The True Cost of College Is My Sanity

Ashley Strahm
5 min readJun 16, 2021

I haven’t missed a $450-$2,695 payment in 10 years. I’m far from finished.

Hope? Nope.

I knew what I was getting into.

I’m a first-generation college grad born to two amazing parents from South America. I prepared to graduate from a private, all-girls, college-preparatory high school at 16, got a partial academic scholarship to a private university, and proceeded to take out $15,000 a…

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Ashley Strahm

Jersey roots, Durham fruit. Committed to justice, enthralled by stories, and inspired by an equitable future for us all.