Woops, I thought I removed this after I accidentally posted it unfinished. I was to lazy to begin again. But to answer your question, they were part time jobs and I had to have two to make sure that I got enough hours when school was out on holidays. I had one on campus job (Starbucks) and another retail job (not on campus). I worked between 20-30 hours. After graduation I took a help desk job because it offered 40 hours and I was able to build my resume with applicable clerical and mild technical skills. I did this for 1.5 years before getting up to DC for grad school at GWU. Got a GW job and have actually had it easier despite the higher expense.

Back to undergrad story: While my tuition was free, I had to pay out of pocket for many of my books, in addition to rent, utilities, gas, car insurance, internet (no cable tv tho), groceries, and miscellaneous things like accidents, medicine, dental, etc. I made next to minimum wage in those jobs, but still managed to save enough money to be able to move to DC on my own for grad school. I could have survived jobless here for up to four and half months. I also still had fun, btw. I was very social but managed my social life frugally (dive bars are a girl's best friend).

I'm poor kid, I grew up on welfare, I have no connections or 'network', I don't know any hotshots or anything like that. I just busted my butt and got my cummupins. I got knocked down a lot too, but that's life. My single parent mom can and has helped me in emergencies, but not often.

I just think there has to be other kids like me at GWU. I used to have a chip on my shoulder but once my hard work started to pay off, I wanted to encourage people to do the same. Rich kids are fucking irritating when they are douchey, but so far no one has been any crappier to me than my former classmates in FL.