This is a huge point. The knowledge (social, interpersonal, financial, image) gap between 'comfortably poor' and 'white collar professional' is deep and broad. College is valuable in that it makes - can make - the difference between a broad gap and a narrow gap. Most of that is not the substance of the courses, but the substance of the collegiate community.

Often I have difficulty coming up with the appropriate words to describe to my peers brought up in the professional environment how very different life is when you're not in the white collar world.