<p>Yup, it sucks. My mom literally hasn’t been able to pay the mortgage in years now and has no retirement fund…</p>
<p>What the OP said. I feel really lucky, especially as some of my friends (and, of course, some of the posters here) don’t have that. I actually feel incredibly guilty because I had two options of universities of which the better college has much more expensive dorms- that’s the one I picked, and while my parents say it’s fine, I still have that niggling feeling.
I’m paying the gap between my top-tier academic scholarship and my tuition- about $7k a year. I’ll either work or rely on the money my grandparents set aside for me in a trust fund that should EXACTLY cover it. (I’d prefer to work, as I’d rather save that money for a house or car or something, but my parents said that if it means I won’t be able to concentrate on academics, I should use it. Either way I fully expect to tutor for pocket money, so I may as well take it all the way.)</p>