"But to a broke college student, anything that costs more than a few hours of minimum wage =/= free."
With all due respect to a college student today there are so many things you can do to make money that your professor couldn't do back in his day. It doesn't even come close. And back in his day (if it's the same as my day) if you hustled (which I did for example) you never ever earned minimum wage. I did (as I am sure many people did) many things on the side in order to make money. And that was back when I have to say it was a bit more difficult than it is now.
With all due respect to a college student today there are so many things you can do to make money that your professor couldn't do back in his day. It doesn't even come close. And back in his day (if it's the same as my day) if you hustled (which I did for example) you never ever earned minimum wage. I did (as I am sure many people did) many things on the side in order to make money. And that was back when I have to say it was a bit more difficult than it is now.