<prompt> Human: Preface: Im a European from a country with free college education, so this is all completely different for me, Im just trying to make sense of this.So the federal minimum wage is 7.25. The average yearly cost of college is 9,139 thats in-state tuition. Lets say that the person in question has a small number of scholarships and grants, brining the number down to a round 8,000.That means a person needs to work for 1,104 hours a year to pay for tuition, or 27 weeks full-time.However, of course college students cant work full time and study. So if they worked all year round, minus 2 weeks of visiting their family and stuff, that brings us down to 22 hours a week. It might be a little high, but that shows that even ten hours a week can halve someones college loans!Then why do I hear American friends of mine complain how theyre going to graduate massively in debt? Surely theres something Im missing? Im not pretending like jobs is such a novel idea that no ones ever had it, so whats the actual reason?  <response>: 20 hours a week, plus 18 hours of school, plus homework, plus extra curricular stuff, clubs, sports. plus having a social life, time to visit family, holidays. Totally easy.Also, lets say you are right about the 8k for school slightly lowball imo: roomboard and books?. What about the rest of living expenses? Rent, food, car. Even frugally that can be 1k more per month, 12k more per year. And thats frugal. Its not like the only cost for 4 years of your life is school.Yes, technically you can do what you say. I did. I worked 1-2 jobs while attending school full time minus a semester here and there to pay my way through. It took me 6 years to get my bachelors with no debt. There were massive social trade offs though. Regret might not be the right word here, but sometimes when my wife and I get together with some of her college friends and they remember and reminisce, I remember that I didnt build connections like that or experience college in the same way at all, and sometimes thats sad. 