Max
walked through the promenade for only the second time. He was still in awe. Surrounding
Max were students just like him, bright eyed wonder lit up their faces as they
strode to their destination- to their destiny he presumed. Banners flew
brightly on the old style lampposts that flanked the wide cobblestone walk. They
displayed bold words designed to motivate, empower and drive new students from
all over the world; Success!,
Determination!, Discipline!. Beneath each one was the school’s logo in
bright yellow; SDU.
In the main courtyard the lampposts and their
banners followed the pavement in a more intimate circle. In its center was a
statue of the school’s mascot, the powerful T-Rex. Max paused and inhaled deeply
as he took in its majesty. He didn’t seem to notice that the copper creature’s
arms were ridiculously exaggerated, looking more like the arms of a grizzly
bear with a bicep fetish than the upper appendages of the extinct lizard king.
Instead of noticing this obvious flaw, Max found himself swelling with pride
again, and smiling even brighter than before. He was now a T Rex as well; he still could
hardly believe that they accepted him, even with his outstanding grades. He
just needed to find a way to pay for it all.
After
allowing himself a moment to reflect, Max pushed on towards the conglomeration
of administrative buildings just a few yards ahead. As he took them in, he had
but a brief and ominous view of them. Max could’ve sworn that despite the rest
of campus being lit up by the autumn sunshine, the admin buildings had a foreboding
look to them, as if the sky just beyond them was about to break loose with a
terrible and dark storm that would solely lash out at those buildings. The vision,
though fleeting, made him weak in the knees for just a moment.
Max
shrugged it off and giggled at his own silliness. With another deep breath he
regained his confidence and marched inside. At the front desk he approached the
young woman seated behind it, “Hi there, I’m Max Herring, I have an appointment
with Martha Nunez at 9 o’ clock.”
“Good
morning Max, Martha’s prior appointment is running a little long, but she’ll be
right with you.” The receptionist was bubbly and smiled, Max thought her demeanor
was genuine, he immediately liked her. “Go ahead and sign in.” the young lady
pushed a small clipboard towards him.
Max
gladly picked up the pen that was attached by a long spiraling cord and filled
in the following:
Name
|
Appt W/
|
Date
|
IN
|
OUT
|
Max Herring
|
Financial Advisor
|
8/8/37
|
8:59
|
Max
took a seat on the fashionable chairs in the lobby, red leather cushions with
ample back and rear space, but no arm rests. Max figured they were expensive by
the looks of them. Heck, not having any arm rests made them extremely fancy as
it was, he could only imagine their cost! The rest of the waiting area looked
pristine and glowed with newness. As Max looked around at the tall glass walls
and sleek, modern furnishings he thought it might resemble a swanky fish bowl.
After a
few minutes a polished older women in a pants suit strode out from the
catacombs of offices behind the receptionist. “Max Herring?” she let her voice
go, although pleasant, the sound resonated through the room. Max didn’t find it
odd that she did this despite the fact that he was the only one waiting.
He
stood, “That’s me.”
The
woman came forward, hand extended, as Max shook it, she said, “Welcome to State
of Disparity University. I’m Martha.”
“It’s a
pleasure to be here ma’am- and to meet you.”
Martha
smiled and led Max behind the reception area and down the hall to her office.
Max walked in and saw that it was decorated with SDU memorabilia to the point
of near clutter; foam fingers, posters, plaques, tiny T-Rex dolls, the
collection’s centerpiece was a red football helmet emblazoned with a yellow T Rex
silhouette; it had an autograph scrawled across it as well. Max recognized it immediately;
it was SDUs famed coach of several decades, Rick Mostly. The T Rex’s dominated the NCAA football rankings;
it had been that way since time immemorial. They only recruited the best.
“Go ahead
and have a seat Max.”
Blushing
a bit, Max sat realizing he had been slightly distracted by Martha’s display of
knick-knacks.
“Alright,”
Martha grabbed a paper file and laid it before her on her desk. “We are here to
try and figure out what sort of financial options we have available for your tuition.”
As
Martha opened the file Max asked meekly, “Oh my parents couldn’t be here, but
they wanted to make sure I ask about Direct Data Download?”
Martha
visibly winced at the question, “Oh Max, unfortunately DDD is not covered by
your financial aid or any of your scholarship dollars.”
Max
seemed stunned, “Oh why not?”
“Well
SDU has to adhere to federal laws concerning direct data download- as you know
students that receive DDD gain the ability to learn in real time, by having the
knowledge directly input and interpreted via a computer chip that is implanted
in the occipital lobe of the skull. This of course guarantees the receiving student
will retain the knowledge at a rate of 97% or higher. Because of recent
legislature concerning the implant portion of DDD the government ruled that neither
financial aid, or scholarships may be used towards Direct Data Download as it
was classified as a medical procedure, rather than a pursuit of higher education.”
“I see,
so what does that mean for me?” Max now seemed a bit anxious.
Martha
paused for just a moment, when she finally spoke she had this to say, “Well Max,
DDD is still available to students like you at the standard tuition rate of
$2000 per credit hour,” Martha snickered like a hog, “of course that’s for you
as an undergrad. The rate is much higher for master’s students, and even
steeper for doctoral candidates.”
Max was
stunned. “Oh well neither myself or my folks can afford that, what are my other
options?”
“My
suggestion for you would be to enroll in the standard courses at $1000 a credit
hour- that’s a savings of fifty percent! Those would qualify you to use that
pesky financial aid as well as your modest scholarship dollars. Then identify
any courses you think you might struggle with and utilize direct data download
for those credits. So for instance, I can see the math scores on your transcript
are less than stellar, I’d think about possibly using DDD for those. What do
you think?”
Max’s
eyes narrowed, he felt it was time to get serious. “I am prepared to accept a
rate of no more than $750 per credit hour.”
A squeaky
laugh escaped Martha’s lips, “Why Mr. Herring are you haggling with me? I think
you’ll find our pricing more than fair.”
Max’s
face hardened, “Well I can go down the street to your competitor and get a
guaranteed rate of $725. You’ll find I’ve already done my research.”
“Pish
posh Mr. Herring. I’ll tell you one thing of the utmost importance, these days
the quality of your university is just as important as the curricula that makes
up that education. If you settle for less to save a buck, it will cost you in
the end on your resume, because simply put employers want to see that degree
from SDU. Anything else is viewed as subpar.”
“Alright,
well I guess we have nothing further to discuss,” Max abruptly rose from his
chair and headed for the door.
Martha
moved with the speed of a jungle cat, and stepped in front of him before he
could exit. “Now let’s not be hasty Max,” she looked him in the eye, “What do I
have to do to get you into classes at SDU?”
“Well I’d
really like to try out that direct data download for a few of those math
courses you mentioned.”
Martha
sighed, but her reply was as chipper as ever, “Okay, okay. Let me go talk to my
boss and I’ll have him run some numbers and see what we can do.”
Martha
was gone for several minutes, when she returned a man with a wrinkled suit and
bad hair plugs returned with her. “Max this is my manager, Ken Glenn.”
“Max,
pleased to meet you, have a seat, relax please. Ken Glenn, director of credit
hour sales for SDU,” he extended a hand. Max shook it. “Thank you for stopping
by today. Martha discussed with me some of your educational needs and I believe
we can get you out the door today for around $70,000 – that package includes 15
credit hours of DDD- a bargain at $1200 each, so we gave you deep discounts
there. Not to mention if you purchase today you’re eligible for a free meal
voucher good for $100 of food at the school café (offer expires at the end of
fall semester). And finally, once we take your scholarship dollars as trade you’ll
only be looking at just over 60k.”
Ken
remained standing, but slid a towering stack of papers in front of Max’s nose. “Have
a look-see; I believe you’ll find that contract very appealing. Martha and I really
had to dig deep to get it to work on paper but I’m sure you’ll be excited to
see the results. We want you at SDU- not the competition. What do you say
future SDU alumni?”
Max
gave the contract a cursory flip through. Doubt had etched the young man’s
face, but nonetheless he looked up at Ken and Martha who’s faces were eager and
anxious. “Ok yes, I’ll do it! I’m an SDU man all the way! Where do I sign?”
