2578 Student debt reply

Jody Minor gives this advice to the student (story in USAToday) at Rutgers who accumulated $116,000 of debt by graduation. "What did I do wrong?" the graduate whined? Mr. Minor supplies the answers in his letter making these points:

1. You didn't have to attend an extremely expensive college.
2. You could have spread your education over more years.
3. You could have worked part time or full time.
4. You could have worked before applying for graduate school.
5. You could have scrimped and saved (like he did).

Incidentally, Mr. Minor's parents' income was too high for him to qualify for government induced debt, so he followed this outline and graduated in 5 years with zero debt.