Jilian Lopez said she thinks it’d be fun to spend half of winter break bonding with friends in the Colorado Rockies.
She just doesn’t want to pay for it.
The Weinberg junior isn’t alone. Ski Trip tickets jumped from $389 to $460 (including a $10 processing fee) this year, leaving some students with a mild case of sticker shock.
“Ski Trip is a community building aspect,” Lopez said. “It’s something everyone should do. It’s unfortunate that not everybody can participate. That sort of community aspect is only available to some people.”
The ticket cost includes six nights of lodging and four days of skiing at Breckenridge, Colo., – one of the most popular ski destinations in the world, said trip co-president Aaron Hoffman. Students can also use their lift tickets at several other resorts, including Vail, Colo. Hoffman said lodging and lift tickets would easily cost $1,000 at the resort. The package does still leave students paying for transportation, food and ski rental fees.
The goal is to try to make the trip as cheap as possible so everyone has the opportunity to go, said the Weinberg senior.
“For what it is, it’s a good price.” Lopez said. “But face value, it’s still expensive.”
Although a resort such as Breckenridge is inherently more expensive, the trip is heading there largely because of student requests, Hoffman said.
Still, some students said the price doesn’t matter.
“I loved it – best week of my life, ” Weinberg junior Jennifer Long said. “I would pay $1,000 for the trip. The value of the trip is much more than the costs.”
Even with the price increase, the trip is still a deal, Long said.
Long said she thought that, looking at the socioeconomic pool of Northwestern students, the ticket price was reasonable. It would be nice, though, she said, if they had scholarships or cheaper options for students who can’t spend that much money.
And with total costs for the 2008-2009 school year at $51,720, Hoffman said he understands that price is a factor.
“Paying for $450 for anything is probably a hard thing for a student to do,” he said. “I think a lot of people asked for it for a Christmas or holiday present.”
