David Greenberg, 27, worked 20-plus hours a week in a real-estate finance company while studying economics and history at New York University. “I was fortunate enough to have had my parents pay for my very expensive education,” he says. “I had to work for my own spending money on food, entertainment and alcohol.” Ultimately, he says, it gave him an edge on his peers after leaving college. “I saved up enough money during college to start my own education business
Even with so many students working nearly 20 hours per week, relatively few pay their own tuition, the survey found: 22% of students say that their parents pay, 41% say they rely on financial aid, 18% say they pay their own way, and 16% say they have scholarships.
A majority of students (62%) have set a budget to keep track of their expenses, the Citigroup study found, and 77% say they pay their own credit card bills. In fact, monthly cellphone bills are the only expense that parents are significantly more likely to pay: 60% of students say their parents pay their cellphone bills. “In many cases, students work to get spending money, not necessarily to pay college bills,” says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher at student-marketing company Edvisors Network.
Some 77% of students, however, say that money played an important role in where they decided to apply to college, and one-third say that money was the single most important factor in determining where they enrolled, according to the Citigroup survey. “Taking more financial responsibility also means they take their education more seriously,” Descano says.