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Racking it up at NYU

By Lisa Raphael | Special to amNewYork

June 18, 2007

Friends have described me as "grounded." Their parents have commended me for "helping out" and working during school. Employers have told me I have a "good old-fashioned work ethic." But I know the truth: If I don't surrender to minimum-wage hell every second I'm not in class -- I won't even be able to afford a Ramen diet.

I'm a first generation college student, so coming to New York University from Syracuse was an education for everyone in my family. When I received my financial-aid package and saw over $20,000 in scholarships, I thought they were going to pay me to attend classes. I was wrong.

In fact, I was going to pay for about the next 15 years.

Each year at NYU racks up at least $15,000 in tuition bills alone after financial aid. Then I have to eat. And, grounded though I may be, I still need the occasional pair of shoes (on sale!) or after-work margarita. Work ethic alone won't get me through.

The only answer was a job. And then another one. And another one. I laugh at headlines that say my generation is lazy. I scoff at newscasters who call my age group spoiled. But then I think about most of my past roommates, and I understand what they're talking about.

While my freshmen suitemates were buying $100 fake IDs and using them to buy $10 cocktails, I was looking for work. My first week, I found it: calling alumni to ask for donations. They laughed or yelled, telling me they were still paying off their student loans ten years later. I ran, screaming, from that job.

In three years, I've learned how to balance class and work. During school, I work three to four shifts at a coffee shop on campus, making $9.50 an hour plus tips, which average about $200 a week after taxes. In the summer, I work more than 40 hours (at the coffee shop and at a PR firm), bringing in about another $200 every week. Most of it goes into savings toward post-dorm rent. Weekends are busy with odd jobs and dog sitting for $45 a day to pump up my savings and allow for some fun. I budget well, walking everywhere, packing my lunch, bargain shopping my way through the boroughs. But even working as hard as I can, I'll still have at least $40,000 in loans hanging over my head by the time I graduate in May 2008.

I'm under no illusions about how hard it will be to pay it off. According to the prevailing wisdom and haunting warnings from coworkers, it takes 10 to15 years to comfortably get rid of $40,000 in loan debt. I'll be lucky to find a job in the world of journalism let alone one that has a desk. Or health-care benefits, a paid vacation, a 401K.

But I decided on NYU to ensure that I wouldn't be making lattes for the rest of my life, thinking that it will more than pay for itself in opportunities and connections. After three internships, a semester abroad in Africa developing a newspaper, and professors turned mentors I think I was right.

An expensive schooling in a costly city has taught me more about life in the real world than four years anywhere else could have. One of my freshman year suitemates transferred out of NYU, saying living in the city was forcing him to grow up too fast. After three years of living on tips and pooper-scooping my way to first and last month's rent, I'm glad I chose to grow up.