The students of California Maritime Academy come from many different backgrounds. We have students from Hawaii, Alaska, Bahamas, and even as far away as Asia. So, the students of California Maritime Academy have all different kinds of wants and needs. Our goal with this paper is to determine an average of what a student will spend in order to attend the California Maritime Academy. We took the essential needs of 40 students and averaged them. An average student needs toiletries, food bought off-campus, and other material things for the student's dormitory and enjoyment. We also decided to include the cost of tuition and uniform items. We determined this by using the CPI.
A measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food and medical care. The CPI is calculated by taking price changes for each item in the predetermined basket of goods and averaging them; the goods are weighted according to their importance. Changes in CPI are used to assess price changes associated with the cost of living.
To us, CPI is recognized as the compilation of several school-essential items which are also stacked in a pecking order; more or less a hierarchy of the most important and most often used items to the least. Many economists like to refer to this as a basket. The basket we decided to use is the average prices of student at California Maritime Academy.
We determined our basket by coming up with the essentials for living at California Maritime Academy. The first essential we came up with is toiletries, because whether you shower once a month or everyday everyone needs toiletries. Toiletries include shampoo, body wash, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, and anything else that involves personal hygiene.
The second group of items pertains to Room Improvement. We decided to not call it an essential because not everyone wants to buy items for their room. Room Improvement items includes buying rugs, furniture, televisions, paintings, and refrigerators. These may not be necessary to pay for but we found out that a lot of students pay quite a bit of money to improve their living space.
The third item is Food. We don't mean food as in cafeteria food; we are talking about food you would buy off campus. Such as going off campus to buy fast food or buying groceries for your dorm refrigerator. Since our survey wasn't limited to on campus residents but also off campus students we feel as if food is an important commodity.
The fourth item is entertainment. Being a college student, stress is almost a guarantee. Students need the opportunity to relax and have fun. Different forms of entertainment are used by students in order to combat the high stress levels that can and do occur on a daily basis. Whether that style of entertainment takes the form of a movie, a road trip, or a bottle of your favorite alcohol every student has some outlet for fun.
The fifth item while not exactly an essential, still manages to find its way into the clutches of nearly every student here at Cal Maritime. Alcohol is a daily expenditure for many students here on campus. As stated in the previous paragraph, alcohol presents an outlet for relaxation, therefore countless dollar amounts are spent on this avenue of entertainment.
The same principles that govern item five also apply to item six. Cigarettes, while not an essential, are widely used throughout campus. Whether students on campus smoke to relieve stress or just in social settings, countless dollars find there way to major tobacco companies. An expenditure of this nature is absolutely necessary when trying to compute CPI, it is for this reason that we included in our study.
However, laundry is an essential item. Whether students choose to wash loads individually or altogether, funds set aside for washing clothing is essential. Because uniforms are worn on a near-constant basis, it is likely they will be taken care of most often. A common trend is to wash weekly in order to conserve cash. As these machines are cash-operated, money rapidly disappears.
Obviously, tuition is a very necessary portion of the CPI. If not for such a large amount spent on this or loans and scholarships applied for, the average cadet at the California Maritime Academy would find themselves without room, board, and class. However, because many have applied for loans, received federal and state grants, and have been awarded scholarships, these prices may vary deeply.
Our final item, and in some cases seen as the least necessary, is the uniform. All students, regardless of major must wear them, so to get around the cost is plausible, but not at all likely. Uniform packages are more expensive for license major students, who also make up the bulk of the enrolled students. Students in the Global Studies and Business majors are likely to spend less, but make up a very minuscule portion of the student body. Though, many have cut costs completely by finding and buying their own uniform items for a much more considerable price or none at all, having private tailors adorn them with appropriate insignia. Again, this is one of the most important items, as it is a requirement for attending the California Maritime Academy.
