applying to certain programs/job (technicians) are outrageous too. i was looking at a job recently pharm related, you need to buy this course/ or go to school/ or work 500hrs(working in a pharmacy chain) to apply to take the national cert exam , and then in our state you have to get a LICENSE on top of the certification(CALI), each has its seperate cost: pre- certification course, the certification test itsef, the LICENSING, which has different areas that has its own cost(application fee, livescan, self-query fee). since its a health technician(not a tech as in programming) your wages, depending where you live could be slightly higer or higher than min wage, or at min wage(HCOL=higher wage, LCOL lower wages) for the whole BS process, oh and it takes months to process the license, and these are just HS- required jobs.