[Dion]

Today, the cost of higher education is ridiculous. Average tuition at a public university, in state, is $8,655. At a private, it’s $29,056. My program would cost, in total, a reasonable $11,000 after grant aid. But it’s not just tuition that puts students into debt; it’s room and board. At Duke, where rates are similar to universities across the country, a non-air-conditioned dorm with two roommates costs $5,464 an academic year. The cheapest meal plan for freshmen is a ghastly $5,540, or $27 a day.

When I added up the costs of tuition, books, transportation, food, housing, not to mention car insurance, utilities and, dare I say, a date, I felt hopeless. I had only $4,000 to my name and no possessions except a backpack full of camping gear. But as desperate as I was, I was determined to go back to school.

Which brought me back to: Could I live in a van?

The van-dwelling lifestyle, I figured, would eliminate many of the costs. For Internet and electricity, I’d use the library. For showers, I’d buy a cheap campus gym membership. For food, I’d cook my own meals. For rent, well, I wouldn’t have any rent. For dates, well, I probably wouldn’t have any of them, either.

But my journey wasn’t just a financial awakening. I had learned about subsistence living in Arctic villages, and worked with a 74-year-old maintenance man who lived in his 1980 Chevy Suburban year-round. I began to bring into question what passed for “normal” down in the lower 48, especially when it often led to a lifetime of work, bills and Bed Bath & Beyond purchases. Out of debt, I felt for the first time that my life was my own, and that I could do whatever I wished with it.

And more than anything I wished to use this freedom to continue the liberal arts education that had put me into so much debt. While the cost of my education had chained my ankles to the steel balls of debt, the liberal arts had freed some other part of me. Between a Thor-eauvian van-dwelling experiment and studying the great thinkers, I thought Duke would help me become a better person. Living in a van wouldn’t just be a way for me to afford school. It would be an adventure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/ed...anted=all&_r=0