I actually feel pretty satisfied with how much I paid for college — I got a lot of financial aid and took out loans for the rest, so my final total bill for Smith was around $32K. For that amount, I learned a ton about all sorts of different things; got room and board for four years; studied alongside people from all over the country and the world, way broadening my perspective; spent a year studying in Switzerland (with a living allowance, since our housing there didn’t include meals, and a small travel allowance that was allotted to students on lots of finaid); got to do an otherwise unpaid internship with a stipend; got reimbursed for the suit I bought senior year for interviews; and got some early event planning experience (very helpful in my job now). I was a liberal arts major so it’s not like my degree slotted me directly into a job but I’ve been fortunate to find jobs that do draw on the skills that I learned.

But I am also on the older end of the Millennial scale and so graduated into a decent, if not great, economy; my perspective might be different had I graduated later, when the job market was tougher.