Scott,
Spent my undergraduate years in forestry school working 3 jobs, studying, hitting the city on Friday night's,( 25 cent beer!), and supplying my needs from the outdoors that I was learning the workins of......ran traplines, hunted, fished, foraged, gardened in the summer, and made all my food supplies without a supermarket.....first day may wife visited the trailer I was living in, she found 3 geese hanging in the shower from my trip home from a lab on timber harvesting. 4 years, no loans, no grants( except the ones I wrote for my employment at the school), no, schlarships.....paid cash and left with a degree, a job as research tech., and instructor and 5 years later a graduate degree, and a move to go out on my own.....been there ever since....still the same lifestyle......and retireing this coming Feb.
I admire professional students, and while I miss the academic life from time to time, I'm glad that I'm doing what I have always wanted to, own everything, and at peace with my surroundings,( the world is another story). Keep at it, an education, and the art of learning is more important then tons of other everyday pursuits.....do what you are most comfortable with and enjoy....Gary
