Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-04-15
STUDENTS DISCLOSE
SURPRISING FIGURES
Cheaper TO Go to College THAI
TO Stay at Home-Averag
Yearly Expense About $400- d
Senior Tells Of His Expert
ences In Finding Work

vetyarding the en- penses OF tho University
81 Vermont students who filled out ques-
hVrrai Tres rest o'. during .b~ winter for
the purpcee Of obtaining tho desired data.
In the face Of the tremendous incrrai" in
the cost Of living and the statements OF
government experts as to the amounts
needed TO support a family, canvass OF
the students shows that man coald lake
himself and family to college cheaper
than he noa.d live elsewhere, sccording
~ government estimates.
The investigation showed that the av-
erase STUDENT is able to spend year mt
college wi.h an expense Of between ESQ
and $i50 Some students were able TO keep
.hcir expenses down to 5000 and some
OthCrs spent IN excess OF N'D, from Sep
TENDER 10 Jane. 1t seems remarkable In
the face of city prices that one student
whose experience IS typical Of them all.
spent $40 prr month during his college
year. His expenditures werc divided up
ms follows: Board $50, college fees SUE,
room s., personal expenses SO. books 81 and
laundry s.. Table board is noU obtained In
Commons hall at a little over s. per week.
Many of the students were found to go
without breakfast not alone for economy,
but because they didn't care for It. Among
this number were athletes.
Tint II Is possible for not only the eS-
ceptional, but also for the average student
to Darn his way through college Is reveal
ed by the statements of students repre-
seliting a normal section of the body.
During the year and vacatione II were
earning 100 PER cent of their expenses, AZ
were earning 70 por cent or over. 70 wore
earning q per cent or over and 10 were
earning none CT their expenses. One was
earning SEQ per month during the college
- ma ,ov,-
ing at loss. So
White It is evident that 1. is possible
for q man to work his way through COL
1ege, II Is also true that during the time
ne Is carrying on his college work he
should not be obliged to earn more than
one-half of his way. Following are the
occupations which students followed In
making their way: Kitchen work, assist
ing at hospital, painting, sewing, singing
IN choir, Boy Scout work. re-
search work. playing musical in
struments, instructing military, assist
ing physical instructors shovelling snow.
ushering. delivering papers, office work.
cleaning rugs. washing windows. acting
as stewards. surveying. mason work. car
pentering, tutoring, census taking selling,
laboratory, chauffering. garden work,
house work. cutting and raking lawns,
waiting on table, teaching clerking. tend
ing furnaces. and assisting jantors.
One fact which stands out is that the
outside work up to degree is good for
the students Many have worked up into
excellent positions through the work they
did in college. Young people get an idea
Of the value Of time, and much Of the work
keeps them in touch with the world.
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AT U. v.
M. BY A MEMBER OF THE
CLASS OF 1920
Fortune often brings us better things
than our own wisdom would have pro-
vided. As I look back over my college
life. the most surprising reflection is that
my work for self-support has been no
hardship or hindrance in my college life.
On the contrary. feel that these four
years would lose much Of their meaning,
did they not have their setting of work.
enterprise. and actual responsibility. To
stand on ones own feet through the siren
nous years of college is to accept the
challenge Of life itself: the prize, then of
those four years is manhood or woman
hood in the richest and fullest sense. Earth
offers nothing greater.
II we'll remember my arrival as a fresh
man at the University Of Vermont. I came
unacquainted with college life or even
city life. I had ideas, Of course. most of
which were to be overturned. But I had
taken the college life for my own, with
faith in what 1t represented and a deter
mination to play a worthy part.
1T was a few days before enrolment,
SO the campus was quiet on that bright
September morning. College Row seemed
not so strange, 1t was somehow as imagi-
nation had foreseen it. I walked down
University Place to make myself feel at
home with the Old Mil and the library;
I looked across the campus and over the
city TO Lake Champlain and the near
mountains. Already was glad had come.
But was yet to know the spirit Of the
university as revealed In its democracy
and fellowship. That morning I called at
the offices of administration, and was
made to feel that was already a part of
the university with its privileges and re-
sponsibilities. Later, met the chairman
Of the committee on student employment:
OF him I received the first impression of
remarkable circumstance at the uni
versity: Not only is student self-support
general here, but 1t is the usual and ex-
pected thing.
"The chairman had immediate work to
offer. Three of us spent the afternoon at
the Agricultural College. Hero met my
first classmates. We were together in
other work about the college building and
at the homes Of faculty members. The
acquaintance thus formed grow into gen.
uine friendships which have lasted to this
day.
Before tho week was over there came
. piece Of real good fortune in the offer
Of . steady position In one Of the offices
~ the university. I took the psc CO Cor what
II was worth at the time, but It turned
out to be perms mont in that held Il for
two years and have boon In a way con.
nected with It for these other two years
II was juDt routine work. for tho rnoa,
part. but 1t assured me of support. and
was content. But It held advantages which
had not anticipated. When the student:
name. was thrown into intimate contac,
with them. and made to feel again thai
significant sense OF comraGeship. mani
fosting Itself In work. as vol as in recre
alton and SOFIA. activities.
'As my acquaintance broadened. I found
that my own circumstances were typica
ID tho majority. Nearly everyone wa:
working his way In whole or In part. anc
WAS proud Of II. I even knew some who
while financially well fixed. worried som'
4or appearances sake noted, too. tina
outside work did not cripple anyone In hi
studies. Some of the most notable sharks
were spending considerable time out doors
This II substantially true of tho women a.
we'll as OF the men.
1--WE had some good times to enlivor
things now and then. On one weekend ;
number of US worked at Bishop Hopkin'
Hall, q private girls school on Rocl
Point. That was a real adventure for us
and an evcnt for the school, I suspect o.
oue afternoon we worked on fruit farm
9atacring apples and pears. When w