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other thoughts

More thoughts about college expenses

[Monday: 3.5 miles; today 3.5 miles]

Thinking about my recent post regarding college, I was remembering that I never really had any money problems related to that.

My first year was completely covered by a scholarship.  I’m not sure why they offered it to me, but I was glad to have it.  After a year there, I remember telling my major professor that I was going to transfer to Iowa State.  Looking back on it now, it sounds kind of crazy to throw away a full scholarship.  I wasn’t even thinking about it at the time.  Just goes to show how ignorant I was about such things.

For Iowa State I applied for a small scholarship through the company that employed my father.  It was named after  L. T. Mart, co-founder and president of the Marley Corporation of Kansas City, and it paid, I think, $450 a semester.  That usually put a good dent in my tuition.   For books and housing I had jobs.

I think my parents also covered the remainder of the tuition and probably some of my housing too.  I was in the Friley Hall dorm for one year, so I’m sure there was a good chunk spent on that.

I never had a car, so I was mooching off of my older brother, older sister and parents in that area.  I didn’t always have a car handy, but it seems like I frequently did.  That relieved me of having to pay auto insurance and license fees.

And the costs were just a lot lower too.  I think a semester at Iowa State was somewhere under $2,000. I don’t really remember.  It was not an onerous figure.  I shared housing with another guy for three years at $100 per month.  I lived within walking distance of the campus and had a good bicycle.

L. T. Mart ran out after 4 years, so my final year I was on my own.  My wife worked(!) and footed the bill.  So I ended up going through 6 years of college and had no student loans or residual expenses.

I don’t say that to brag or something.  It’s just a contrast with the usual thing now, ending up with tens of thousands of dollars of student loans.   I had it really good.