<prompt> Human: Im asking out of curiosity, because currently Im about to finish community college, which is completely paid for by my parents, and I only attended for that sole reason. Anyways, Ill be attending a school that costs around 34k a year, but they give a 15k scholarship for a GPA or 3.0 for transfer students, making it about 19k a year. Either way, 19k x 4 years is around 76k. Even a cheaper college in my area is 10k a year, so how on Gods green earth do people come out of college with only 20k in debt, like the national average? Am I missing something?  <response>: Financial aid. I grew up below the poverty line. My family could not afford to help at all. I got into a good school, worked hard, had a few part time jobs to pay for books and plane tickets home, and graduated with a balance of a couple grand on my credit card and thats it. During college I felt really bitter and resentful that I had to work so many jobs to pay for food and books to make it through while wealthier friends could use all their time to study and hang out. Now they are just finishing paying off their college loans and I just bought a house so I guess it worked out. 