Chaffin’s family now lives in a trailer park in Springfield, and she graduated co-valedictorian from her high school, Northeastern. “Even through my crazy life, I kept my grades up,” she says. Chaffin’s mom told her to get an education so she could always support herself. After seeing her mother depend on her father and get left behind, she knows the importance of being able to fend for herself. She received a nearly full scholarship to Miami, a university that describes itself as “Public Ivy.”

She also worked and saved money. Most of her peers at Miami have parents who pay for their educations, which sometimes makes her resentful. She says she tries not to judge them, but when she sees students neglecting their education by slacking off or partying too much, she can’t help but be a little bitter. “Oh, I just wasted $30,000,” she says, imitating them. She has had to work a lot harder to get where they are, she says, and some students just don’t seem to appreciate their education.

A will to work
Even if lower-income students find ways to pay for higher education, their economic status can still affect the college experience, Lee says. She graduated from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley. Students at Columbia and Berkeley typically have their education paid for by their families, she says. “That creates a very, very different college experience from students who have to work almost full time,” Lee says.

College is a time to discover one’s self and expand boundaries, she says. But the students who work part- or full-time jobs may not have time to enjoy this freedom. They also have less time for homework or social activities. At Kent State, Lee says she often sees this among her students. “They work so much that they barely have the time or energy to attend classes,” she says.

Cleveland native Kimberly Vargas receives scholarships to pay for all of her tuition, room and board at Harvard University, but she still works four jobs, including cleaning dormitories and conducting research, during the school year to cover outside expenses. Vargas, a psychology student, attended James Ford Rhodes High School, an inner-city Cleveland school. She never wanted to attend Harvard and applied only to make her guidance counselor happy. Then she got accepted. “You can’t really say no to Harvard,” she says.

Vargas says most people she knows at Harvard just call and ask their parents for money, but she works for her own.

Chaffin says she notices similar behavior at Miami. “The definition of spoiled is Miami. You don’t even know,” she says. “ ‘Mom, I don’t like my roommate.’ ‘It’s OK, honey, just sign up for a double as a single, and we’ll pay the extra $1,000,’ ” she mimics.

Chaffin worked at the London Dog Dairy Bar, a local ice cream and hot dog shop near her hometown, for the past two years. During the school year, Chaffin doesn’t work, choosing instead to focus on practicing her seven instruments. The average music education major is expected to practice each instrument at least two hours a night. She also is expected to pay for instruments, music and parts, the costs of which quickly go into the hundreds of dollars. Chaffin says she wouldn’t be able to do it without loans and help from her grandmother.

Kent State student Fallehn Eaton comes from a more affluent background but
still wants to work for her education. The freshman business management major’s mom is a sales representative, and her dad owns a real estate company. While she says both parents are well-off now, she knows what it’s like when money is tight. “I remember when we didn’t have money. It was awful,” she says. “It was so hard. Then when my mom got her job,” she pauses, thinking. “Life’s easier with money.”