Originally Posted by NorCalRoach

There's a ton of programs out there to help you finance your Education.

All of which keep you in serious debt until you're 60.

Except for one "financing program", called a part-time job.

Well, that and dad. But I ain't gonna be one of those dads, even if I break a million by the time they're 18.

Unless you're in an Ivy league school, which aren't better quality, just social mills for the rich, going to school isn't that expensive. You can deliver pizzas or wait at a good-tipping restaurant or bar three or four nights a week for the entire time and make it. Not just make it barely, but really eat, drink, and be merry, and get a 3.0 or better!

I was in school from 1992-1997 (UNLV, accredited in Computer Science). It started at $52/credit, then ended at $65/credit. Today, I've heard of $85/ or $90/credit. Pessimistic, $90/credit, on a full load of 17 credits, is $1530, books would maybe be as high as $500. So about $2,000/semester. Then you have to live and eat, but heck, you have to live and eat anywhere anyway. $500 studio, $400 food, gasoline, and fun, $400 for electricity, gas, cable Internet, and cell phone. Heck, throw in the extra $200 to make it $1500 a month to live. That's an $18,000/year lifestyle, plus $5000 a year for school (more "extra" money thrown in). Oh, startup costs. You need $2000 for a rust bucket, $500 for furniture, $1000 for a laptop. Who says school is expensive?? And I'm being generous, too, with the private studio, private Internet, electricity of one air conditioner all to yourself, and own car. Split up a $1,200 four-bedroom appartment, you can cut that by $5,000/yr with the shared resources. (oh, extra $50 in startup costs for the combination lock on your bedroom door, and $200 for a private fridge).

I worked at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas for my first two years. It was a real job, with people around me who were making a living wage from this job, with commission. I asked for 20 hours, they gave me 25 or even 32. (Summer times, I would rack up the 1.5 overtime and 2.5 holiday, even 3.0 overtime/holiday pay.) I was sometimes up at 2am to finish accounting to get up at 7am for school, then to work in the afternoons, and more homework at night. The first semester I QUIT was the first semester I got no A's and my first ever C!. I regret that to this day. Both the experience, and especially the power money gave me. And there's something about the variety of activity, at that age, which just gives you more energy to do more. You don't feel like oooooh, gosh, I haaaaaave to be up 18 hours. It's more like, how do I budget this evil thing my body needs called sleep time so I don't miss anything.

If you go to grad school for a Master's or direct PhD, then you can stop waiting tables and start working for the school. All the grad school jobs pay you full-time, but there's an understanding that you're still in school. So you can validly take a full load of 12 credits (12*3 hours =>36 hours of study and class time) and work full time at 40 hours. The math becomes 40 hours study plus 40 hours work equals 60 hours, because you walk 5 minutes from work to class to lunch and back to work, then either basketball or ballroom dance in the evenings, pick your flavor. And this becomes really focused activity, because you come from your thermodynamics class then go to work anylizing satellite data. You also can get paid in the summer time for study-work, but they feel like sabaticals. Not just vacations, but downright sabaticals. One friend of mine went to a tellescope in the middle-of-nowhere-with-no-electricity-to-distrurb-the-telescope, Virginia, for the summer, then to the Very Large Array in New Mexico for another summer. Another friend of mine, today, repeatedly goes to archaeological digs in Cyprus, all paid for by the school. Dig, beach, dig, beach, dig, take pictures, dig, take a road trip with your fellow diggers to ruins and take pictures, dig.

Ooh, college is soooooo tough. Ooooh, college is soooo expensive. The only ones who are saying that are the PARENTS who CHOOSE to send their kids to school in their own HOUSE with a brand new HONDA ACCORD with ONSTAR so they won't get lost when they're DRIVING HOME DRUNK at 2am every night.