[Alumni-chat] What will the BOT do?

[Rowan (rowankaiser at gmail.com)]

>>b) The cost of living in urban centers has increased dramatically, and co-op pay is no longer able to cover cost of living in most situations.  While in my era we were able to actually save some cash on co-op and return to campus with startup money for the academic term, today, on average the co-op experience is a double whammy for students.  They pay tuition to be working, and then end up paying for the living costs of the job as well.
>Again, I guess I don't understand.  The majority of co-op jobs I had paid minimum wage.  As a financial aid student, I was expected to cover all living costs out of that plus save at least two hundred dollars towards the study quarter.  I managed to do this.  Some co-op jobs paid much better than minimum wage, but these were usually in the sciences.  Many interesting jobs paid nothing because they were essentially volunteer -- excellent learning opportunities, very poor pay.  If you were on financial aid, you had to balance all these options, another learning experience.
This one's pretty simple, John. Jobs were paying $5,000 per term, when they paid. Tuition was $7,000 per term or more. Sure, there was financial aid and loans and such, but when the starting point is $2,000 down?