<p>Because I worked so many hours during the school year (32 hours/week, plus 90-minute round-trip commute), I took fewer classes so that I could still qualify for scholarship, but that also meant I had to go every summer session. I loved my career-related job, but I sure was ready to be done with the schooling by the end of it all.</p>
<p>I worked my way through school back in the 80s - the key was having a good summer job, and savings money in HS. 2 summers I had internships paying $ 350 per week - an exorbitant sum back then !! SO for a summer I made $ 3500. During the school year I also worked 10 - 20 hours per week.</p>
<p>The other part of the equation is saving a lot of $ during HS. I had $ 5000 in the bank when I started college - again, that was a good amount of $$.</p>
<p>I get the feeling that there are a lot of successful hard-working people on this board that built the attitude up in their teens.</p>
<p>In late ‘70s in-state university was about $2300 (give or take a little) for a year for everything. With a wage at that point of around $2.50 an hour, it was possible to cover most of the costs working in the summer and maybe part time during the year. Throw in a little help from parents or some small loans and you had things covered fairly easily. Costs at the same school now are close to $16,000 a year. It’s not easy to cover that with a summers’ work.</p>