Years ago, a hardworking college student could earn enough money in a summer of life-guarding or burger flipping to pay for one year of college tuition. If she continued to work for wages for as many hours as possible during the school year, lived in a tiny apartment with multiple roommates, and ate only macaroni and cheese, she might be able to cover her own living expenses during the school year as well. Is this still the case?
No; it’s not.
Students can no longer pay for their own college by working a minimum wage job.
photo credit: Jobs Help Wanted via photopin (license)
Because of rising tuition costs, it’s no longer possible for college students to earn enough money to pay for college tuition as they go.
Parents, let me give you a better plan for getting your child through college debt-free.
This article in The Atlantic explains it well.
In 2014, Svati Kirsten Narula reported in The Atlantic: “The average student in 1979 could work 182 hours (a part-time summer job) to pay for a year’s tuition. In 2013, it took 991 hours to accomplish the same.”
Narula bases her math on this example: “A credit hour in 1979 at Michigan State University was $24.50, adjusted for inflation that is $79.23 in today dollars. One credit hour today costs $428.75.”
The numbers show — working your way through college is nigh unto impossible in this day in age. Families need a better plan than this.
The bottom line for students is that, according to Narula, “In 1979, when the minimum wage was $2.90, a hardworking student with a minimum-wage job could earn enough in one day (8.44 hours) to pay for one academic credit hour.” That seemed reasonable. All a student would have to do is work 18 days like that, and he’d have one semester of tuition paid for. Today’s hard truth, though, is that even though Michigan minimum wage is now $7.40 per hour, a college student would have to work seven straight days to pay for one credit hour at Michigan State University. He’d have to work full time for 25 straight weeks, all the way from Labor Day to March, just to pay his college tuition. Living expenses would be extra.
“The price of an MSU education began exceeding what could reasonably be earned with part-time, minimum-wage work around 1993,” reports Narula. “That’s when a single MSU credit hour became worth more than 20 hours of wages.”
Narula’s article includes this graph, created in April of 2014 by MSU graduate student Randy Olson:
Olson’s conclusion: “It’s impossible to work your way through college nowadays.”
Of course, these calculations cannot be considered to be entirely accurate, because they don’t include taxes or academic year room and board. Average tuition at the least expensive four year public universities in the U.S. is currently approximately $8,893, but add on room and board and the sad reality that many students just can’t graduate from these institutions in four years, and the total average cost of college exceeds a whopping $18,391 per year. A college student would have to work a minimum wage job more than 60 hours a week for 50 straight weeks to pay that.
So, should a student work for money during college anyway — even though it won’t pay the whole bill?
Yes.
Your child should absolutely work for wages during summers and during the academic years while he or she is in college. (The best kind of job to get? A tuition reimbursement job, which I talk about in detail in this post.) But make no mistake, this work is not going to cover the cost of his college tuition and living expenses. Good quality parental strategy (that parents have started on well ahead of time) is going to accomplish that.
What parents can do to help, starting right now.
To get your family started on the path to debt-free college now, click on your child’s age in the “WHAT TO DO WHEN” section on this website. I’ll be able to give you free, clear, step-by-step help getting your kid through college debt-free. Start early though; debt-free college is easiest to accomplish if parents start when their kids are in middle school.
This post is Part 2 of a 3-part series.
To see two more posts from me on the subject of students working for money while going to college, subscribe to my email newsletter using the form on this website.
Who is Jeannie Burlowski?
Jeannie Burlowski is a full-time consultant, author, and conference speaker. She helps parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free and move directly into careers they excel at and love. Her book LAUNCH: How to Get Your Kids Through College Debt Free and Into Jobs They Love Afterward is due out in 2016. You can find Jeannie’s free help in the “WHAT TO DO WHEN” section on this website. Follow her on Twitter @JBurlowski.
“We only got around to doing a fraction of what Jeannie tells people to do in the free help on her website, and we saved well over $50,000 on college costs. Our daughter earned a four year degree from an excellent private university at age 20, and she’s now in California happily working her dream job at Disney. Get to one of Jeannie’s live classes if you can. Buy a plane ticket if you have to!” — Liz and Tim Weatherhead, parents, Bloomington, MN
What about you? What strategies are you using for helping your child graduate from college debt-free? Comment below, or LIKE Jeannie Burlowski Author on Facebook and let’s talk about it there.