It'd be the case for anyone in the UK where fees for education are relatively new. I'm making an assumption about the poster though. I paid a tiny amount in 1999 in the UK, but fees increased significantly since then. Your response is how I understand it to have been here in the US, but I suspect that the rate of inflation in the education market is much higher now than what "boomers" had to deal with. That doesn't change that they had to work during school or take on loans, but it did change their long-term outlook.