On Thu, 11 Nov 1999, Ralph Walter wrote:

> << What's wrong with rushing back to my dorm room to log
>  on and check my e-mail,  >>
>
> Boy, have things changed since we were in school.

Speaking as a longtime habitue' of college towns: You better believe it!

The old-time model of an undergraduate student who sleeps in a crowded
dorm or barracks and washes dishes to put him or herself through school:
not any more.

Among other things, it is no longer physically possible for an 18-year-old
to earn enough money from part-time wages to cover tuition and expenses,
unless he or she earns hundreds of dollars an hour.

Further, the students nowadays, even at state schools like Michigan and
Michigan State, come from affluent backgrounds and have no patience for
the military-style deprivation that past generations of college students
tolerated.

Today, it would be an exceptional college junior who doesn't have a nice
car, a Pentium-class computer with laser printer and scanner, a private
apartment, a cellphone, not to mention all the ordinary technological
bric-a-brac like a stereo, a microwave oven, a telephone answering
machine, a large screen color TV, etc., etc.

You don't have to be very old to remember a time when the average college
student had *none* of those things.

Sign me,
Washed Dishes in College