>>My 9,500 included room and board.
What school is that? Looking at Penn State: a 4 year degree needs a minimum of 50 credits so if you do it part time over (say) 7 years it's still $5K annually just for tuition and before allowing for the joys of annual education inflation. That's assuming you don't do a masters or law/medical degree which costs a whole heap more.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
