Rachel Unruh '97 compares her undergraduate experience to that of Congressman Paul Ryan

Congressman Paul Ryan and I have one thing in common. We were both college students in the early 90s. He went to the Miami University in Ohio. I went to Grinnell College in Iowa. Neither of us was burdened with the need to balance our studies with a full-time job, so we were both fortunate to be able to attend these institutions full-time and graduate in four years. We were 18 when we started. We were 22 when we finished.

I lied. Paul Ryan and I have more than one thing in common: Our experience as college students was atypical in the early 1990s. It's even more atypical today. Nearly half of undergraduates are financially independent and work at least part-time (one-third work full time). As a result, nearly half attend school part-time. They go to jobs every day, because unlike Congressman Ryan and me, they are self-supporting college students. Many of these students are low-income and need federal Pell grants to help partially finance their education.