What did it cost to attend the State College of Iowa back in the 1960s? As I remember, it was about $1000, including room and board.
I was the first in my family to get to go to college. My first year was paid for, thanks to a small scholarship and my grandmother, who cashed in some bonds and split the money among her four surviving children.
Grandma Leora lost three sons during World War II. I wonder if that treasure was what she had received from their military life insurance policies.
I began working in the SCI library, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the summer after my freshman year, to guarantee a job that fall. Before the semester began, the new Donald O. Rod Library opened. I had never been in such an awesome library, but my earnings there plus the scholarship weren’t going to keep me in school.
The student aid office helped me with a National Defense Student Aid Loan and two more part-time jobs, both in that wonderful library–working for Dr. Rod’s secretary, and in acquisitions. I still had to carry full-time hours in order to keep the scholarship.
Working summers at the library, sharing basement room with a friend, I was able to pay for the other three years of college.
How much was that loan? Just $710, but my only full year of teaching was while Guy was in Vietnam–salary $6500. That loan sure seemed like a huge burden back then!
Guy’s father had died the month before, so he was back from Vietnam, helping his mother on the farm at Glidden. I finished paying off my student loan May 9, 1970, four years after college graduation.
By then, State College of Iowa had become the University of Northern Iowa.
Thankful to have that debt taken care of!