It’s no implication, it’s a straight up fact. I couldn’t afford to work for free, I had to take paid positions and work my way through college, and that was a significant disadvantage when compared to my well-off friends who thought that credit card bills disappeared into the air each month. Instead of unpaid internships at prestigious engineering firms, I had to work actual jobs that paid me (barely) and had little if any to do with my future career goals, setting me back in numerous ways versus my better off peers.
Luckily I was intelligent enough to see what was going on, and never intended to be employed by someone else when I graduated, but I cringe for all the poor kids who were in the same situation as me who thought they’d be on an even footing after graduation because they were holding the degree…
Well, okay, they don’t get the degree until their debts are paid, but they’re holding a page that says they’ll get the degree once their debts are paid, unlike the rich kids who actually had a diploma inside their diploma book the day they graduated.
