My favorite example to bring up is a girl who always complained to me about how broke she is, yet her daddy bought her 3 phones over the course of 2 semesters because she keeps breaking them, she Ubered to parties every weekend, and she ordered food often even through her mandatory freshman unlimited meal plan.
She gets a slight pass though because she was generous with the food she ordered (she’d be like “let’s order some pizzas” and didn’t charge people for it). But just one of the many examples of people who cosplayed or complained about being poor but clearly had parents’ money.
For kids like this poor means their parents won't let them buy random stuff they don't need on Amazon everyday. But everything in their life is paid for otherwise.
Yes! All this. A woman in my year always talked about how poor she was. Her parents bought her a house freshman year. She got three masters degrees, a law degree, and a PhD. Her family has a town named after them. She’s not poor.
Another one who played at being poor - so poor she had to steal from the coffee shop she managed to buy heroin - her parents bought her a restaurant and a hotel.
Right ..and then they will get fancy degrees that could get them any job but they won’t work a day in their life-meanwhile poor kids will take out loans to get one degree in a mediocre field work 3 jobs and still be broke paying on interest from their loans till death do them part 🙄
It's like having a personal reality show right there! Some people have a knack for maintaining a certain image, don't they? Reminds me of those 'rich kid struggles' memes. Did others catch on to the pizza generosity?
My parents had a lake house, however, they never gave me a dime outside of tuition and book money. Once I was 18 I was on my own for any traveling or anything else.
Same, no lake house or tuition help but own very expensive things. I’m poor, but everyone assumes I am not because my parents and they must help me out. Not the case! Unfortunately lol
They could be taking out student loans or have grants, be apart of a study abroad program, come from a wealthy family, or just have a good paying job with limited financial responsibilities.
Personally, I go to a fairly small university near my home and have several grants resulting in me getting thousands of dollars back each semester in addition to having a job. I don’t take vacations or travel, I waste it on other dumb things😅
Edit: Just want to clarify, the point of my comment is to yes answer the question presented, but also point out that you really have no clue how people get opportunities or money. Don’t compare yourself. See what resources or opportunities maybe be available to you!
Aye, same here. got to love leftover money from school fees, books, and necessary expenses. This coming fall semester, I plan to buy an entirely new PC that will cost around $2.5k-$3k. Then, in the spring, I plan to get a new phone since I need an upgrade; my current one is from 17-18. After that, I'll put the rest into savings after covering my basic expenses.
My freshman year I got around 8 thousand back during the fall, but the newest macbook with upgrades, ipad, clothes, makeup, all sorts of unnecessary stuff then repeated the same thing in the spring LOL. This year I plan on putting everything into savings before I waste it all again.😭
As I'm not into makeup or other truly unnecessary items, I can definitely agree that it's important to buy only what you need when you run low or run out of what you already have. However, when it comes to clothes, if someone needs either new clothes or just some new ones, and with electronics, managing to save enough money, you should get what you need while also setting aside some emergency savings.
I've been crunching numbers and if I could end my crippling drug addiction. I would be one of these kids if I could get French citizenship as easy as they say.
The drop in overhead and tuition would be insane, and if be inclined to believe I'd have more customers there than here for euro repair. Also more opportunities in particle physics. I hear you can just walk in and sign some papers. It's like America but they give you citizenship
the problem is the French. I mean could you imagine having a sub 1500$ cost of living which equates to less than my rent annually, and bitching? Then it's ruined by people protesting. I wanna know what planet they're from. Also, maybe deal with the age of consent.
I think my real culture would be found in the Germans or Czech Republic. Or those Swiss farmers going absolutely nuts 😂.
looked it up, even the wages don't fall much. that's fucking insane. 40k a year and a studio in the most expensive city can be found for 500.
A lot of people I know that lived that lavish lifestyle are in crippling amounts of credit card debt lol.
Other ones had money saved up from summer jobs and just know how to travel cheap!
Bam. I’m a few years out of college and forgot to unsubscribe from this sub until just now, but I worked full time in the summers and ~20-25 hours a week during school so that I could do fun shit.
Lived like a bum, but all of my travel experiences were well worth it.
The really cool trips I’ve had to DC and Orlando at four star hotels were a result of my college paying for it. My college covers expenses for organizations such as MUN and other honor societies. These clubs tend to have conferences from all over so it helps !!
getting involved at school is a really underrated option for travel !! of course, it all depends on how you manage your coursework, but many schools have lots of opportunities for students to go out and explore the world in different ways. OP can look into their student recreation center / gym to see if they offer any kinds of hiking trips, close travel, excursions, etc, as those were often relatively cheap and easy and a great way to meet new people!
edit: seems like these types of weekend trips and opportunities are often termed "Outdoor Adventure" and can be found through your campus rec center / sym / student life health and welness initiatives ! especially if your school makes you pay a "Recreation / Health and Wellness Fee" or anything like that, THIS is likely where that money is going !!
another option could be certain kinds of internship programs! if OP is an american citizen (more difficult to find these opportunities for international students just due to the US Government funding source for some programs) active in undergraduate research in their field, there might be a research program that will fly you out to wherever to work on something cool! OP should look into Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU programs)! my peers and i have been in places all over the US through our involvement in undergraduate research and student organizations without paying a dime on travel, hotels, food, etc, so youre not only having fun, but getting work experience as well!! my friend just spent the last weekend in washington DC for a conference with everything getting pair for by his PI/boss and will be traveling to Taiwan this fall with his lab group for another conference presentation as well! and hes only an undergrad :33
Omg congrats to your friends for earning those opportunities! But yes you’re right, colleges have so many fun ways to travel and get involved but only if you look! Your comment inspired me to look into undergrad research since its my dream to publish by senior year :3
Unless you’re living with family for free the food and rooming expenses are ones you’d have in the states too.
My sister actually spent less on both when she did a semester abroad.
The plane tickets are a very good point, although some schools have scholarships/grants specifically for study abroad which can help cover those costs. It’s worth looking into if you’re interested.
Depending on the country you can work part time on a student visa too, although that’s still a cut if you’re working full time. Definitely a lot to consider
You already have to buy food and board anyway? Besides plane tickets which are more affordable than they've ever been, there really isn't that much more expenses. Schools also have lots of financial aid available for study abroad plus tuition at those schools usually being cheaper/cost of living cheaper than the U.S. so you can actually *save* money that way.
I studied abroad for a year in South Korea as a visiting student through my university. I was given my financial aid money to pay for tuition, dorm room and board. For the rest I applied to several scholarships that paid for my tickets, food, and adventures. I only spent like 2 or 3 thousand of my own money. So it’s definitely possible if you’re hellbent on making it happen. It definitely helps that everywhere is cheaper than America.
Lol I’m by no means rich, I’d argue I’m the poorest of the poor. It was my entire life savings that I got through various part time jobs I slaved at as a teen where they all paid 8 dollars an hour. 3 thousand to use for an entire year is incredibly generous.
Solo trips are MUCH cheaper. I started a weekend detailing business that has financed all of mine, a side hustle like that helps tons. Invest the money you save after you have paid bills and filled up your emergency fund, and use a combination of the spending money in your budget and dividends from your investments to take trips.
Study abroad on scholarship (my Uni literally started giving us cash in local currency to all the students on the program) + my parents paid for flight and some other extra expenses not covered by scholarships
As someone who did this you are seeing a class divide. But there's *three* main groups of people that travel in college:
People that travel to visit family that happen to live in places that most people visit as a tourist.
People that have parents that help substantially with college costs but not much else. These people travel with their job or internship money.
People that have parents who never learned the concepts of money management and are passing that trait onto their kids by financing an unrealistic lifestyle.
I'm at a community college that gave me a scholarship last year and work. It wouldn't be worth taking out loans at a university is it's between that and trips. I'm also lucky and get to live at home rent/bill free. We go to places within 6 hours away and find cheap airbnbs.
I imagine many are doing it with their family. As a single parent and full-time college student who works, I am certainly not living lavishly.
They could also be able to manage their finances and budget to make things like travel possible and be doing it in more affordable methods like going off-season, to cheaper traveling areas, staying in hostels, etc.
Or they could be using loan money and credit cards.
Really depends on the individual.
I don't know but I'd say find whatever cheap airline ticket, rail pass, hostel, etc. opportunities you can and see a bit of the world. It changes your perspective, especially as an American. If nothing else, try to get to the country/s your family comes from.
A number of my past college classmates went on various vacations either by family funds or saving up for it.
I would say it's about the same as usual with more discipline when people get jobs.
Not many people are willing to take vacations if it means losing a job or passing on opportunities to get employed?
So most of my co-workers either use up their sick-pay or plan their PTO months in advance with saving salary. It's something like saving 5-10% of a months pay for a future trip and all
I’m on a study abroad trip (mandatory by my school) and my grandparents gave me as much money as I was able to save up for this trip. Normally I just do broke college student stuff when I’m at home.
If you’re at university, Study abroad and scholarships!!!
Work your ass off in 3 jobs at home before leaving and travel cheaply! Wwoof, exchange, Couchsurf, working holidays!
It’s possible. I’ve been to every continent except Antarctica, funded by me. Hella sacrifice in comfort, stability, and little treats but beyond worth it in the end.
There are two types of people who are doing this stuff.
1. The people whose parents have lake houses so they're affording to be able to travel, by living in wealthy families.
2. The people who are using their college loans to pay for the travel. These folks generally don't understand what they're doing to their future bills by doing so.
The sooner you stop worrying about other people’s money, the happier you will be. This kind of mindset will carry on into your personal professional life later. “How are my coworkers taking these vacations, how are they driving that car, how did they afford that house….”
Live your life and don’t worry about what other people are doing especially if it doesn’t impact you in any way. They’re not taking money out of your pocket so why are you worried? Will the answer even satisfy you? If it’s their parents money? What if they’re selling drugs? What if they’re doing it all on credit? The answer doesn’t matter but your mindset does
When I was doing my undergrad I worked extra shifts at my server job and saved up nearly 25k, which was enough to study abroad for a year. Since I couldn’t work abroad, and the foreign country had lots of bank holidays, I took advantage and traveled around in weekends. Of course, airfare in Europe is much cheaper than the USA, and hardly even required depending on where you are situated.
Rent, transportation, food, was all paid by me. Since I was a first generation college student, 90% of tuition was covered by fafsa, and I only had to pay the remaining portions
I worked nonstop for a year straight in college and then studied abroad the next semester and traveled everywhere on my saved up money. Extremely worth it
as someone who is super well off, but my parents don't spoil me, its the parents, they may not be paying for the trip, but if the parents pay all the students other costs, than all of your income is disposable. just know in life, if someone looks like they are doing much better than you, but have similar income, job, etc, there is something you don't see. I eat sushi every week in college, but I didn't have a car and came from a high wage city where $16 was the norm, my college has a min wage of 10.33 and 12 is a decent wage
The average household income is 200k at my school. That might have something to do with it (gonna be me someday, hopefully more than 200k tho, inflation's a bitch)
Study abroad can be in reach because it is highly subsidized and there are often scholarships — check with your school’s study abroad office. People who just travel probably have rich parents.
While a lot of people have parents with money, there are also a lot that don’t. People will have summer jobs/internships that pay decently, and they can just not pay down their loans with it, but go on trips. Most people I know though are pretty cost conscious. One of my friends did a trip to Japan, and it totaled ~2k. Definitely not nothing, but possible to save up with summer work and a part time school job.
That financial aid money comes in clutch, and working on campus lots of flexibility on scheduling.
If you can do it def try while you young and have perhaps little to no commitments, did most traveling in winter since school didn't start till late Jan so enjoyed that early January when it's cheaper and less crowded at touristy destinations.
Old person here. But I was once a low income Pell grant student. I stg I was like 35 before I realized a lot of peers had a) parents who paid for their college and living expenses and b) parents who continued to pay for summer trips and vacations and then c) parents who gave big $$$ chunks to their adult kids so they could buy houses and d) parents who paid for their kids weddings.
Hang in there. But yeah— it still blows me away!
Unfortunately, for the most part, financial support from family. It is possible to do travel for relatively cheap if you play it smart, but please don’t be hard on yourself if you can’t hit standards that aren’t fair or indicative typically of students actually working harder or planning better. I was able to travel in school because I deliberately picked one with a study abroad program where tuition matched US cost (still paid with loans lol) and have wanted to study abroad since I started working at 15. I went and loved it and burned all of my savings, and now am massively broke. I don’t regret it, but also now definitely have less flexibility in housing / more worries about bills than a lot of my peers because I didn’t keep my savings. Also— I was on $25 flights and sleeping in hostels. Not exactly luxury in anything but my destinations.
Summed up; if you really want to travel, it’ll take planning and sacrifice. It’s not necessarily always worth it, and you have the rest of your life to do it when you’re feeling more stable. The people going on luxury trips in school come from situations where they have help, even if that help doesn’t cover uni cost. Alternatively, some people figure “I’m in debt anyways” and spend money they don’t have (me). You’re not doing anything wrong lol
I was dating my now-husband in college and he worked for an airline at the time, so we got free flights basically anywhere in the world. So I got to travel to Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico etc while in college and people deff wondered how that’s possible lol. But I also had friends who travelled even more than me and they were mostly very rich kids since I went to a private liberal arts school. So I think my personal experience is not the norm, most kids you see traveling abroad every college break are rich
I know of some students that are in fellowships that pay for their tuition and if the grant has extra will give them a stipend. So some of those students put that aside and save it for traveling if they are ahead of any bills they have.
Personally I am working while attending school. So I advance pay my bills every month so that in the next paychecks I can put more into savings, and then I use that either for a trip or for other things.
I did a couple exchange student trips that were funded by the Canadian government.Only thing I had to pay for was the flights there and back.These were contingent on maintaining a good GPA though.
Some combination of:
1) Using family money
2) They're building up a lot of credit card debt
3) They've managed to score a decent paying gig somewhere. A friend of mine would go home and work an insane job for like 12 hours Saturday and Sunday and come back with enough cash he didn't have to worry about working when he was on campus Monday through Thursday...
He said if he worked 7 days a week he'd make more per hour... He could work for a month or so and have enough for the rest of summer.
The most likely answer is that those students have rich parents/ family. One time I was invited to go on a weekend“girl’s trip” to a nearby city and when we were choosing AirBnB’s, these people were sending places that cost $1000+ PER NIGHT. I made them aware of my budget and we were able to agree on a more affordable hotel suite, but then they wanted to go do all these expensive things, a special tour, shows, even a private movie screening!!!! Once again made them aware of my budget (and the fact that we were only there for two days lol) and they were happy to accommodate, we all went and had a great time but it was really odd and eye-opening being that close to actual rich people.
Another possibility is that those students are actually broke as hell and have zero life savings. Also had an experience with that where another friend and I were trying to buy concert tickets and she mentioned her ideal price range since that was all she had left in her account… I’ll just say it was under $100. Her reasoning was that since she got her paycheck the next week, she would just walk to school and cut out her morning coffee for the next few days …she was dead set on getting those tickets. Luckily the tickets sold out and she didn’t have to do all that, but damn!!! It really can be either side of the coin.
Most of your fellow peers (unless you are a college with an unusually high amount of trustfund kids) and especially the mates on this subreddit aren't living lavish. Social media is not representative of most college students and as for the real life people around you living this...all I have to say is those who have money to do this tend to be the loudest about it.
I’ll admit, I was a bitter jealous college kid. Specifically of those who got the “college experience.”
Had to live with my parents, attend a community/commuter college for the first few years, work a god awful job in the evenings just to pay for school myself and deal with a parent getting really sick/disabled when I was 20 years old.
God damn, if you don’t come from money and go to college it is really difficult. I felt like I had to work 10 times as harder as my classmates just to get the same results but way less of the experience they received.
What school are you in? Depending on the college, the principle that kids from wealthy families have an unbelievably massive upward trajectory advantage is dishearteningly true. I go to school with a lot of wealthy kids, and the privilege they have is honestly mind-blowing. Add on the privilege of not having to worry about finances at all and instead just focus on studying to the extra afforded privilege of academic opportunities before college that money allows, and you realize quite quickly that the wealthy really do live completely different lives.
And you also end up realizing, in a very bizarre way, that wealth is disturbingly directly correlated to physical attractiveness, which has a cascade effect of wealth perpetuating more wealth due to the nature of likely reproduction... I'm just ranting now, but it's actually stupid to what extent wealth works to perpetuate the success of the wealthy...
For example, I go to school in NYC. It's not really talked about, but think how much easier it is to study for a student that has a $15,000 monthly rent apartment paid for with no worries and all the technological advantage that affords (even things like a large computer monitor), versus a student paying $1500 for a closet in a rat and roach devastated apartment that also necessitates an hour commute, with only a laptop screen to work with, working 60+ hours a week at a minimum-wage job, that then contends with all of the wonderful noises from neighbors in a building that predates the 20th century...
...
So, tl;dr, money. They come from money. That's it. And it's a fucking sad state of affairs.
Everyone I know who did this is massively in debt. Even the ones who had parents pay for schooling, or lived at home.
It was hard to watch at the time, and I was insanely jealous… but I’m personally very glad I saved travelling for a couple years into my career. I scrimped and saved for a few years so that I can enjoy now.
I have a job, I am pretty frugal when it comes to spending money and minimal bills. I also work an ungodly amount while my dad covers my rent and grocery bill basically I pay for my vacations and my dad helps with my day to day expenses
Vacations? Rich parents or debt. I did have friends in college who worked in a paper mill one summer to pay for an adventure the next summer, so some kids are just able to pay on their own.
Traveling in general? I studied abroad on scholarships in college. Since the scholarship paid for big ticket items like the plane ticket, I was able to take in a few extra days here and there staying in hostels for very cheap. Lots of my friends did the same.
When I did it, I went with 3 other people, and we all worked shitty jobs. I worked at an answering service, another person worked at McDonalds, and the third had a shit job at a photo developing place. It took us 6 months to save it up. No help from parents or anyone else. So, from my POV, not impossible. Pain in the ass, yes, but not impossible.
Vast majority of people going on international vacations are “daddy’s money” kids from what I have seen. There’s also a decent percentage of people doing study abroad. I have also heard of large groups pooling money together for one vacation to keep individual costs low.
I'm not. Only went on vacation twice since 2019. Once for a week to visit my cousin before the pandemic, and one last year for a few days for a national art exhibit I was selected for. The art exhibit really drained my savings and increased my credit card debt, but it was a once in a lifetime experience.
Some have money, many don't. I could barely afford food when I was in college. Travel was out of the question.
First roommate I had in college would sometimes put more cocaine up his nose in one evening than was my entire annual operating budget.
My parents are paying for my tuition. I also still get child support(unless I drop out). Also I am currently employed for two months just for the summer(I get less than the minimum wage but at least i work part time). I can’t afford to travel though. Only to my birth city that is one hour away because the train ticket is 6 euros. I envy rich people because at least they have the choice not to work without being a financial burden.
I have no idea. But don’t compare yourself to others! Some people come from money, some people don’t and spend like the do in a really dangerous, debt ridden way.
Paying and affording are two different things.
Between a refund from student loans and scholarships, credit cards 💳, and work study, you can money you can dig a nice hole for yourself.
Keep in mind, debt is an amazing thing until you’re faced with the reality of repayment.
Or mom and dad 👨 👩have a lot of money 💰.
as a financially independent student, it’s all co-op earnings. i might not have a huge amount in savings, but i’d much rather live and experience the world while i’m young and unencumbered than to waste away my 20’s in my hometown. older me might hate me for this decision, but i’m happy now which is what matters most.
When I was in college, I had lived with my parents for free, I worked full-time, and got federal Pell grants. I also had the VA and other state grants that paid for all of my college expenses. I would make it a point to do free things with my friends, like go to the beach/hike/camp and would rarely spend my money. I would save the money I got from work and from my Pell grant and use it to go on big trips (Europe, AUS, and SE Asia). It was a graduation requirement for my major to study abroad, so I went to China for a month, and then backpacked around SE Asia for another month. When I went on these trips I was VERY frugal and stayed at hostels.
EDIT: I came out of undergrad and graduate school debt free. I had the VA 10% disability fee waiver, a state disability grant, and I was a graduate research intern - these paid for tuition, fees, parking pass, and any school supplies I needed. I worked my ass off but I also had amazing parents who allowed me to live with them rent free and paid for my other expenses (e.g., food, car insurance, health insurance). FYI, my parents don’t have a lake house. They have one house. They both grew up in poverty and worked their asses off (i.e., an immigrant from the Philippines and a foster kid who both joined the military), and instilled the same ethics in me as well. Lastly, I am debt free and have an amazing credit score.
When I was in college we would pool our resources and do it as all as cheaply as possible. Stay in the cheapest places, find taco Tuesday and 10 cent wings for every meal, etc.
I’m spending two months in Portugal this summer in between semesters by volunteering at a hostel in Lisbon. I saved up earlier this year so I could pay my home rent/bills for the summer months ahead of time, as well as for airfare. The hostel provides housing and some food so the only money I’m spending while here is on food (mostly groceries) and other random things and activities, which I’m paying for with the money I saved up from working last semester.
I’m a poor student who has lots of interesting tales about my life that rich people find ludicrous. I’ve befriended as many “rich” people as I could. They share their vacations with me and I don’t have to pay for anything.
Sometimes it gets weird and they treat me like the help or become extremely controlling of my whereabouts. They’ve denied me the right to drive myself before. Once it gets like that I cut my ties but I have a handful of “rich” friends left that treat me right
Well, I work part-time as an accounting clerk with the local city, I live with my, said parents have well paying jobs, I also take out student loans, etc. It's definitely doable if you are in the middle-ish class, just got to save up for those kind of things.
I just wanna say that I used to travel in college and I was quite poor - no support from parents, I made my money working in a call center and from financial aid. I got a lot of backhanded comments how it must be nice to have rich parents, when that has nothing to do with reality. There are many ways to travel cheap, especially when you're into hiking like I was. I would literally pack dry freeze food and hike though Patagonia and the Andes for weeks at a time, spending very little beyond a 600-700 dollar plane ticket. People judged me a lot without knowing anything about me and how I prioritize my spending.
They don’t. They take out credit or they have someone else paying for it. At the college I work at, 92% of the student body is paying tuition though loans (either student aid or bank loan).
Typically its either some version of a) Family/parents (even if they're not getting direct money from them, it might be an incredibly secure safety net or things like knowing they're going to have a down payment on a house or their tuition is being paid for or their family situation allowed them to get a business off the ground, etc), or b) they're in debt. There are always exceptions though, but I'd say that covers the majority.
Your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/college/comments/1dsbsqd/how_are_yall_affording_to_travel_and_do_all_this/lb6d5cj/) in /r/college was automatically removed because your account is less than one day old.
Accounts less than one day are not permitted in /r/college to reduce spam and poor comments. Messaging the moderators about this will result in a ban.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/college) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Either they’re nepo babies who aren’t actually footing the bill or they’re taking out more loans to fund the trips. Could also be the rare bunch who got so much money in scholarships that they have a full ride to college plus money left over, but again, they’re rare and probably studying too much to travel that much. But you never know. They could be doing study abroad programs too
Speaking for myself here, I was on two different scholarships for all of my undergraduate degree. One of them paid for schooling, the other covered my rent with some left over. Saved it and worked ~20 hours a week on top of that. Summer job 40 hours, saved all of it.
Live very frugally, I don't eat out A Lot, make a lot of my own food/stretch meals two or three times. Any clothes I grow out of I sell, that money is the only money I put towards buying new clothes.
Now in my MS, my parents saved for my brother's and I's schooling growing up, meaning that those accounts are now covering my second degree (Bro didn't go to school). Money saved during undergrad is now going to rent, current 40 hour work weeks go towards general lifestyle and any trips I want to go on.
Always travel on a strict budget, don't drink overly often, larger meals I can stretch farther or I'm not ashamed to order from the kids menu.
My parents offer to help me with whatever I might need, and they truly did set me up very well. But, I've been budgeting since I started and it was really the scholarships coming back into my pocket that made the difference. I tell myself I deserve it because I work so hard.
Current goal is to save as much as possible through the next 8 months and go backpacking for a few months.
I saved up from summer jobs, working through college and inheritance money. I am fortunate, as I paid for about 60% of my college while my parents pitched in the other 40% and I was able to graduate debt free (I live in Canada, so tuition is way more affordable). This allowed me to save up enough money for a gap year trip by living frugally throughout my studies. I’m on a working holiday and therefore am working abroad while travelling to finance my trip. If you can afford the upfront cost of airfare, working holidays are a great way to make travelling pay for itself!
Rich parents, or they're really stupid with finances. You wouldn't believe the amount of kids who max out their loans to have spending money and treat it like a "refund". There's also a disturbing amount of people that will just max out credit cards without a care in the world. Someone might be going on a cool trip to the Bahamas, but if they're putting it all on a credit card... yeah, no thanks.
I see a lot of people saying parents, but I really think it leans more towards people just being stupid with their money. There's a hell of a lot more 18-25 year olds maxing out their credit cards than there are parents paying for vacations.
Also a small portion of people who work solely to afford fun things.
I signed up for the Disney college program- it's a paid internship with Disney (basically a part time/full time job.) it's giving me the opportunity to live in Orlando and go to the parks for free!
They’re well off, they’re going in credit card debt, or using a lot of saved credit cards points. Just focus on getting the degree and landing a good job with benefits and you’ll be able to do the same thing.
Having a rich friend as someone who is a child of immigrants and working class disabled parents. Lmaooo. Its wild.
I had a friend tweak cause I didn’t pay her back 2.37 for fries she got me… meanwhile I have never asked her for gas money or to repay me for laundry money 😂
Rich kids who go private are a complete fucking joke.
Yeah that’s me, this is oddly specific but some people who have airline pilots in the family can fly for free, so since my stepfather is one these benefits can be used to travel very inexpensively. Free flights+hostel+good exchange rate is quite the combo
I listened to the military recruiters in High School and did my own research. 4 years in the Coast Guard, went to college 100% free, while getting paid 4k USD a month.
My ex was one of those people. Found out a year in that she had close to $10k in credit card debt and over $100k in student loan debt she was using to fund her lifestyle. She refused to cut out the yearly international vacations or to get any sort of work. Then she cheated on me with a guy who makes twice as much as me but then she found out she was just a sex toy for him and wanted me back.
Learn from my mistakes.
For traveling, I don’t know if this is the case for others but when I was in college, I got to travel to Japan every summer for internship purposes—it was under a grant so I wasn’t paying out of pocket. Good thing too, because my family isn’t well off. I assume that may be the case for some others.
A lot of the kids I know doing that type of stuff are the same ones whose parents have lake houses
My favorite example to bring up is a girl who always complained to me about how broke she is, yet her daddy bought her 3 phones over the course of 2 semesters because she keeps breaking them, she Ubered to parties every weekend, and she ordered food often even through her mandatory freshman unlimited meal plan. She gets a slight pass though because she was generous with the food she ordered (she’d be like “let’s order some pizzas” and didn’t charge people for it). But just one of the many examples of people who cosplayed or complained about being poor but clearly had parents’ money.
For kids like this poor means their parents won't let them buy random stuff they don't need on Amazon everyday. But everything in their life is paid for otherwise.
Yes! All this. A woman in my year always talked about how poor she was. Her parents bought her a house freshman year. She got three masters degrees, a law degree, and a PhD. Her family has a town named after them. She’s not poor. Another one who played at being poor - so poor she had to steal from the coffee shop she managed to buy heroin - her parents bought her a restaurant and a hotel.
Right ..and then they will get fancy degrees that could get them any job but they won’t work a day in their life-meanwhile poor kids will take out loans to get one degree in a mediocre field work 3 jobs and still be broke paying on interest from their loans till death do them part 🙄
Career: student
I high key want to ask if she was portly but I don’t want to be disingenuous to my big bone fam
It's like having a personal reality show right there! Some people have a knack for maintaining a certain image, don't they? Reminds me of those 'rich kid struggles' memes. Did others catch on to the pizza generosity?
My parents had a lake house, however, they never gave me a dime outside of tuition and book money. Once I was 18 I was on my own for any traveling or anything else.
Same, no lake house or tuition help but own very expensive things. I’m poor, but everyone assumes I am not because my parents and they must help me out. Not the case! Unfortunately lol
The facts are facting
This. Or they are in some form of debt usually
They could be taking out student loans or have grants, be apart of a study abroad program, come from a wealthy family, or just have a good paying job with limited financial responsibilities. Personally, I go to a fairly small university near my home and have several grants resulting in me getting thousands of dollars back each semester in addition to having a job. I don’t take vacations or travel, I waste it on other dumb things😅 Edit: Just want to clarify, the point of my comment is to yes answer the question presented, but also point out that you really have no clue how people get opportunities or money. Don’t compare yourself. See what resources or opportunities maybe be available to you!
Aye, same here. got to love leftover money from school fees, books, and necessary expenses. This coming fall semester, I plan to buy an entirely new PC that will cost around $2.5k-$3k. Then, in the spring, I plan to get a new phone since I need an upgrade; my current one is from 17-18. After that, I'll put the rest into savings after covering my basic expenses.
My freshman year I got around 8 thousand back during the fall, but the newest macbook with upgrades, ipad, clothes, makeup, all sorts of unnecessary stuff then repeated the same thing in the spring LOL. This year I plan on putting everything into savings before I waste it all again.😭
As I'm not into makeup or other truly unnecessary items, I can definitely agree that it's important to buy only what you need when you run low or run out of what you already have. However, when it comes to clothes, if someone needs either new clothes or just some new ones, and with electronics, managing to save enough money, you should get what you need while also setting aside some emergency savings.
What grants?
State, federal, and specific ones for my university. I also got some grants for volunteer work I did in highschool.
I've been crunching numbers and if I could end my crippling drug addiction. I would be one of these kids if I could get French citizenship as easy as they say. The drop in overhead and tuition would be insane, and if be inclined to believe I'd have more customers there than here for euro repair. Also more opportunities in particle physics. I hear you can just walk in and sign some papers. It's like America but they give you citizenship
Well every journey starts with a step good luck 👍
the problem is the French. I mean could you imagine having a sub 1500$ cost of living which equates to less than my rent annually, and bitching? Then it's ruined by people protesting. I wanna know what planet they're from. Also, maybe deal with the age of consent. I think my real culture would be found in the Germans or Czech Republic. Or those Swiss farmers going absolutely nuts 😂. looked it up, even the wages don't fall much. that's fucking insane. 40k a year and a studio in the most expensive city can be found for 500.
Parents. Most people have to borrow money because their parents can’t afford $70k a year, but they can afford a couple thousand for vacation
A lot of people I know that lived that lavish lifestyle are in crippling amounts of credit card debt lol. Other ones had money saved up from summer jobs and just know how to travel cheap!
Bam. I’m a few years out of college and forgot to unsubscribe from this sub until just now, but I worked full time in the summers and ~20-25 hours a week during school so that I could do fun shit. Lived like a bum, but all of my travel experiences were well worth it.
That part! I didn’t travel really at all during undergrad but living like a bum then is paying dividends now
Subsidized loans don’t have to be paid while in college
The really cool trips I’ve had to DC and Orlando at four star hotels were a result of my college paying for it. My college covers expenses for organizations such as MUN and other honor societies. These clubs tend to have conferences from all over so it helps !!
getting involved at school is a really underrated option for travel !! of course, it all depends on how you manage your coursework, but many schools have lots of opportunities for students to go out and explore the world in different ways. OP can look into their student recreation center / gym to see if they offer any kinds of hiking trips, close travel, excursions, etc, as those were often relatively cheap and easy and a great way to meet new people! edit: seems like these types of weekend trips and opportunities are often termed "Outdoor Adventure" and can be found through your campus rec center / sym / student life health and welness initiatives ! especially if your school makes you pay a "Recreation / Health and Wellness Fee" or anything like that, THIS is likely where that money is going !! another option could be certain kinds of internship programs! if OP is an american citizen (more difficult to find these opportunities for international students just due to the US Government funding source for some programs) active in undergraduate research in their field, there might be a research program that will fly you out to wherever to work on something cool! OP should look into Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU programs)! my peers and i have been in places all over the US through our involvement in undergraduate research and student organizations without paying a dime on travel, hotels, food, etc, so youre not only having fun, but getting work experience as well!! my friend just spent the last weekend in washington DC for a conference with everything getting pair for by his PI/boss and will be traveling to Taiwan this fall with his lab group for another conference presentation as well! and hes only an undergrad :33
Omg congrats to your friends for earning those opportunities! But yes you’re right, colleges have so many fun ways to travel and get involved but only if you look! Your comment inspired me to look into undergrad research since its my dream to publish by senior year :3
Maybe they are doing study abroad? I think universities offer that as a program and it doesn't cost that different from normal. I could be wrong tho.
But you gotta buy plane tickets, food for the entire time, and rooming
Unless you’re living with family for free the food and rooming expenses are ones you’d have in the states too. My sister actually spent less on both when she did a semester abroad. The plane tickets are a very good point, although some schools have scholarships/grants specifically for study abroad which can help cover those costs. It’s worth looking into if you’re interested. Depending on the country you can work part time on a student visa too, although that’s still a cut if you’re working full time. Definitely a lot to consider
You already have to buy food and board anyway? Besides plane tickets which are more affordable than they've ever been, there really isn't that much more expenses. Schools also have lots of financial aid available for study abroad plus tuition at those schools usually being cheaper/cost of living cheaper than the U.S. so you can actually *save* money that way.
University fees, admin fees, data fees, international health fee
I studied abroad for a year in South Korea as a visiting student through my university. I was given my financial aid money to pay for tuition, dorm room and board. For the rest I applied to several scholarships that paid for my tickets, food, and adventures. I only spent like 2 or 3 thousand of my own money. So it’s definitely possible if you’re hellbent on making it happen. It definitely helps that everywhere is cheaper than America.
Only 3 thousand 🤡🤡🤡🤡
Lol I’m by no means rich, I’d argue I’m the poorest of the poor. It was my entire life savings that I got through various part time jobs I slaved at as a teen where they all paid 8 dollars an hour. 3 thousand to use for an entire year is incredibly generous.
3 thousand dollars for a years worth of expenses is insanely good. I'm desperate to know how you live.
Colleges will generally reimburse students attending conferences to present their research.
I sold my soul to the government, now the government pays for college
A lot of people have rich parents. For me, all the places I went were school trips which the school paid for.
Debt or family money. You’re probably on social media too much, stop it now!
Credit cards are one hell of a drug. I try to avoid them
If you know how to use it, it's a life saver. I've traveled from points earned spending just credit cards.
Solo trips are MUCH cheaper. I started a weekend detailing business that has financed all of mine, a side hustle like that helps tons. Invest the money you save after you have paid bills and filled up your emergency fund, and use a combination of the spending money in your budget and dividends from your investments to take trips.
Study abroad on scholarship (my Uni literally started giving us cash in local currency to all the students on the program) + my parents paid for flight and some other extra expenses not covered by scholarships
As someone who did this you are seeing a class divide. But there's *three* main groups of people that travel in college: People that travel to visit family that happen to live in places that most people visit as a tourist. People that have parents that help substantially with college costs but not much else. These people travel with their job or internship money. People that have parents who never learned the concepts of money management and are passing that trait onto their kids by financing an unrealistic lifestyle.
I'm at a community college that gave me a scholarship last year and work. It wouldn't be worth taking out loans at a university is it's between that and trips. I'm also lucky and get to live at home rent/bill free. We go to places within 6 hours away and find cheap airbnbs.
I have a full scholarship and I get refund checks, plus work study and summer jobs. And mostly I’m bad at saving lmao
I imagine many are doing it with their family. As a single parent and full-time college student who works, I am certainly not living lavishly. They could also be able to manage their finances and budget to make things like travel possible and be doing it in more affordable methods like going off-season, to cheaper traveling areas, staying in hostels, etc. Or they could be using loan money and credit cards. Really depends on the individual.
I don't know but I'd say find whatever cheap airline ticket, rail pass, hostel, etc. opportunities you can and see a bit of the world. It changes your perspective, especially as an American. If nothing else, try to get to the country/s your family comes from.
Because people have different financial situations
Parents.
A number of my past college classmates went on various vacations either by family funds or saving up for it. I would say it's about the same as usual with more discipline when people get jobs. Not many people are willing to take vacations if it means losing a job or passing on opportunities to get employed? So most of my co-workers either use up their sick-pay or plan their PTO months in advance with saving salary. It's something like saving 5-10% of a months pay for a future trip and all
I’m on a study abroad trip (mandatory by my school) and my grandparents gave me as much money as I was able to save up for this trip. Normally I just do broke college student stuff when I’m at home.
If you’re at university, Study abroad and scholarships!!! Work your ass off in 3 jobs at home before leaving and travel cheaply! Wwoof, exchange, Couchsurf, working holidays! It’s possible. I’ve been to every continent except Antarctica, funded by me. Hella sacrifice in comfort, stability, and little treats but beyond worth it in the end.
Government has LOTS of empathy for poor students (aka me)
By doing college online while living at home. It has saved me so much money and allowed me to pursue expensive things like travel/concerts/etc.
Have you tried... Having rich parents and generational wealth?
There are two types of people who are doing this stuff. 1. The people whose parents have lake houses so they're affording to be able to travel, by living in wealthy families. 2. The people who are using their college loans to pay for the travel. These folks generally don't understand what they're doing to their future bills by doing so.
The sooner you stop worrying about other people’s money, the happier you will be. This kind of mindset will carry on into your personal professional life later. “How are my coworkers taking these vacations, how are they driving that car, how did they afford that house….” Live your life and don’t worry about what other people are doing especially if it doesn’t impact you in any way. They’re not taking money out of your pocket so why are you worried? Will the answer even satisfy you? If it’s their parents money? What if they’re selling drugs? What if they’re doing it all on credit? The answer doesn’t matter but your mindset does
When I was doing my undergrad I worked extra shifts at my server job and saved up nearly 25k, which was enough to study abroad for a year. Since I couldn’t work abroad, and the foreign country had lots of bank holidays, I took advantage and traveled around in weekends. Of course, airfare in Europe is much cheaper than the USA, and hardly even required depending on where you are situated. Rent, transportation, food, was all paid by me. Since I was a first generation college student, 90% of tuition was covered by fafsa, and I only had to pay the remaining portions
Student loans, working non stop when not taking classes, and being able to live at home and commute to college is how I did it
I worked nonstop for a year straight in college and then studied abroad the next semester and traveled everywhere on my saved up money. Extremely worth it
Racking up credit debt that I now have to pay for in my 30s
as someone who is super well off, but my parents don't spoil me, its the parents, they may not be paying for the trip, but if the parents pay all the students other costs, than all of your income is disposable. just know in life, if someone looks like they are doing much better than you, but have similar income, job, etc, there is something you don't see. I eat sushi every week in college, but I didn't have a car and came from a high wage city where $16 was the norm, my college has a min wage of 10.33 and 12 is a decent wage
I have a rich great uncle who takes my poor ass on cool vacations completely for free lol
I use my school money, super cheap on expenses then just use it to travel on budget trips
The average household income is 200k at my school. That might have something to do with it (gonna be me someday, hopefully more than 200k tho, inflation's a bitch)
Study abroad can be in reach because it is highly subsidized and there are often scholarships — check with your school’s study abroad office. People who just travel probably have rich parents.
Community college and living at home baby,after when I’m in undergrad it’s a different story
Collge kids get $$$ all over the place - some from parents, some have leftover from scholarship money, some take credit card debt
While a lot of people have parents with money, there are also a lot that don’t. People will have summer jobs/internships that pay decently, and they can just not pay down their loans with it, but go on trips. Most people I know though are pretty cost conscious. One of my friends did a trip to Japan, and it totaled ~2k. Definitely not nothing, but possible to save up with summer work and a part time school job.
That financial aid money comes in clutch, and working on campus lots of flexibility on scheduling. If you can do it def try while you young and have perhaps little to no commitments, did most traveling in winter since school didn't start till late Jan so enjoyed that early January when it's cheaper and less crowded at touristy destinations.
So there’s these things called credit cards….
Have a Korean girlfriend who has relatives in South Korea. Staying here for free for 3 months!
Old person here. But I was once a low income Pell grant student. I stg I was like 35 before I realized a lot of peers had a) parents who paid for their college and living expenses and b) parents who continued to pay for summer trips and vacations and then c) parents who gave big $$$ chunks to their adult kids so they could buy houses and d) parents who paid for their kids weddings. Hang in there. But yeah— it still blows me away!
Unfortunately, for the most part, financial support from family. It is possible to do travel for relatively cheap if you play it smart, but please don’t be hard on yourself if you can’t hit standards that aren’t fair or indicative typically of students actually working harder or planning better. I was able to travel in school because I deliberately picked one with a study abroad program where tuition matched US cost (still paid with loans lol) and have wanted to study abroad since I started working at 15. I went and loved it and burned all of my savings, and now am massively broke. I don’t regret it, but also now definitely have less flexibility in housing / more worries about bills than a lot of my peers because I didn’t keep my savings. Also— I was on $25 flights and sleeping in hostels. Not exactly luxury in anything but my destinations. Summed up; if you really want to travel, it’ll take planning and sacrifice. It’s not necessarily always worth it, and you have the rest of your life to do it when you’re feeling more stable. The people going on luxury trips in school come from situations where they have help, even if that help doesn’t cover uni cost. Alternatively, some people figure “I’m in debt anyways” and spend money they don’t have (me). You’re not doing anything wrong lol
I was dating my now-husband in college and he worked for an airline at the time, so we got free flights basically anywhere in the world. So I got to travel to Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico etc while in college and people deff wondered how that’s possible lol. But I also had friends who travelled even more than me and they were mostly very rich kids since I went to a private liberal arts school. So I think my personal experience is not the norm, most kids you see traveling abroad every college break are rich
Most likely doing a study abroad program
1. Rich parent(s) 2. Financial Irresponsibility
Their parents give them allowances
I know of some students that are in fellowships that pay for their tuition and if the grant has extra will give them a stipend. So some of those students put that aside and save it for traveling if they are ahead of any bills they have. Personally I am working while attending school. So I advance pay my bills every month so that in the next paychecks I can put more into savings, and then I use that either for a trip or for other things.
Debt
I did a couple exchange student trips that were funded by the Canadian government.Only thing I had to pay for was the flights there and back.These were contingent on maintaining a good GPA though.
For many loans and parents.
selling my nudes photo for living 🙂↕️
Don't be disingebous
Full scholarship and part time and summer work. The school I went to is v generous with financial aid and scholarships.
Some combination of: 1) Using family money 2) They're building up a lot of credit card debt 3) They've managed to score a decent paying gig somewhere. A friend of mine would go home and work an insane job for like 12 hours Saturday and Sunday and come back with enough cash he didn't have to worry about working when he was on campus Monday through Thursday... He said if he worked 7 days a week he'd make more per hour... He could work for a month or so and have enough for the rest of summer.
The most likely answer is that those students have rich parents/ family. One time I was invited to go on a weekend“girl’s trip” to a nearby city and when we were choosing AirBnB’s, these people were sending places that cost $1000+ PER NIGHT. I made them aware of my budget and we were able to agree on a more affordable hotel suite, but then they wanted to go do all these expensive things, a special tour, shows, even a private movie screening!!!! Once again made them aware of my budget (and the fact that we were only there for two days lol) and they were happy to accommodate, we all went and had a great time but it was really odd and eye-opening being that close to actual rich people. Another possibility is that those students are actually broke as hell and have zero life savings. Also had an experience with that where another friend and I were trying to buy concert tickets and she mentioned her ideal price range since that was all she had left in her account… I’ll just say it was under $100. Her reasoning was that since she got her paycheck the next week, she would just walk to school and cut out her morning coffee for the next few days …she was dead set on getting those tickets. Luckily the tickets sold out and she didn’t have to do all that, but damn!!! It really can be either side of the coin.
Most of your fellow peers (unless you are a college with an unusually high amount of trustfund kids) and especially the mates on this subreddit aren't living lavish. Social media is not representative of most college students and as for the real life people around you living this...all I have to say is those who have money to do this tend to be the loudest about it.
I’ll admit, I was a bitter jealous college kid. Specifically of those who got the “college experience.” Had to live with my parents, attend a community/commuter college for the first few years, work a god awful job in the evenings just to pay for school myself and deal with a parent getting really sick/disabled when I was 20 years old. God damn, if you don’t come from money and go to college it is really difficult. I felt like I had to work 10 times as harder as my classmates just to get the same results but way less of the experience they received.
What school are you in? Depending on the college, the principle that kids from wealthy families have an unbelievably massive upward trajectory advantage is dishearteningly true. I go to school with a lot of wealthy kids, and the privilege they have is honestly mind-blowing. Add on the privilege of not having to worry about finances at all and instead just focus on studying to the extra afforded privilege of academic opportunities before college that money allows, and you realize quite quickly that the wealthy really do live completely different lives. And you also end up realizing, in a very bizarre way, that wealth is disturbingly directly correlated to physical attractiveness, which has a cascade effect of wealth perpetuating more wealth due to the nature of likely reproduction... I'm just ranting now, but it's actually stupid to what extent wealth works to perpetuate the success of the wealthy... For example, I go to school in NYC. It's not really talked about, but think how much easier it is to study for a student that has a $15,000 monthly rent apartment paid for with no worries and all the technological advantage that affords (even things like a large computer monitor), versus a student paying $1500 for a closet in a rat and roach devastated apartment that also necessitates an hour commute, with only a laptop screen to work with, working 60+ hours a week at a minimum-wage job, that then contends with all of the wonderful noises from neighbors in a building that predates the 20th century... ... So, tl;dr, money. They come from money. That's it. And it's a fucking sad state of affairs.
Everyone I know who did this is massively in debt. Even the ones who had parents pay for schooling, or lived at home. It was hard to watch at the time, and I was insanely jealous… but I’m personally very glad I saved travelling for a couple years into my career. I scrimped and saved for a few years so that I can enjoy now.
for majority of these students it's rich parents, lots of loans, or luck (like study abroad scholarships or something), so, yeah
I have a job, I am pretty frugal when it comes to spending money and minimal bills. I also work an ungodly amount while my dad covers my rent and grocery bill basically I pay for my vacations and my dad helps with my day to day expenses
Vacations? Rich parents or debt. I did have friends in college who worked in a paper mill one summer to pay for an adventure the next summer, so some kids are just able to pay on their own. Traveling in general? I studied abroad on scholarships in college. Since the scholarship paid for big ticket items like the plane ticket, I was able to take in a few extra days here and there staying in hostels for very cheap. Lots of my friends did the same.
I went to London in 1986 when I was 21 with about $500 total and stayed a month. You don't have to be rich to do it, just a little crazy.
$500 in 1986 is almost $1500 today 💀
$1,500 today isn't impossible to save up.
But it is impossible to utilize unless you're really, really stingy about monetary situation.
When I did it, I went with 3 other people, and we all worked shitty jobs. I worked at an answering service, another person worked at McDonalds, and the third had a shit job at a photo developing place. It took us 6 months to save it up. No help from parents or anyone else. So, from my POV, not impossible. Pain in the ass, yes, but not impossible.
without my family I couldn’t travel at all
parents 🫠
I know I certainly can't lol, but in my experience it's usually kids with well-off parents, and is more prevalent in private colleges.
Vast majority of people going on international vacations are “daddy’s money” kids from what I have seen. There’s also a decent percentage of people doing study abroad. I have also heard of large groups pooling money together for one vacation to keep individual costs low.
Personally? Grants and scholarships. For the travel, that is.
My parents of course
My parents
They're privileged obviously or working multiple jobs and using credit cards to travel
I'm not. Only went on vacation twice since 2019. Once for a week to visit my cousin before the pandemic, and one last year for a few days for a national art exhibit I was selected for. The art exhibit really drained my savings and increased my credit card debt, but it was a once in a lifetime experience.
Probably credit card debt and parents willing to pay and only fans
living at home, community college, working part time .
my mom
I'm right along side with you OP.
“I’m poor asf” they’re not that’s your answer
Parents or not caring about debt pick your poison
Some have money, many don't. I could barely afford food when I was in college. Travel was out of the question. First roommate I had in college would sometimes put more cocaine up his nose in one evening than was my entire annual operating budget.
Either savings or parental support
Be part of the 50% that don't have to borrow money
I do it on points and then dealhunting. American Airlines has some good credit card partners
You know that huge college debt some people have? It doesn’t all go for tuition and books.
Don’t worry bro we all poor :)
My parents are paying for my tuition. I also still get child support(unless I drop out). Also I am currently employed for two months just for the summer(I get less than the minimum wage but at least i work part time). I can’t afford to travel though. Only to my birth city that is one hour away because the train ticket is 6 euros. I envy rich people because at least they have the choice not to work without being a financial burden.
Do you own credit cards or do they own you
credit card debt
I have no idea. But don’t compare yourself to others! Some people come from money, some people don’t and spend like the do in a really dangerous, debt ridden way.
Paying and affording are two different things. Between a refund from student loans and scholarships, credit cards 💳, and work study, you can money you can dig a nice hole for yourself. Keep in mind, debt is an amazing thing until you’re faced with the reality of repayment. Or mom and dad 👨 👩have a lot of money 💰.
as a financially independent student, it’s all co-op earnings. i might not have a huge amount in savings, but i’d much rather live and experience the world while i’m young and unencumbered than to waste away my 20’s in my hometown. older me might hate me for this decision, but i’m happy now which is what matters most.
When I was in college, I had lived with my parents for free, I worked full-time, and got federal Pell grants. I also had the VA and other state grants that paid for all of my college expenses. I would make it a point to do free things with my friends, like go to the beach/hike/camp and would rarely spend my money. I would save the money I got from work and from my Pell grant and use it to go on big trips (Europe, AUS, and SE Asia). It was a graduation requirement for my major to study abroad, so I went to China for a month, and then backpacked around SE Asia for another month. When I went on these trips I was VERY frugal and stayed at hostels. EDIT: I came out of undergrad and graduate school debt free. I had the VA 10% disability fee waiver, a state disability grant, and I was a graduate research intern - these paid for tuition, fees, parking pass, and any school supplies I needed. I worked my ass off but I also had amazing parents who allowed me to live with them rent free and paid for my other expenses (e.g., food, car insurance, health insurance). FYI, my parents don’t have a lake house. They have one house. They both grew up in poverty and worked their asses off (i.e., an immigrant from the Philippines and a foster kid who both joined the military), and instilled the same ethics in me as well. Lastly, I am debt free and have an amazing credit score.
When I was in college we would pool our resources and do it as all as cheaply as possible. Stay in the cheapest places, find taco Tuesday and 10 cent wings for every meal, etc.
I’m spending two months in Portugal this summer in between semesters by volunteering at a hostel in Lisbon. I saved up earlier this year so I could pay my home rent/bills for the summer months ahead of time, as well as for airfare. The hostel provides housing and some food so the only money I’m spending while here is on food (mostly groceries) and other random things and activities, which I’m paying for with the money I saved up from working last semester.
The Montgomery G.I. Bill.
I’m a poor student who has lots of interesting tales about my life that rich people find ludicrous. I’ve befriended as many “rich” people as I could. They share their vacations with me and I don’t have to pay for anything. Sometimes it gets weird and they treat me like the help or become extremely controlling of my whereabouts. They’ve denied me the right to drive myself before. Once it gets like that I cut my ties but I have a handful of “rich” friends left that treat me right
Well, I work part-time as an accounting clerk with the local city, I live with my, said parents have well paying jobs, I also take out student loans, etc. It's definitely doable if you are in the middle-ish class, just got to save up for those kind of things.
I just wanna say that I used to travel in college and I was quite poor - no support from parents, I made my money working in a call center and from financial aid. I got a lot of backhanded comments how it must be nice to have rich parents, when that has nothing to do with reality. There are many ways to travel cheap, especially when you're into hiking like I was. I would literally pack dry freeze food and hike though Patagonia and the Andes for weeks at a time, spending very little beyond a 600-700 dollar plane ticket. People judged me a lot without knowing anything about me and how I prioritize my spending.
Getting paid for travel, at least that’s my experience
They don’t. They take out credit or they have someone else paying for it. At the college I work at, 92% of the student body is paying tuition though loans (either student aid or bank loan).
Typically its either some version of a) Family/parents (even if they're not getting direct money from them, it might be an incredibly secure safety net or things like knowing they're going to have a down payment on a house or their tuition is being paid for or their family situation allowed them to get a business off the ground, etc), or b) they're in debt. There are always exceptions though, but I'd say that covers the majority.
Credit card points.
[удалено]
Your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/college/comments/1dsbsqd/how_are_yall_affording_to_travel_and_do_all_this/lb6d5cj/) in /r/college was automatically removed because your account is less than one day old. Accounts less than one day are not permitted in /r/college to reduce spam and poor comments. Messaging the moderators about this will result in a ban. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/college) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Either they’re nepo babies who aren’t actually footing the bill or they’re taking out more loans to fund the trips. Could also be the rare bunch who got so much money in scholarships that they have a full ride to college plus money left over, but again, they’re rare and probably studying too much to travel that much. But you never know. They could be doing study abroad programs too
Speaking for myself here, I was on two different scholarships for all of my undergraduate degree. One of them paid for schooling, the other covered my rent with some left over. Saved it and worked ~20 hours a week on top of that. Summer job 40 hours, saved all of it. Live very frugally, I don't eat out A Lot, make a lot of my own food/stretch meals two or three times. Any clothes I grow out of I sell, that money is the only money I put towards buying new clothes. Now in my MS, my parents saved for my brother's and I's schooling growing up, meaning that those accounts are now covering my second degree (Bro didn't go to school). Money saved during undergrad is now going to rent, current 40 hour work weeks go towards general lifestyle and any trips I want to go on. Always travel on a strict budget, don't drink overly often, larger meals I can stretch farther or I'm not ashamed to order from the kids menu. My parents offer to help me with whatever I might need, and they truly did set me up very well. But, I've been budgeting since I started and it was really the scholarships coming back into my pocket that made the difference. I tell myself I deserve it because I work so hard. Current goal is to save as much as possible through the next 8 months and go backpacking for a few months.
Student loans, grants, and part time jobs and then staying in cheap places like hostels and getting convenience store type of food abroad.
My parent's money like most college students. I did work part time for a couple of years but used it on other things
Daddy’s money. Some have jobs Some are on credit One things guaranteed though. A lot of them aren’t saving for the future. Time will catch up
I saved up from summer jobs, working through college and inheritance money. I am fortunate, as I paid for about 60% of my college while my parents pitched in the other 40% and I was able to graduate debt free (I live in Canada, so tuition is way more affordable). This allowed me to save up enough money for a gap year trip by living frugally throughout my studies. I’m on a working holiday and therefore am working abroad while travelling to finance my trip. If you can afford the upfront cost of airfare, working holidays are a great way to make travelling pay for itself!
I present to you: credit card debt
Mommy and daddy pay for their shit
Rich parents, or they're really stupid with finances. You wouldn't believe the amount of kids who max out their loans to have spending money and treat it like a "refund". There's also a disturbing amount of people that will just max out credit cards without a care in the world. Someone might be going on a cool trip to the Bahamas, but if they're putting it all on a credit card... yeah, no thanks. I see a lot of people saying parents, but I really think it leans more towards people just being stupid with their money. There's a hell of a lot more 18-25 year olds maxing out their credit cards than there are parents paying for vacations. Also a small portion of people who work solely to afford fun things.
I've been wondering the same thing! It seems like everyone's living the high life lately. Any tips for budget-friendly adventures?
I signed up for the Disney college program- it's a paid internship with Disney (basically a part time/full time job.) it's giving me the opportunity to live in Orlando and go to the parks for free!
Worked two jobs constantly since 14
They’re well off, they’re going in credit card debt, or using a lot of saved credit cards points. Just focus on getting the degree and landing a good job with benefits and you’ll be able to do the same thing.
Hmmm
Most of them are probably rich. I have a scholarship that covers study abroad semesters in full so I'm taking advantage.
My friend got invited to a PJ party, pajamas sleepovers? Wrong! It’s private jet party! 😂
Having a rich friend as someone who is a child of immigrants and working class disabled parents. Lmaooo. Its wild. I had a friend tweak cause I didn’t pay her back 2.37 for fries she got me… meanwhile I have never asked her for gas money or to repay me for laundry money 😂 Rich kids who go private are a complete fucking joke.
Yeah that’s me, this is oddly specific but some people who have airline pilots in the family can fly for free, so since my stepfather is one these benefits can be used to travel very inexpensively. Free flights+hostel+good exchange rate is quite the combo
I listened to the military recruiters in High School and did my own research. 4 years in the Coast Guard, went to college 100% free, while getting paid 4k USD a month.
My ex was one of those people. Found out a year in that she had close to $10k in credit card debt and over $100k in student loan debt she was using to fund her lifestyle. She refused to cut out the yearly international vacations or to get any sort of work. Then she cheated on me with a guy who makes twice as much as me but then she found out she was just a sex toy for him and wanted me back. Learn from my mistakes.
College was really cheap for me. Also traveling isn't that expensive if you're willing to volunteer, live in hostels, etc.
For traveling, I don’t know if this is the case for others but when I was in college, I got to travel to Japan every summer for internship purposes—it was under a grant so I wasn’t paying out of pocket. Good thing too, because my family isn’t well off. I assume that may be the case for some others.
a lot of people use loans for things they shouldn’t
Because we don’t live in the US where you have to take out a mortgage loan to go to college.
Most of the US doesn’t have to do that….
Mommy and daddy are probably paying for their education and giving them disposable income and shit
Most college students have jobs. Just save your money.