Comment Re:You think the housing collapse was bad (Score 1) 917
Working your way through school is now impossible with a minimum wage job, since, you're looking at 35 hours a week at minimum wage to be able to afford only tuition - that doesn't include books or board.
That depends on just what you're willing and able to do. Granted, I've been out of college for a while, but I'm not a boomer, I didn't have the money, and I still worked my way through college. I worked full time, six days a week. I lived with my parents instead of on campus. I took night classes as I could afford them. I had no life. I didn't get the "classic" college experience, and it took me several years longer than it might to get my degree, but I have a decent job and I've been employed full-time with no break since I was 19.
Can everyone do it that way? No. But there are ways. If you can't do what I did, join the military. One of my daughter's friends is attending Vanderbilt on a full ride ROTC scholarship. The guy who sits next to me in our little office next to the server room got his degree while he was a sergeant in the Army. You CAN get a degree without going into debt up to your eyeballs.
If you can't afford it and you can't/won't use an alternate method to the traditional educational experience then pick up a decent trade at a vo-tech school. Believe it or not, plumbers and electricians jobs are going wanting and they pay pretty darn well. For that matter, a 2-year Registered Nurse degree is probably the best bang-for-the-buck thing out there right now.
I know it's not that simple for everyone, but if you can't afford college you've got to learn to look at the problem from a different angle.