Yes. I worked a side job to pay my way. You bet I wanted to get the value out of what I was working and paying for.

Another effect we see these days is the government education loans encourage people to sign up for expensive and useless degrees, and then they are apparently shocked that they have to pay back those loans. Hence the push for loan "forgiveness".

Without these loans, I bet there would be far less demand for these degrees with no market value.

You think Caltech would get worse students if it didn’t charge tuition? I assure you it’s well out of side job territory now.

Worse? No. But people who are more willing to drop out? Sure.

True, it was possible (barely) at the time to work part time during the school year and full time during the summer to pay the bills. Borrowing money still (at least used to) means you had to pay it back.

Universities today give out free rides to various groups of students for various reasons. I'd expect their dropout rate to be considerably higher.

BTW, I was offered a free ride by ASU. I couldn't escape the feeling that because it was offered for free, it wasn't worth as much. It's just human nature at work. I am sadly amused by all the people that deny these effects.