<p>Book’s on my list to get. Haven’t read it yet. </p>
<p>I do want to comment on the “terrible pressures” that are put upon those who are on strict budgets and are barely making it financially to go to college. I was one of those students My parents did not pay much for me or for my siblings (one a Duke grad, by the way) to go to college, so I was one of those among the 50% at my school on financial aid. There were those who were full pay, by the way, who had to watch every penny too, as they were painfully full pay with parents and them taking out loans and working to make that full pay. They were not going on trips and living a luxurious life even though they did not qualify for financial aid. </p>
<p>We were still better off than the vast, vast majority of college students who have to make work , shelter, food, a primary concern and eke out their college classes one at a time as they can afford them, as they did not get aid. When you go to a school that is considered generous in meeting need, you are far, far better off, not even in the same stratosphere as those who are trying to get make ends meet and also go to college. The vast majority of colleges do not come close to meeting full need, and depend heavily on the student having basic needs provided by parents and self. So yeah, my best friend’s dad owned a yacht and she had a car, had few money worries, and in truth, I got some benefits from that, though I also could see how her life and lives like hers were so different from mine. The only way those days, I’d have enjoyed some vacations and experiences I did get, were as her family’s guest or someone’ guest with that kind of access. Not likely to get had I gone to my local community college which would have been tuition free for me due to my dad’s job. I could have lived at home, worked part time and gotten my degree locally for very little out of pocket cost. Going to a top 25 school on full financial and some scholarships, was a whole other experience, but in total cost was about the same, maybe less as I did not have to work full time, just part, didn’t need a car and got a lot more independence than living off my parents those years.</p>