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Kevin Hong, second-year art student, works at Kerckhoff Coffee House to counter the high fees of being an out-of-state student.

Different strokes may come to different folks, but all UCLA undergraduate students are now paying an extra $405 a year for their education.

For Aldaberto Medina, financial aid has been crucial in funding his education.

“For me, I think that this student fee increase is a bad thing – I’m not sure if my financial aid will cover it.”

Medina, a first-year psychology student, works as a tutor in Inglewood, and is considering taking on a second job to ease the financial burden on his parents.

His sister, who has college aspirations, will be limited to in-state public schools because his parents cannot afford anything more expensive – and even this option is becoming more costly.

“I think that the education here is very good,” said Medina, “but student fee increases are definitely at least a minor inconvenience.”

Students not receiving financial aid feel the inconvenience of heightened fees as well.

Jehan Hughes, a third-year psychobiology student, transferred from the University of Chicago mainly because of the allure of a cheaper education.

“Basically, I’m working to put myself through college,” said Hughes.

“UCLA is so much less expensive than the University of Chicago,” she added.

While UC student fees are a paltry percentage of what Hughes paid before transferring from the University of Chicago, she still considers the recent student fee increases a minor inconvenience.

“Relatively, I think that UCLA is a really good deal, but these fee increases do seem to be coming at a really bad time,” said Hughes.

The bad time has reached not only the UC system, but also Hughes’ employer, Cingular Wireless. This led to a drastic reduction in the company’s benefits.

According to Hughes, while Cingular formerly offered full-time employees such as herself education benefits, paying up to $10,000 of their tuition, that amount has now been cut in half, capped at $5,000.

Though resident students such as Hughes may be getting a good deal, out-of-state residents have long been subject to considerably higher student fees.

Second-year art student and Kerckhoff Coffeehouse employee Kevin Hong says, “I’m from Oregon, so I already pay more than most students here.”

In response to student fee increases, Hong admits, “I don’t know the logistics of fee increases, but I know that the least I can do to help my parents out is to work here.”

Like Medina and Hong, second-year marine biology student Lauren Severs is worried about the added pressure that increased fees will put on her parents.

“My family doesn’t qualify for financial aid, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not hard for my parents to pay for my education,” Severs said.

“I think things are hard because our economy is bad too,” she added.

She confides that a lot more of her J. Crew paychecks will now be going towards paying for books and school supplies than before.

“It just sucks because students shouldn’t have to be stressing about money; we should be focusing on classes.”