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Notes -
Two things:
First, depending on if you were at the beginning or end of the 2010s, there will be a vast difference. The money pouring into luxury (by any stretch of the definition) is staggering. By the time I left my alma mater we had completed 2 brand new dorms that competed directly with off-campus apartments, and a new fitness center with golf simulators, rock walls, and the best equipment money could buy. When I visited 10 years later, even more new dorms, stone buildings, and high-end food options were available - with the dive bars replaced by chains and uber-high-end apartments. The story is the same at many other formerly sleepy state schools.
Second - it still varies. The first school I went to for 2 years had far more rudimentary accommodations and we typically ate at the dining hall and that was it. Our dorm bathrooms were communal, there was one tiny kitchen to rent per 400 person complex, and "Luxury" was renting a ratty ranch house that still smelled like Natty Lite but had enough space, or a postage stamp of flimsy new-construction apartments. There was one nice dorm that you could get into, in theory, but that was about it. The dive bars were still losing ground to chains but....
And as I talk about this I'll revise a little. Three things, then!
I wish I had gotten student loans and spent a little more. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be able to take women out to eat, go on weekend trips since I could afford gas, and work out at that gym instead of slaving away at some fast food joint. It would have been un-fucking-believably fun. It also appears that there would have been virtually no consequences for it - either the government would have paid for everything, or I would still have been able to afford the ~$50k in loans at the end of it pretty easily.
This may seem tongue in cheek but to put it another way, I have enough money now I would kill to go back in time and give 20 year old me a ton of cash, even with a penalty. I think there's a lesson there about living beyond your means a bit when you're at the apex of your youthful vigor, even if getting taxpayers to pay this shit instead of people's future selves is disgusting.
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