The tougher your major in college is, the more tuition you could have to fork over. More and more public universities are billing a higher tuition to students who major in math, business, and science programs. The schools' rationale is that it's more expensive to teach these specialties, and that graduates in these fields will find higher-paying jobs, reports USA Today.
More than 140 public universities have set up "differential tuition" policies—a spike of 19% since 2006, and more are joining in as state governments slash spending on higher education. For example, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln hiked the price of tuition $50 per credit for business and engineering majors, and state research universities in South Dakota now charge $5 more per credit than other state schools. "Would you decide not to follow what you're most interested in if it cost $500 more?" asks the president of Florida State University. (More education stories.)