THE STARVING ARTIST

Art $600/Term

When people say that beauty is pain, you tend to assume they’re referring to something along the lines of that waxing job you got last weekend to take the hair off your back. Apparently, though, the beauty = pain equation also refers to the Yale Art major — beauty being the art you make, and pain being that bitter sting you feel as you empty your wallet on the cashier’s counter at Hull’s. Along with the extra $150 fee advertised in italic letters in the course catalog, most art courses eat up between $50 and $250 in additional supplies. In some cases, however, professors allocate the money as they choose, permitting students to spend a portion of the fee on whatever materials they want from Hulls or utrech.com.

A MAJOR THAT GOES BY THE BOOK

Physics $350/Term

A typical physics class, whether introductory or advanced, centers around one $150-$200 textbook. So if you were a geek in high school (not unlikely, if you’re a Physics major now) and still have that sexy TI-89 Titanium, one textbook is all you need. And while constantly-changing editions make it hard to beat the system by buying secondhand, at least the syllabus is nice and simple. Beyond what Eli Luberoff CC ’08 terms “overhead costs — the sacrifice of one’s soul, Red Bull, etc.,” the Physics major won’t send you into the red.

CONFUCIUS SAYS PAY UP

East Asian Studies $250/Term

While book fees for introductory and intermediate Chinese courses fall within a $50-$140 range, the courses in the East Asian Studies major demand more. Valerie Steinberg BK ’09 enumerates the costs of “History of Traditional China” with stunning precision: “There was a main textbook ($53), an anthology of literature ($40.50), the following prices for other books of philosophy/drama ($9.95, $29.50, $14.95, $23.50) and two course packets ($49.24, $24.02).” In terms of cost, East Asian Studies, like most other interdisciplinary degrees, isn’t quite two majors for the price of one.

PLAYBILLS

Theater Studies $100/Term

That warm and toasty feeling you get as you stroll out of Intro to Performance Concepts doesn’t just come from having spilled your artistic guts for two hours. Turns out that Theater Studies majors are, for the first and only time in their acting careers, rolling in cash. “I personally buy all my books on amazon.com, and so I spent about $30 this semester on theater class materials,” remarks Leah Franqui TD, ’09. “But I am in a performance seminar, not a reading-intensive course.” Whatever. It’s finally clear why the air at Book Trader is always thick with Theater Studies majors: they’re the only ones who can afford to eat there all the time.