Will Norwegian royalty become part of Santa Barbara City College´s notable alumni?
Marius Hoiby is the son of The Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby, married to the Crown Prince of Norway Haakon Magnus. The royal couple has three children in total, 2 who were conceived after the couple got married and Marius, which was conceived with another man before the crown prince met Mette Marit.
So even though he is not the direct heir to the throne, he is still royal. Santa Barbara City College is a fairly Large college with around 20 000 students. Many of which come from around the states and around 2000 of which come from all over the world. What you find at Santa Barbara City College and generally in Santa Barbara, is a lot of Scandinavian people, especially Norwegian and Swedish.
Confirmed rumors that Marius Hoiby, the son of Norwegian Princess Mette Marit, is considering to attend Santa Barbara City College (sbcc) starting this fall. The royal family, was according to the rumors here, visiting and touring the college campus and having dinner with alumni associated with SBCC.
Marius Hoiby, son of the Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon and Princess Mette Marit.
Being from Scandinavia my self, I do not find it hard to believe that the Royal family is considering the Californian Riviera as the place to be and get an education. Might even say Marius is following his father, Crown Prince Haakon´s foot steps, whom graduated from UC Berkley in 1999.
A lot of the international students here from Norway are from the Norwegian capital Oslo and many may wonder how in the world did Marius get the idea to attend Santa Barbara City College and not a school like Stanford or Yale? One of the theories is word to mouth. Marius has just finished High School in Oslo and has most likely heard of this school through friends or checked ut alternatives through study abroad organizations
This however may not be happening at the best time. Norway is at this point in time, due to oil prices and offshore cutbacks in a kind of recession. Our currency is not as strong compared to the US dollar as it used to be, and this is creating problems.
The trend right now is that Scandinavian students are retreating. They are finding the increasing cost of tuition too much to bear. Some choose to stay and are able to manage and others manage to stay but rely heavily on help from family members.
The Norwegian royal family has also been under some hardships recently about they way that they have been spending money. Monarchy faces more criticism. Sending a son away to attend SBCC for a year or more is not exactly cheap. A year at SBCC + living expenses will run you somewhere around 15–20,000 US Dollars. That is not exactly a walk in the park, but since this is a city college it is considerably cheaper than other options. Other Universities around in Santa Barbara could end up costing you about 30-50,000 for a year.
Will there be Norwegian Royalty attending SBCC this fall? Well, time will tell. Requests for a comment from the Norwegian Royal family have been put in, but no response has been registered at this time.
Picture from Santa Barbara City College´s West Campus
