Student sparks debate for selling AirPods she won at her university’s raffle to help pay her tuition

‘America at its finest,’ one person claims

(@lillith.hmm/TikTok)

A college student has sparked a debate after she revealed that she won free AirPods at her university’s bingo night but would be using them to help pay for her tuition.

In a video posted to TikTok on 28 January, @lillith.hmm recalled how she had won a pair of AirPods at one of her school’s events, but was planning on selling them to help pay for the cost of her schooling after the university allegedly raised the price of tuition.

“Me winning AirPods at my university’s bingo night and having to sell them to pay for the tuition that they raised,” the text over the video reads. “My school is a material gurl,” she added in the caption.

This clip has more than 1.3m views so far, with TikTok users in the comments revealing that they’ve also sold items won at raffles and used the money for school expenses.

“I won a Beats speaker at college orientation bc of a dance off and I sold it for $200 to pay for textbooks,” one person wrote.

“Me when I got a free MacBook through a Covid grant and had to sell it to pay for tuition,” another user wrote.

Other viewers claimed that the student was better off selling the AirPods anyway, as one viewer claimed that they also won AirPods from their school and hadn’t been satisfied with the Apple headphones.

“I also won AirPods from my college, and they fall out every 10 minutes. I think the og earphones are way better anyways,” they wrote.

People also came to the TikTok user’s defence and acknowledged how difficult it can be to pay for tuition costs, while some called out the school for offering up the prize after allegedly raising the cost of tuition.

“Maybe if they didn’t buy AirPods for bingo, tuition wouldn’t have gone up,” one person claimed, while another said: “They raised your tuition to pay for that price.”

However, others appeared to take the school’s side, with one viewer writing: “We all gotta pay tuition, you aren’t the exception.”

“You know you don’t have to go to college?” someone else asked

According to US News, the average college tuition for an in-state college in the US for the 2021 to 2022 year is $10,388, while the average cost for a private college is $38,185.

The Independent has reached out to @lillith.hmm for comment.