How Poor Kids Go to College

"Can I afford to go to college?" asks many an American Youth who has hardly a dollar to his name and who knows that a college course means sacrifice and struggle. It seems a great hardship, indeed, for a young individual with an ambition to do something in the world to be compelled to pay his own way through school and college by hard work. But history shows us that the people who have led in the van of human progress have been, as a rule, self-educated, self made.

The average individual of today who wishes to obtain a liberal education has a better chance by a hundredfold. There is scarcely one in good health who reads these lines but can be assured that if he will he may. Here, as elsewhere, the will can usually make the way, and never before was there so many avenues of resource open to the strong will, the inflexible purpose, as there are today-at this hour and this moment.

Out of the student related directly with graduate schools writes a graduate stating that hundreds of students are entirely dependent upon their own resources. They are not a poverty-stricken lot, however, for half of them make an income above the average allowance of students in smaller colleges. $2500.00 to $5,00.00 are not exceptional yearly earnings of a student who is capable of doing newspaper work or tutoring, branches of employment that pay better than others.

There are some students that make much more. A classmate of the writer entered college with about $100.00. As a freshman he had a hard struggle. In his junior year, however, he prospered and in his last ten months of undergraduate work he cleared above his college expenses, which were none too low, He made his money by advertising schemes and other publishing ventures. A few months after graduation he married. He is now living comfortably.

A son of poor parents, worked his way though an academy. This only whetted his appetite for knowledge, and he determined to advance, relying wholly on himself for success. Accordingly, he proceeded and arranged with a professor to pay for his tuition by working. He rented a small room, which served for study and home, the expense of his food never exceeding what he could afford. After graduation, he turned his attention to civil engineering, and, later, to the construction of iron bridges of his own design. He procured many valuable patents, and amassed a fortune. His life was a success, the foundation being self-reliance and integrity.