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Comment by ctdonath | Hacker News Reader

I earned half my undergrad tuition for Syracuse University (in no way an "inexpensive" school) working summer & part time, parents providing the other half from what they saved. No debts. No socialism. American individualism works.

ETA: individualism does not preclude working hard to save resources for your offspring (no strings attached at that), or anyone else you choose to assist entirely at your own discretion. Individualism does not require one start life under a rock and never accept gifted assistance. There is a profound difference between helping those you brought into this world, vs compelling strangers to give up their earnings for people they never met.

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Today without any tuition assistance, the tuition for a year of undergrad study at Syracuse is tens of thousands of dollars. If you are having to feed yourself and pay rent while paying this tuition, the vast majority of available part time or summer jobs will not pay enough to meet even half of your financial needs.

Also:

> parents providing the other half from what they saved

and

> American individualism works

are contrary. You didn't do anything on your own to get the money your parents provided. This is not individualism, you relied on your existing social networks to meet your financial needs.

Well, duh. Handouts from parents = rugged individualism. Crush those lazy welfare peons who haven't worked hard enough to have rich parents!

Me too! Except that I also got a job that paid that much because my parents lived in the kind of neighborhood where Stanford-educated engineers with connections live and being known as the smart kid got me a job instead of beat up in school.

American individualism is great. There is just enough meritocracy so that people who were born with every possible advantage short of a trust fund can feel comfortable saying that they are totally self-made.

Is this a joke? American INDIVIDUALISM works because you were able to afford college with your parents paying for half? Not to mention that the ENTIRE POINT is that tuition costs have gone up past the level most students can afford, which you seem to be confirming, as you say you can only afford to pay half.

Good god man, I cannot imagine typing this and not having my self awareness alarm going off like crazy.

Evidently the quality of the education is not going up in accordance with the price.

Boy, if only I had worked harder, I could have had well-off parents too!

I like how your brand of "individualism" relies on your parents paying for most of it.

I don't know if you've noticed, but your school costs $60,000/year now.

http://www.syr.edu/financialaid/costofattendance/

For comparison purposes, a minimum wage worker employed full-time (forty hours per week for 52 weeks), would earn $15,080 annually. Are you seriously suggesting that someone work for four years in between each year of their college education?

Lots of folks would be debt-free too if they were on the hook for just half of tuition. Most I know from good public universities worked full-time and still couldn't pull it off without five figure debt four years later.

I'm currently a student at a public school. I work 20-25 hours a week during the school year (with a job that pays well for a student) and have a paid internship over the summer. I will be graduating with ~$35K in debt. When you add up COL and tuition, even at a public school, you can't do it working part time.

Nice "American Individualism" as you relied on your parents to fund half your college expenses.

$23/hr?* Doable, although not at most unskilled-labor rates.

* http://www.syr.edu/financialaid/costofattendance/

Total Cost of Attendance $57,450

(That does include transportation and "personal expenses", though (to the tune of about $1600/annum).)

Assumptions

* 2000 billable hours * 3 months summer * Half-time remaining 9 months.

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