What do sugar daddies, medical studies and pawnshops have in common? They help some students pay for a college education, CNN reports. With the average family reporting that they are only on track to meet 30% of their college savings goals, every extra dollar counts — and nothing is off limits. John McKinley-Campbell had no job, $135,000 in student loan debt and he wanted to go back to school to get his Ph.D. at Florida International University. In order to afford to make it all happen he became a lab rat. He has been participating in medical studies for pharmaceutical companies ever since his aunt saw an advertisement for one on TV. He lived in a medical facility for 14 days to test an arthritis medication and then signed up to receive injections of a breast cancer drug through an IV over the course of 8 days. Those two studies alone will earn him about $8,500, which he plans to put toward an $1,800 GRE preparation course, the GRE test fee of $175 and the university’s $100 application fee. The rest will go toward housing and tuition if he gets accepted. “If I can’t find work [while in school], there’s always a headache medicine I could test,” he said…
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Each incoming freshman at Randolph-Macon College this year was eligible to take part in a brief signing ceremony, reports the New York Times. The new student, along with a parent and the college president, could sign a special agreement that is emerging at some colleges and universities: As long as the student keeps up with academic work and meets regularly with advisers, the college guarantees that earning a degree there will take no more than four years…
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