>Me too, though my undergrad years are longer ago than that.
but how are people racking up so much more debt?
>Na, nobody cared.
yes, true, but i think they figure it's not something they should worry about. i always tell people heading off to grad school that you have to remember that professors tend to forget their roots and many of them had it quite different than we did. some of my colleagues when i did visiting lectureships said that they had money thrown at them to do RAships--basically nothing.
even so, many folks i ran into did care about my financial stability in so far as they gave me all sorts of help in that regard. while i did win an award for outstanding TAship in my first year, i'm sure part of giving me a summer teaching job that first year was also about the fact that they knew i needed the money. there were a lot of good folks who looked out for me in many ways.
it also doesn't explain why none of my cohort told me about loans either. we all certainly shared grad student poverty war stories and they saw me working the 2,3,4 jobs a semester!? now i understand why someone of them were jaunting off to europe in the summer!
the strangest encounter along the "lost in professor space" theme was with, funny enough, a feminist. she'd been part of bringing infant mortality rate horrors to light back in the early 70s. she taught a grad couse on Women and Work. i was speaking with her casually one day about yard work. i was telling her that, when i went out carousing with my gf, whenever a guy tried to pick my up i'd just say, "look, pal, all i'm looking for is someone to mow my lawn and shovel my driveway."
heh.
she said: "why don't you just hire help?"
heh! on TA and adjunct wages.
>The most honest exchange I had was at at Cambridge, where the dean of grad
>students at my college (Kings) called me in to ask if I had money to live
>and a place to stay. I said I did, and asked, but what if I didn't? He
>seemed very surprised, "Oh, then, _bad luck_, old chap."
>
>I also made my way through grad school as a TA, no loans. Figured that it
>was insane to borrow money to get a PhD in philosophy. I knew people who
>ran up $30,000-$80,000 in debt--this was 10, 15 years ago, when that was
>more than it is now. Thought they were nuts.
but how are people racking up 80-100k in debt. what loans are they taking out. i recall learning that you could get 8k for grad school, but even then you have to be in grad school ten years for that kind of debt!?
kelley
>jks
>
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