Adding Extracurriculars to one’s Budget

On top of balancing all of the other expenses, participating in sports and other activities adds more costs to your plate. For college-level sports, people usually know in advance the sport they want to join. Besides sports and band, the prices are very minimal for participating in speech and debate, newspaper editor, and other school clubs. If someone was planning on doing an extracurricular, they should add those costs to their school budget. My personal experiences are from high school. For all four years, I did cheerleading where we made payments on uniforms, bus transportation, and merely joining the cheer team. I do not currently play sports in college, but the costs are similar. According to Csuchico.edu, there is a current base fee of $97 per semester for each student participating in sports. Over time, this price has increased once over the past 25 years but increased by $57 and is currently in need of another price increase. For other colleges, the price is different but contains the same idea. The need for these expenses is to fund athletics along with operational efficiency of staff and equipment. These are just the basic costs, not including personal gear and transportation. For someone who can’t afford to play sports, other options can help. The top reward for being excellent at your sport is a full or partial-ride scholarship. Scholarships rarely occur to a few students, and the students can receive free college tuition and other college expenses. There are other scholarships where they offer to pay for a portion of a student’s costs. Depending on what you qualify for, there are different options to apply to. There is nothing to lose from using, so why wouldn’t someone apply to as many as they could.