Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-10-25
YOUNG GIRL S IN COLLEGES.
What 1t Costs to Enter Big Institutions
and the Amount Necessary for
IuXures.

This is the time OF year Wnen am
bilious girls in different parts Of the
country are counting the costs of a
college education. Fortunately for
them the scale of expenditures in the
colleges open to women has not risen
high enough to make the most econom-
ical damsel uncomfortable among her
richer classmates. Practically, with
out exception, the standards of dress
in the girls colleges are simple, and,
more than that, the plucky young
woman who is working her way
through four years course on short
commons of pocket money is often
elevated into something very like a
heroine.
At Vassar college the smallest sum
on which a girl can pay her bills,
aside from scholarship aid, is about
$3.50. Of this amount 800 is for
board and washing. A genius in
thrift-and Vassar sees such genius
now and then-can buy her books and
stationery and supply herself with the
small incidentals dear to school girls for
the remaining $50. Car fare, if she
goes home between terms, and the
larger items of dress are not included.
Necessary expenses at Smith, Welles-
ley, and Bryn-Mawr do not vary
greatly from these figures. Five hun
dred dollars would represent the aver
age yearly expenditure of no small
proportion of the girl students in east
ern schools. Six hundred dollars is a
liberal allowance, and $500 more than
luxurious. The largest sums spent
hardly rise above the minimum which
the president of Harvard deemed
necessary for comfort and peace of
mind at Cambridge.
Boston university, of the coeduca-
tional schools, has no dormitory sys-
tenn, and girl students from a distance
exercise no small ingenuity in housing
and feeding themselves without over
weening board-bills. Four dollars
a week, when necessary, some of
them find it possible to live for, or
$14S for thirtv-seven weeks in the city.
Add 500 for tuition and $50 for books,
car fare, and incidentals, and years
schooling is provided at cost of $500.
Some of the country colleges, while
giving a substantial education treat the
pocket-book with great leniency. ST.
Lawrence university. in the northern
part of New ork, for instance, tutors
young women, as we'll as men, for $40
q year, and the tOWnS-people take
them to their hearts and their best
guest-chambers for $50 week. Edu-
cation there still costs substantially
what it used to at the older schools in
the pioneer days.
To work ones way through college
unaided is hard task, but now and
then accomplished by a sturdy girl.
A large-eyed brunette, not sturdy, but
fragile-looking, graduated from Bos-
ton university a few years ago by find
ing situation as waitress in a res
taurant, wearing the white apron dur
ing the rush hours morning and night,
and in vacation season the day through.
To save is something easier than to
earn, and have in mind one group OF
four girls, two from Boston university
and two at the Harvard Annex, who
engaged two adjoining rooms in aquiet
shouse in Boston and boarded them
selves on an average of $50 per week.
Their rooms cost So, or $1,25 each.
They took breakfast at a small restau-
rant, where oatmeal and steak cost 20
cents. They ate an apple and slice
of bread for lunch and at night they
pooled resources, spreading napkins
on the top of trunk and feasting on
bread ana mix or bread and taste of
canned meats. Once a neighbor sur
reptiously inserted six glasses of jelly
in the bureau drawer which served as
commissary department, and then they
dined royalty for days. The food cost
them each 80 cents per day, and not
one of them suffered in health by the
experiment. Their expenses for cloth
ing were no greater in proportion. One
member of the quartet possessed a sim
gle gown, Weli-worn black cashmere.
Being invited to professors reception
one evening she remained away from
a days recitations, while she sat in a
cloak and petticoat, cleaning and,
pressing, and freshening with ribbons
her only apparel. At night she en-
joyed herself quite as thoroughly as
the rest of the company.