Back To School? Back To The Piggy Bank : NPR Ed : NPR

Another big item on the NRF survey: food. Your options? A meal plan versus the grocery store around the corner. Don't forget fast food and late-night snacks. And if your child is anywhere near a Starbucks, we're talking about $120 a month for venti skim lattes and caramel macchiatos.

Per the survey, over $20B in dorm room furnishings; $5.5B on alcohol;

$20B in dorm furnishings? College sure has changed. Seems to me all I had was a sleeping bag, pillow, couple of lamps, a chair, a desk and a stereo. All of it rescued from either the dump or appropriated from other students as they departed. I KNOW I spent way more than their cost on alcohol weekly.

'Course that might explain why it took until my junior year to get above a "C" average.

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

Depends on what you did for fun. I loved my coffee maker, I could make fancy pants coffee for $0.50/mug (or store brand for $0.05)

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

Hooray for commuting to state schools!

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

You said it! What ever happened to living at home and commuting? 99% of my friend's kids leave town and the remainder who attend locally, live on campus.

I paid for my ENTIRE college education out of my own pocket by working and saving. My parents helped me out with my first car and a roof over my head and I emerged from college debt free. Is this even possible any more?

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

It's the college experience, man. You gotta have it. You won't be a well-adjusted member of society without spending the weekends of your youth getting drunk on cheap beer.

At least, that's what I gather from most people who go with it.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Not really.

The days where you can pay for college working your way through are long gone for anything but community colleges or inexpensive 2 year associate degrees.

These days you work your way through making payments on the student loan you will have until you are 50

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Not true. I worked my way through the majority of a 4 year private college and then through grad school. I am very glad I did, not much to pay off now. Living off campus and dining almost exclusively on frozen pizza, beer and Mac and cheese helped.

When I graduated a few months after the stock market crashed in 09, I was one of the few who had a job and even fewer with several years experience fresh out of college. Working my ass off through college was easily one of the best decisions I made in my life.


Sent from an abacus

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Doing it right!


Sent from an abacus

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Agreed

Google tells me 4 yrs private tuition will run on avg (this is in 2015) $125,000 not including housing, food, anything else. Let's do some rough algebra. $125,000/4years=$31,250-> $31,250/52 weeks=$600 a week to pay your way through school (only tuition). Neglecting taxes you would need a 40hr a week job that pays at least $15 an hr 52 weeks a year to almost cover tuition.

Many private schools offer even reasonably well-off students some degree of ride for undergrad tuition.

As far as commuting, it may or may not make sense. If they're spending $15-20/day on gas, parking and car costs, it might be cheaper to rent an apartment in town, shared between a few students.

That's pretty much where I was at...working a second job in summer gave me some spending cash on top of it. There are also plenty of work/study programs that offer tuition incentive too.


Sent from an abacus

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Many schools now require 1st year students to stay on campus. Don't know if it is to make more money, or to give students more time to study.
And Party!

That was just as true 15-20 years ago as now. Of course, informal arrangements can be made -- rent the dorm space to an upperclassman who didn't make housing lottery and wanted to stay on campus.

Nice, sounds like you made some good choices.

I worked in college but couldn't manage full time with classes, plus no one seemed to think I was worth much over minimum wage

But at least I got that piece of paper that says I know some stuff now. Hehe