[Willie Green]

Makes me wonder if the parents who paid the tuition know that the kids are tossing this stuff out.

[FourtySeven]

Hmmm......maybe it's time to take a trip up to State College this Saturday...........hehe

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh well, I guess my daughter won't be able to engage in one of my and my husband's favorite pastimes - dumpster diving at the end of the school year. The schools are gonna grab all the good stuff now that the secret's out.

This is not a recent phenomenon. You would not BELIEVE the stuff students throw out rather than carry home. I went to a private college in NJ and my husband went to a state school in GA, and it was exactly the same in both cases. I graduated in 77 and he graduated in 73.

No computers (they had barely been invented yet), but all sorts of really neat stuff. I still have a pair of hiking boots that were a perfect fit -- with the paper still in the toes. And my husband has a sodium lamp that came out of the dumpster behind the chemistry building.

[mewzilla]

Part of the problem may be due to the fact that the parents are the ones paying the tuition.

[xyggyx]

I went to Penn State and paid my own tuition. It's great that the rich kids throw away the stuff they don't want so the non-spoiled kids can pick it up cheap.

[NEPA]

My niece graduated from Penn State this past saturday and undoubtedly contributed to the "yard sale." It took a full size SUV packed to the gills to get her there in august but to come home it only took a Pontiac Sunfire.

[LanPB01]

When I graduated from law school, a buddy of mine asked me to help him move from his apartment. This guy had maxed out all his student loans, and even taken out emergency loans during the semester. Once at his apartment, I saw why. He had closets full of materials that had never had the price tag removed - kitchen utensils, clothes, snow skis (we were in Cincinnati!), and other assorted items. I used to think his spending was ridiculous, but at least he kept the things he wasted money on.

[raybbr]

Penn State should be admonished that are taking a chance on ruining our economy. How can the economy recover by re-selling used goods. We should all be buying new stuff from China, Taiwan, Mexico, etc.

Don't these people know anything.

[MikeD]

Good thing it's Penn State and not Michigan State -- dumpster diving is illegal at MSU...

MD

[Richard Kimball]

Wow. My college experience was a LOT of fun, but I was broke, broke, broke. My family was working class, so my Dad paid my tuition (state school, about $200 a semester back then), and I paid everything else by working during the semester. There were rich kids at UT, no doubt, but there were also a bunch of us that lived seriously cheap.