[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.