I started this week with a heavy heart, having signed the first of three $20,000 checks for my daughter’s college tuition due this year. It’s stunning to me that tuition alone at her school, as with many top universities (and indeed, plenty of second-tier ones too), costs $60,000. Thank God she’s living in an apartment this year, splitting a $30,000 annual rent three ways, so my total bill for her school year will be a mere $70,000, rather than the roughly $90,000 it would have been if she were living in university housing and eating from a meal plan (I’ve given her $2,000 for food for the next six months and told her to experiment with veganism and maybe find a part-time job in a coffee shop or restaurant with free meals).
我懷著沉重的心情開始了本週的生活——我剛剛簽了三張2萬美元支票中的第一張，以支付女兒今年的大學學費。令我震驚的是，她就讀的學校光學費一年就要6萬美元，許多頂尖大學都是如此（事實上，很多二流大學也是如此）。感謝上帝，她今年住的是公寓，跟另外兩個人分攤一年3萬美元的租金，所以她這個學年的總費用只要7萬美元，如果她住的是大學宿舍、喫的是學校的食堂套餐，那一年大約得9萬美金（我給了她2000美元的伙食費，是接下來半年的，跟她說可以嘗試一下喫素，或許還可以在咖啡店或餐館找份包飯的兼職工作）。