According to a recent analysis conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project, college graduates who received a bachelor’s degree in 2008 borrowed, on average, 50 percent more than their counterparts who graduated in 1996. These figures were adjusted for inflation.

The numbers come as no surprise to students.

“With college tuition on the rise, it is not too surprising that more students are taking out loans,” said junior Anna-Marie Muchen. “A lot of college kids end up being in debt after graduating. It’s kind of depressing to realize how much getting a bachelor’s degree is going to end up costing our generation.”

The analysis concluded that more college students are attending private for-profit schools, and this, in turn, has resulted in an increased number of students taking out larger loans. Specifically, in 2008 alone, 60 percent of all college graduates across the nation had borrowed, compared with 52 percent in 1996. Of this 60 percent, the average loan for bachelor’s degree recipients was more than $23,000, compared with slightly more than $17,000 in 1996.

Nevertheless, a similar trend might not be present at Washington University, which is considered a private not-for-profit school.

“It’s difficult to know how many Wash. U. students take out loans because some students take out loans without our knowledge,” said Bill Witbrodt, director of Student Financial Services. “However, if we were able to have an accurate count, I’m sure we would see a decrease in the loan numbers.”

According to Witbrodt, the University has adopted the policy of awarding financial aid without loans to students whose family annual incomes are less than $60,000. In addition, Student Financial Services makes an extra effort to minimize the size and quantity of loans students take out using other available sources of funding in lieu of student loans.

The national analysis found that 24 percent of 2008 bachelor’s degree graduates at for-profit schools borrowed more than $40,000, compared to only 5 percent of graduates at public institutions and 14 percent at not-for-profit schools.

The undergraduate tuition at Washington University for the 2010-2011 academic year is $39,400, which is $1,600 or 4.2 percent more than the 2009-2010 tuition of $37,800. This tuition is expected to rise again for the 2011-2012 academic year.

About 60 percent of all Washington University undergraduates receive some form of financial assistance.

“We try to discourage students from borrowing,” Witbrodt said. “Student Financial Services counselors work with students to help them develop financial plans or budgets to monitor their spending to avoid the necessity to borrow more loan funds than are required.”

It’s that small little thing that people seem to forget: the money.

Favre signed a two-year contract worth around $25 million, with extra incentives given for games played and for passing yards accumulated. So sticking around for a few more years kind of makes sense once you grab a seat on the money train. The average age for an NFL quarterback to retire is in the early thirties. Favre is 41. Is Favre really helping his team, or is he holding them back?

Progress is what’s dragging our current economy down.

The economy is in all sorts of trouble; some experts believe it’s in a recession, some say a depression, and every now and then you’ll hear some clown say that it’s just fine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which most economists believe represents the vitality of the economy, has bounced back. So if there’s money flowing, then why is the economy really that bad? Is it because of the job market? Is it because the housing market and the subprime lending industry crippled everything? Or is it because of the baby boomers, those born from 1946 to 1964?

USA Today ran an article last week about baby boomers who are now homeless and who have lost everything. If that’s the case, who are all those old people still working? The Government Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the largest group of working people in our society consists of adults aged 44 and older. The baby boomers are the largest group of jobholders in our society. They are the graying America.

The interesting thing is that the original 401(k) program was introduced in 1978 by Congress, so there’s been plenty of time for this aging workforce to plan its retirement. Granted, the market took a giant downward turn a few years ago, but it has now recovered. That’s how the roller coaster goes. So what if they want to keep working instead of retiring, what’s the big deal? The big deal is that this impedes the career development of young people who should be moving into the workforce.

People search for a job when they graduate from college. Once they find that job, they’ll usually purchase a car, then a home and then stuff for that home. These are the consumers in the economy, the people who spend money, the ones who help with economic progress. When baby boomers get close to retirement, they save more, which doesn’t put a lot of money back into the economy. The other interesting fact is that older workers make more. When older employees stay at a company at a high cost, it affects the profit margin of that company. If an employee making $80,000 a year retires at, let’s say, 58, then a company can replace him with two college grads at $35,000 a year, saving the company $10,000 and netting them two employees instead of one. If that employee doesn’t retire then two people are still looking for work, and the company might have to look at different ways to save that $10,000.

It’s not my place to say who should work and who shouldn’t. But maybe before we get too old ourselves, we might really think about progress. Are we setting ourselves up to retire early, or are we going be the guy who everyone says is too old to play a young man’s game?

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

President Barack Obama participates in a conference call with college newspaper editors in the Oval Office, Sept. 27, 2010.

In a conference call with college and university student-journalists, Obama answered any pressing questions students might have. Prior to taking questions from reporters who had called in to the conference, Obama issued a statement, highlighting aspects of his education and jobs policies.

First, Obama claimed that his administration wants to make college more affordable for young Americans.

“Instead of handing over $60 billion in unwarranted subsidies to big banks that were essentially getting this money even though the loans were guaranteed by the federal government, we’re redirecting that money so that it goes directly to students,” he said. “And that’s allowing us to support community colleges and make college more affordable for nearly eight million students and families.”

In addition to giving loans directly to students, the Obama administration is tripling the investment in college tax credits for middle class families, raising the value of Pell Grants and making sure that future borrowers are able to choose a payment plan that doesn’t require students to pay more than 10 percent of their salaries toward loan repayments. For those who go into public service, whatever debts are remaining will be forgiven after ten years. Finally, the administration is continuing to simplify financial aid forms.

Obama highlighted the benefits afforded to students under the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as the “health care bill.” Young adults are able to remain under their parents’ health plans until age 26, which gives students the opportunity to take the first job offered to them, even if it does not include health insurance as part of its compensation package.

Another priority Obama wants to fulfill is training a strong workforce that may be ready for the occupations in the future. He sees community colleges playing a large role in such training.

“Community colleges are going to play a critical role in getting there, and I’ve asked Dr. Jill Biden to hold the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges,” Obama said. “That way stakeholders are going to be able to discuss how community colleges can make sure we’ve got the most educated workforce in the world in relevant subjects that help people get jobs.”

While Obama recognizes that it will be up to students to complete their degrees, the government can help remove certain barriers, especially for those Americans who are in school while holding a job or raising a family.

“I’ve long proposed what I call a college access and completion fund, which would develop, implement and evaluate new approaches to improving college success and completion, especially for kids from disadvantaged backgrounds,” he said. “We’re also making sure our younger veterans are supported through a post-9/11 GI Bill.”

Obama and his administration seek to make college access easier for those students whose parents brought them to the United States illegally. Through the DREAM Act, which has not passed Congress, these students would have the opportunity to obtain legal status through education.

The president succinctly summarized the objective of his higher education program.

“The key here is, is that we want to open the doors of our colleges and universities to more people so they can learn, they can graduate, and they can succeed in life.”

Student Life, as well as the student newspapers of Radford University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison participated in the conference, along with many other participants.

Colin Daileda, a participant representing southwest Virginia’s Radford University asked the president about the realities of the “lost generation.”

“I’ve heard some of my professors call our generation the ‘lost generation’ because we get out of school with a ton of debt due to student loans and not be able to…get a steady job…and the economy is in the shape it is currently in,” Daileda said. “So I guess my question is, do you think there’s some truth to that? And do you think it will take a longer time than usual for our generation to get on out feet?”

Obama responded with optimism: “Don’t let anybody tell you that somehow your dreams are going to be constrained going forward,” he said. “You’re going through a slightly tougher period.  But if you think about it, what we called ‘the greatest generation,’ my grandparents’ generation, they had a situation where unemployment reached 30 percent and they ended up essentially building the entire American middle class to what it was and making this the most powerful economy in the world.  So right now we’re going through a tough time, but I have no doubt that you guys are going to be successful.”

Obama also noted that for the coming election, it is important for the current generation of college students to participate.

“And so even though this [election] may not be as exciting as a presidential election, it’s going to make a huge difference in terms of whether we’re going to be able to move our agenda forward over the next couple of years,” he said. “And I just want to remind young people, they’ve got to get re-engaged in this process.  And they’re going to have to vote in these midterms elections.  You’ve got to take the time to find out where does your congressional candidate stand on various issues, where does your Senate candidate stand on various issues and make an educated decision and participate in this process—because democracy is never a one-and-done proposition.”

Mike Hirshon | Student Life

A scream is heard in the distance.

No. Nope. My parents didn’t move me into college. I flew all the way from the East Coast at the start of my freshman year alone. My parents asked if I’d like them to come, and I declined—or I never asked them, I’m not sure. In any case, I had one suitcase, two arms and two parents. You do the math.

So, I arrived on move-in day, moved in, immediately fell passionately in love with my roommate (and her parents), and my college experience was off and running, sans any breakfasts with Mom and Dad. Now, one and half years later, they have yet to visit, and I’m doing fine. I have had no reason to ask them to stop their work, clear their weekends, book a hotel and buy plane tickets, and furthermore, I have two older sisters who have had such reasons.

It’s always striking to me how shocked people are when I tell them this little fact about myself. They feel such pity; their lower lips tremble by their noses, and their eyes grow as wide as the coffee cup they hold, each slurp an attempt to solicit confirmation that my parents really love me. The conversation always ends awkwardly, and I’m left unsure if I’ve proven that I’m not neglected.

A few afternoons ago, my mom called me; her voice was hushed in whispered urgency when I picked up. “Can I vent?” she asked, sounding rather like she was presently stuffed in what she believed to be the soundproof space underneath a desk. I acquiesced. She went on to tell me of a family friend’s daughter: the sweet girl, a graduating high school senior, was going to be denied her first week of college—orientation, move-in, classes, the whole shebang—because her parents were going to be out of the country to bring her 21-year-old brother to a program abroad. This was not the girl’s decision. Her parents would rather she miss what is arguably the most important week of freshman year than send her off into her awaiting adulthood in solitude. My mother and I hung up the phone, equally devastated.

This is hardly the first article to try and pry away the rigid security blanket around our generation and cry, “Hey! There’s a kid in here!” but I can’t help but stare in awe at the great distances that umbilical cords now travel to campuses. Washington University is perhaps particularly susceptible to this practice, as it tends to address parents as secondary students instead of just faceless wallets (as they should be!). In the process of attending a Wash. U. summer program, I needed a parental signature to both apply and confirm my spot, despite my 18+ legal status as an adult. When I visited Student Financial Services last year, it took great lengths and specific directions to get the counselor to send information directly to me, instead of just to my father.

I have a particularly strong view about my dependency. The view is that I don’t like it. My mother is constantly reminding me that “I’m still just a kid!” and “I’m supposed to need my parents!” Be that as it may, I don’t need my parents for things I don’t actually need them for. Just as the term “PTA” was rather foreign to my family 10 years ago, the phrase “Parents’ Weekend” is just as unfamiliar now. I wonder how much this school and the parents themselves exacerbate a 20-year-old’s dependency.

It should be said, however, that I recently learned that a play I wrote will be read in a festival next October. I asked my parents to come to see it. My life will not crumble if they don’t make it, but it would still mean something to me to see them in the audience. So for this occasion, I kick my soapbox aside, and as it falls inverted, I realize that sometimes, I need my parents too.

Selena is a sophomore in Arts & Sciences. She can be reached via e-mail at sslane@wustl.edu.

Earlier this month, two students at Cornell University took their own lives by “gorging,” or leaping off a bridge into the vast gorges. The suicides have contributed to the perception that Cornell has a higher-than-average suicide rate. Another student, a freshman, was found at the bottom of Fall Creek Gorge last month, and his death was also ruled a suicide.

Suicides and violence related to mental illness have been on the rise on college campuses across the nation over the years. For instance, in the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007, student Seung-Hui Cho opened fire at Virginia Tech, killing 32 people and wounding 25 others. He suffered from severe anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder.

“I think that depression and suicide are the largest health issues facing college students at this time,” said Alan Glass, director of Washington University’s Student Health Services and a member of the American College Health Association’s board of directors. “Universities have realized that more and more resources are going to need to be focused on these areas.”

Although the causes of this increase in mental illness among college students are manifold and unclear, reasons likely include academic pressure, transition difficulties and financial stress due to the economic recession.

“Academics can be a major source of stress, especially at a top institution like Wash. U.,” sophomore Sheri Balogun said. “The world has gotten so much more competitive, and there’s a lot of self-inflicted pressure as well as parental pressure to get into a selective university and excel.”

This pressure to succeed affects students at all class levels in the University.

“We [freshmen] come to college not knowing what to expect, and there’s definitely a culture shock—everything is so different, and we don’t have the immediate support of our families like we used to during high school,” freshman Timothy Han said. “Classes are much harder, and the students you’re competing against were probably at the top of their graduating high school classes, so the curve can be harsh.”

Financial strains can also contribute to students’ stress. Since the economic recession, university endowments have decreased significantly, making it more difficult to grant scholarships and financial aid to students in need.

A depressed or suicidal student may exhibit symptoms such as self-harm, low self-esteem, antisocial behavior, alcohol or drug abuse and despondency. One key to helping out such individuals is to help them to realize that their situation is not permanent and that there is hope for change.

Glass said not all universities are doing enough to aid their students in dealing with this debilitating health issue.

“Colleges and universities need to increase services and resources focused on mental health issues,” Glass said. “They also need to provide easier access to mental health services and do more outreach programs on campus. Every student who has depression and anxiety issues does not show up at the counseling center.”

By reducing the number of professors who have tenure, a university can ensure higher-quality faculty. Once professors achieve tenure, typically done over a period of about seven years, they are no longer held as accountable for the work they do, nor are they held to the same standards and expectations. Because their jobs are no longer at stake, much of their incentive to work, publish and teach effectively disappears.

This removal of incentives, when coupled with the process that professors go through to get tenured in the first place, has detrimental consequences for overall academic quality. While attempting to attain tenure over their first seven years, professors face an unfortunate emphasis on published work, especially in the number of articles that they produce.

This leads to two unfortunate circumstances. The first has been referred to as “publish or perish,” in which academics are pushed into publishing numerous new works in order to sustain their careers. This raises the likelihood that new work will be of decreasing scholarly value, as the priority of publishing begins to trump the inherent value of the work itself. A closely related problem has been referred to humorously as the “least publishable unit.” This phenomenon involves an academic minimizing the amount of new information in each publication in order to spread his or her work into as many releases as possible and to increase both the volume of his or her published work and reputation—often deemed an academic’s most-cherished possession.

Of course, these are extremes. Most professors genuinely love their disciplines and teaching, and actually resorting to these methods is likely the exception, rather than the rule. But inherent defects remain in the system. In order to gain tenure, academics are often encouraged to publish the highest volume of information, sometimes disregarding the quality of the work; after gaining tenure, their motivation to work is removed because of guaranteed jobs and salaries.

Clearly, American universities need an alternative to the current tenure system. One option would be to offer tenure in seven-year cycles. In such a system, after faculty members earn tenure, they are guaranteed a job for seven years. After that time period is up, they are subject to some sort of review. If they pass the review, they gain tenure for another seven years; if they fail, they are dismissed. This system would ensure that the faculty would continue to work after receiving tenure, while simultaneously having a temporarily assured job.

A seven-year cycle, however, would not solve the “publish or perish” attitude and the problems it presents. In order to resolve these issues, universities must reform the method by which tenure is obtained. Instead of focusing primarily on the volume of published work, universities should focus more heavily on the quality of their professors’ work and, more importantly, the quality of their teaching. By concentrating on these issues, there is more of a guarantee that tenured professors are competent, excellent teachers who provide their fields with meaningful contributions.

Because of the tenure system’s adoption during the Vietnam War era, professors’ livelihoods are no longer ruled by the watchful eyes of their universities’ administrators. But their jobs are now governed by the framework of an unfair system that requires or encourages them to value quantity over quality and provides them with opportunities to shirk responsibilities after receiving tenure. In order for our professors to truly fulfill the promise of academia, it is clear that tenure as we know it needs to change.

(Erin Mitchell | Student Life)

The only official pieces of information available to all students when choosing classes are a short course description that rarely changes from year to year and numerical course evaluation scores. Other information comes from unreliable sources, such as friends who have taken a class (sometimes from a totally different professor) and Web sites like ratemyprofessors.com.

I believe this information is woefully inadequate and makes it very hard for students to make important decisions regarding what classes to take. While we all have requirements we have to fulfill to graduate, one of the joys of being a college student is being able to take a class totally unrelated to one’s major or focus just for fun. In addition, many majors require only a certain number of electives to complete, leaving exactly which classes to take up to the students themselves. Thus, the academic part of our college experience is largely shaped by the classes we choose to take. As an economics major, my education could be very different from that of another economics majors because of a few clicks on​

WebSTAC each spring and fall. The importance of choosing classes cannot be overstated, and students ought to have a better idea of what they are getting into when they register for classes.

I would first like to applaud last Monday’s staff editorial requesting that syllabi for courses be posted online in order to assist students in choosing courses. I think that it is a great idea to improve upon the serious lack of information that is available to students when they choose courses. I would also like to suggest that an additional measure be taken. I propose that when courses are posted on WebSTAC each semester, each listing should be accompanied by a short description written by the professor who will be teaching the course next semester.

What would this accomplish? It would make students aware of possible differences in a given professor’s teaching style, grading style and philosophy when teaching the given course, compared to previous iterations of the same course. A professor’s description would also let students know what really will be taught, instead of a stock course description that sometimes poorly describes the course.

In large introductory classes like calculus and chemistry, the classroom experience may not differ greatly from professor to professor, but in upper-level elective courses, the same class taught by two different professors may not even seem like the same class at all. This is not necessarily a bad thing—intellectual diversity rarely is—but as a student, it would be nice to be made aware of this possibility. This simple addition to the course listings would make choosing classes much easier, and it would reduce the number of mistakes (often followed by dropped classes) that students make.

Signing up for a class amounts to an agreement on the part of the student to tens of hours of class, homework and studying over the course of the semester. In addition, all of the Wash. U. professors I have encountered take their teaching very seriously and devote significant time to their courses. Knowing this, is it too much to ask professors to take 20 minutes to summarize their courses? Professors might even be happy to do this, knowing it may lead to more motivated students.

No professor wants half of their class to drop out in the first several weeks simply due to an inaccurate course description that they may not even have had control over. Simply put, additional course descriptions would benefit professors and students alike, and implementing one would have minimal cost. I hope this suggestion is heard by the relevant administrators and is given some serious thought.

The answer to the first question—whether we are adults—is relatively straightforward, from my point of view, for most of us. We can quibble about the exact definition of “adult,” but the bottom line is that, outside a few small areas (I manage to cook my own food, somehow), I am entirely dependent on the support of my parents. From my point of view, this means that there is no way that I can claim to be a full adult. And as I am a senior, and quickly see my graduation date approaching, I must admit that I am also not eager to make that claim just yet.

The answer to the second question—whether we should be treated as adults—is, in my view, not identical to the answer to the first question, and slightly more complex. We may not be full adults, but does this mean that we should not try to conduct ourselves as if we were? Think about the implications of the reverse claim. Should college students really not act as if they were responsible for their actions? Should they not act as if they can make a difference in this world, or, at the very least, as if what they did mattered? I would hope that we would all try to act as if we were full members of this society, with the same responsibilities toward ourselves and toward the people and the world around us that anyone else has. I cannot imagine another way to live one’s life that could remotely be considered ethical.

And outside the ethical implications of not treating students like adults, there is an even more serious social-justice aspect to the question. While we may argue about what it actually means to be an adult, the law has a much simpler definition. In the United States, at the age of 18, everyone is given the rights and responsibilities of the citizen, regardless of whether they are in college or not. In my eyes, it is neither just to deprive a legal citizen of his rights, nor just to relieve that citizen of his responsibility to obey the law. In terms of college, this means that a student should not be subject to interference in his or her personal life that he or she did not consent to through a democratic process. It also means that when a student commits a crime, he or she should not be referred to a University judiciary board but subjected to the same laws and punishments as anyone else his or her age. We may pay for a safe environment, but I would like to think that in the United States of America, nobody can pay to be excused to his right or from the law.

This, after all, is what people who argue that college students should not be treated as adults are really arguing. They are, at the core of their argument, asserting that it should be permissible in America to exchange money and privilege for a prolonged childhood that excuses the student from the ethical, moral and occasionally the legal responsibilities of adulthood. It is an argument that is unheard of in other parts of the world and unprecedented even here. If you are comfortable making such an argument, you are free to do so. I, for one, find it obscene.

In his sophomore year, Lin moved to a six-person suite made up of students from four different ethnic backgrounds.

“It was really good because we would go out to all these different kinds of ethnic restaurants, and then we would have lots of discussion about politics and just general views on life,” Lin said. “It was actually a pretty richly rewarding experience.”

Lin is one of many University students to live with students of another race in residential housing. Over the summer, interracial roommates came into prominence in the media after several high-profile studies were published about them.

One study at Ohio State University found that having a roommate of another race can reduce students’ prejudices and broaden their friend circles.

Senior Heather Skanes, last year’s director of Black Anthology, said she agrees with this finding. Skanes, who is black, had a white roommate freshman year and said this led her to meet more white friends than she otherwise would have.

“I feel like at Wash. U., it’s really tempting to just be friends with people of your own culture,” Skanes said. “The fact that I had a roommate who was white led me to meet white friends that I otherwise wouldn’t have met.”

Skanes said her freshman roommate also connected with Skanes’ black friends, so the Ohio State study’s findings can go both ways.

The same study at Ohio State also found that black freshmen with high standardized test scores who room with white students earn better grades, even if their white roommates’ test scores are low. This was not true of white students or black students with low test scores. The study’s authors suggested that this effect might occur because having a white roommate could help black students adjust to studying at universities made up mostly of white students.

Skanes said her grades do correspond with these findings—she earned her highest GPA in her first semester freshman year—but that she does not feel her freshman roommate was a factor in her studying.

Skanes is a pre-med student, and her freshman roommate was in the art school. Skanes said she studied more when she lived in an all-black suite, mostly because she had a roommate at that time who would go to the library with her.

“I feel like I definitely did my best studying when I roomed with three black girls,” Skanes said. “It’s more about the person [you live with].”

Not all the findings on interracial roommates were positive. Another study at Indiana University found that three times as many randomly assigned interracial roommates had broken up by the end of their first semester, as compared to a control group of white roommates.

According to this study, white students’ prior negative attitudes about race were successful indicators of these breakups.

Jill Stratton, associate dean of students in the Office of Residential Life (ResLife), said that in her 17 years of working at the University, she can recall a few incidents of roommates separating due to racial problems. But she said such occurrences have tapered off in recent years.

“In the last five years, I’ve not been aware of a specific incident that dealt with roommates moving out or changing roommates because of racial problems,” Stratton said.

Stratton cites the University’s commitment to diversity and the visibility of this to prospective students as a reason the University experiences fewer racial problems in housing than other universities.
As for interracial roommates who stay together, Associate Director of Residential Life Josh Walehwa said these students should “take full advantage” of their experiences.

Walehwa, who advises the diversity committee in ResLife, said he feels that students stand to benefit from having their pre-existing attitudes about race challenged by their roommates.
“I believe that we benefit from people who might have different ideologies, backgrounds, beliefs,” Walehwa said. “That’s what college really is all about.”

I’ve been there, Charlie. I’ve come back from three months of gray cubicle walls and appreciated the variety and vibrancy of Washington University more than I did before. I’ve sat in front of a computer for eight hours and copied and stapled and gotten up early, and I’ve realized that we have it good.

But here’s the deal. Charlie is representative of a frighteningly overwhelming mentality at Wash. U. that commits to a great passion for activity in college (extracurriculars, drunkenness both included) because of its awareness of the great banality of post-University life. “Well, this is it,” many of us conclude. “Where’s the bottle-opener?”

The ’geist is even more potent as many of us enter senior year. “Oh, right, you’re a senior,” underclassmen will say, reminded. And even September, fall semester, we grimace and wave our arms. “No, no, don’t say that!” we plead. I don’t even want to think about our responses when we’re late-April almost-laureates.
I wonder this about that: If you’ve been attending Washington University for four years, and you’ve all along been preparing your mind and your body for intrinsic excellence, and you’ve identified one or two things you are passionate about within the college environment, AND you have no sense of excitement about the unknown that “faces us” after we graduate with really good-looking degrees and critical mindsets meant to engage and change the universe, what the hell is wrong with you?

To put it a little less offensively, it seems to me that if you haven’t acquired a sense of adventure, of taking on the new, of seizing opportunities in a competitive environment while you’ve been at Wash. U., you’ve essentially been sitting at home for the last four years letting your mom make you grilled cheese and cut it into sailboats.

If you don’t want to sit in a cubicle and be really, really boring when you graduate from college, don’t. If your options are go to Chicago and wait tables 10 hours a day and then come home to your miniscule apartment and write fiction until you fall asleep, or kill a year before you go to med school by saving baby animals from man-made ecological disasters in Alaska, or work on a cooperative vineyard in Greece until you get bored or lonely and feel like coming back to the States, I’d say things are looking pretty good.

You can do whatever you want to do. If the real world looks bad, it’s because you’ve resigned yourself to a life that is stupid and won’t work for you. The real world is whatever you want it to be. You have to make money. But you don’t have to make that much.

It’s an open field. Washington University is supposed to have been your training facility. You’re young. Run.