I live in a van down by Duke University
link: Pinched - Salon.com
In the mid '90s, our youngest daughter went to Syracuse University on a scholarship which paid her tuition. Mom and Dad paid room and board and "incidentials," which ended up being more than it would have cost us to pay the full freight to go to one of Ohio's excellent state schools.
(An aside: she majored in design, which required a lot of art classes, which required a lot of supplies. So we set up an account at the campus bookstore, which resembled a Super Wal-Mart, except nicer with many orange-colored items and without all the crap from China. The account was conveniently charged to our MasterCard each month, followed by a less-than-detailed statement. We noticed that the charge for "sundries" became larger with each statement until it dawned on us the "sundries" was shorthand for cigarettes and beer. We let her know that we would pay for books and art supplies, but she'd have to figure out how to afford "sundries." The cost of higher education dropped substantially.)
Our daughter emerged from college with no debt and a car that was paid for, while most of her classmates owed more than $100,000 in student loans. How can anyone justify that? So you've got to appreciate this guy, who lives in a van and survives mostly on peanut butter in order to afford an education at Duke, which I'm sure is even more overpriced than Syracuse.
-Paul Knue
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