Summer Jobs Are Not In Fashion

Why aren't summer jobs profitable enough, anymore?

In 1981-82, the average full cost to attend a college was $2,870, including tuition, fees, room and board.

In those day, the Pell Grant award for the government's free tuition help totaled $1,800. Hence, the student would be facing a shortfall of just $1,000, according to npr.

When $3.35 an hour was the minimum wage at the time, making $2,820 got them to work 842 hours. For a good part-time job for nine hours a day, three months.

It's different today.

"The minimum wage has also gone up more slowly than the cost of college. It's $7.25 an hour. At that rate, a student would have to work 1,771 hours to get by. That's 34 hours a week, every week of the year. To cover today's costs with just a summer job, a student would have to lose a little sleep, working almost 20 hours a day for three straight months. And that would still leave no money for books, travel home, pizza or a trip to the movies."

Things are worse this year. The total of tuition, fees, room and board for students in the four-year public universities is $18,943. The Pell Grant is just $5,730, so the student would have to make up $13,313.

Hence, the student needs to put in 35 hours a week, for over 90 days.

It doesn't need rocket science to tell you the basic facts---the student wouldn't be sleeping much, and if they work so hard, they wouldn't be able to study much-or perhaps none at all. What is the point of earning at all to pay studies, then?

That's why students take so many loans nowadays.