I don't know in what way schools have changed over the years, but the first week in school for me was a complete bore and a huge waste of time.
The strange thing is that I thought schools started in the first week of September, not the last week of August.
That and the fact that if you skip one single day of school, say the friday, you can still have lots of fun on EF.. it lasts more than one day!
As for the cost of it all.. driving to EF with a group of furs, eating there and paying for the whole con came to a total of 325 euro's for me.. and I was even a sponsor!