<p>More</a> college students paying their own way, experts say -- -- chicagotribune.com</p>
<p>Interesting read.</p>
<p>Nothing new. My friends & I all paid our own way through college. It's just that we were not willing to borrow so much, so we went to "lesser" schools ... although the only lesser in our minds was the expense! We simply did what needed to be done.</p>
<p>I will give props to the kids who don't complain. </p>
<p>As a former financial aid professional (and hopefully, soon to be again), I do have trouble with those who feel their parents' refusal to pay for them translates to the government's responsibility to pay for them.</p>
<p>I'm with kelsmom here. Why on earth do the folks at the Chicago Tribune think that this is a new thing? It isn't. I know plenty of people who paid their own way, or in an antique parlance "Worked their way through college".</p>
<p>What is unbelievable to me is that lenders will give unsecured loans to college students to the tune of $15k and up each year! That is ridiculous! Those kids should be starting at a community college instead - possibly even part-time so that they can be working more. None of us are promised a "free" college education!</p>
<p>I'm paying my own way. I knew going into it that my parents just didn't have the money to help me out so I took that into account during my college search. I got insanely lucky though, and was able to land in state tuition at the school I wanted to attend from the start of things in a major I really liked. I also got a couple pretty huge scholarships and a little bit of grant money. I am taking out loans but nothing on top of the federal subsidized loans. I'm looking at about 20k in loans when I graduate which is a lot, but worth it in my opinion for the education I'm recieving. On top of that I work each summer and put that money toward college related expenses (housing, food, books.)</p>
<p>This was my favorite part of the article</p>
<p>
[quote]
xxx, also a Barrington senior, had her heart set on Boston College, even though her parents told her anything over the University of Illinois tuition was her responsibility. For a while, xxx didn't believe them.</p>
<p>But during a frank, heated conversation in the kitchenof their South Barrington home, her parents reiterated that they would not pay the extra costs. It would have left their youngest daughter roughly $100,000 in debt.</p>
<p>"When it came down to it, it wasn't worth it for me for undergraduate school," xxx said
[/quote]
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