19/2011

Completely. It's a joke to him, but to the people who had to count the money, he's just a dick.

[cosmiCataclysm]

07:13 PM on 01/18/2011

What's next? Is the dude gonna make news when he pays for his Big Mac with pennies?

[Duppy]

05:50 PM on 01/18/2011

I have seen other people do this before. Nothing new here

[black series]

04:33 PM on 01/18/2011

Shutdown the military expense then no one will complain about the education and medical.

[HappyBalance]

03:49 PM on 01/18/2011

Very, very cool.

Tuition is out of control. We need to change priorities real quick or this country will be one vast holding pen for those who cannot afford a middle class living: cannot afford health care and cannot afford to send their kids to college.

Far as I am concerned if you have the grades you should not have to pay to go to school. Strapping graduates with a ton of debt is criminal.

[sheblasphemes]

04:19 PM on 01/18/2011

If a previous reply from me goes through on your comment, I have to apologize. I didn't grasp what you had written thoroughly enough and now I'm sheepish.

What I really meant to say was, well said.

[sloppybear16]

03:48 PM on 01/18/2011

End government guaranteed student loans and tuition costs will plummet. No one will loan to an 18-22 year-old that has no collateral when the government isn't cosigning, so colleges will have to drop their tuition to a level that any average person could work full-time during the summer to payoff tuition like they used to decades ago.

[jamespatrick101]

05:22 PM on 01/18/2011

but then when you graduate you won't be owned by uncle sam for the rest of your natural born life... where's the fun in that?

[sloppybear16]

06:41 PM on 01/18/2011

Well when you put it that way, being a debt slave does sound enticing.

[fromthatshow]

03:38 PM on 01/18/2011

Genius!

[Atom Splitter]

03:37 PM on 01/18/2011

Glad I didn't have to count it. Love the point and how it was made. Good story!

[darquelourd]

03:33 PM on 01/18/2011

it would be worth it if this young American learned a lesson about the value of money, but instead it seems more of a gimmicky stunt.

nobody forced this boob to go to an out of state school. he needs to grow up. he has options.

[ABunker]

03:41 PM on 01/18/2011

No a gimicky stunt would be to pay it in pennies. They got off easy.

[HappyBalance]

03:50 PM on 01/18/2011

LOL! That would be have been awesome.

[HappyBalance]

03:51 PM on 01/18/2011

Right...no one said that you have to have a college degree to have a middle class lifestyle. Oh wait, EVERYONE says that. What they don't say is how the heck you can afford to get one when the money making mills called colleges keep jacking up the cost of getting an education.

[darquelourd]

04:18 PM on 01/18/2011

that is true. I've worked at a university for the past 20 years and I find it increasingly hard to say they exist to educate. My enormous state university seems to have become a sort of country club for those who would prefer to delay their entry into the workforce. Let's see they've built a swim center for the kids, a rec center, a student center, a giant state of the art gym, added luxury suites and boxes to the stadium ... pretty much everything but grapple with the primary mission of educating folks.