He was kind enough to share his story with us this week.
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By the time Ken Ilgunas was wrapping up his last year of undergraduate studies at the University of Buffalo in 2005, he had no idea what kind of debt hole he'd dug himself into.
He had majored in the least marketable fields of study possible — English and History — and had zero job prospects after getting turned down for no fewer than 25 paid internships.
"That was a wake-up call," he told Business Insider. "I had this huge $32,000 student debt and at the time I was pushing carts at Home Depot, making $8 an hour. I was just getting kind of frantic."
Back then, student loans had yet to become the front page news they are today. Ilgunas could have simply deferred his loans or declared forbearance. He also could have asked his parents (who were more than willing to help) for a leg up. He could have thrown up his hands and gone to grad school until the job market bounced back.
Instead, he moved to Alaska and spent two years paying back every dime. And when he enrolled at Duke University for graduate school later, he lived out of his van to be sure he wouldn't have to take out loans again.
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He decided to write a tell-all in an article for Salon.com. "The next day, I had like 85 new Facebook friends and hundreds of messages and emails," he said.
Duke was none too thrilled, but, fortunately, they didn't kick him out. "They wanted me to sign a contract saying I wouldn't sue them if anything happened to me, but they also created a law that more or less banned future van dwellers from campus," he said.
But it all paid off. He graduated in May 2011 — completely debt free.
I'm wondering where he parked that thing. (It's a nice van too.) If he left it in one spot for too long, someone would've bound to get suspicious. He probably had to move it around every day or two.
People are only complaining in retrospect, they didnt know or notice a damned thing while it was actually happening, so whats the problem? He did what he had to do. People could learn a thing or two from his willingness to do what it takes.
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Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
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Originally Posted by Rifleman
I'm wondering where he parked that thing. (It's a nice van too.) If he left it in one spot for too long, someone would've bound to get suspicious. He probably had to move it around every day or two.
He was assigned to a rarely-trafficked parking lot off campus. He could come and go as he pleased and no one noticed.
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
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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.
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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.
People are only complaining in retrospect, they didnt know or notice a damned thing while it was actually happening, so whats the problem? He did what he had to do. People could learn a thing or two from his willingness to do what it takes.
I just don't think they want 1,000 other students getting the same idea and setting up a village of squatters on the campus.
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Good for this guy - rather than look for a bailout from his parents he lifts himself out of a financial hole with some seriously hard work and sacrifice. Lots of people could follow this advice....
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I only clicked on this link because I thought the guy moved to VANcouver to escape paying back his student loans.
I figured this would be another awesome waaancouver / canucks story with this guy turning tricks on Robson street to get by or pan handling outside BC place.
Anyone who pays back their student loans is AWESOME in my books. Anyone who doesnt is trash.
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Duke Grad Student Secretly Lived In a Van to Escape Loan Debt
