Just in to the Culture of Privilege Desk: Building Character While Feeling Like an Outsider Division...

Attracting Students of All Incomes...from the Daily Northwestern last month.

Here's a snippet, about junior Kristi St. Charles, who is spending her spring break filling out five different loan applications, and covers the EFC (expected family contribution) herself:

St. Charles considers herself a minority at NU, a campus where 62 percent of students from this year's entering class come from families with estimated annual incomes of $100,000 or more. When her friends come back to school in the fall with extra spending cash from summer jobs, St. Charles usually has just paid her fall tuition bill with money she made working 40 to 50 hours a week at a law firm near her Milwaukee home.

"There are times when I feel I can't relate to some of my friends," St. Charles said. "But we usually just don't talk about money or any of that."

Big tabs, no worries

Heading out to local bars like 1800 Club, 1800 Sherman Ave., or the Mark 2 Lounge, 7436 1/2 N. Western Ave., is a typical Thursday activity for St. Charles. But the amount of money some of her friends spend makes her realize how atypical her situation is."People just open up tabs when we go out and don't really worry," St. Charles said. "They'll spend like $200 and it'll go on their parents' credit card without giving it a second thought."