Adrienne, I'm glad that you are able to physically do that.  But most of
us are not.  Not only that, but I worked out a few figures:

Say I take and internship that is not paid.  I work there until 5, work
somewhere else from 5 until 10 getting paid minimum wage, everyday.  That
works out to roughly $170 a week, $680 a month (that's if the minimum wage
goes up to $4.85)  Take out $300 (estimating on the low side) for rent.
Then buy a monthly bus pass (here its $60 a month), because you can't
afford a car payment.  Then realize that the buses don't run after 7pm and
your job is clear across town.  Add in $70 per week on cabs ($10 a ride).
That leaves you $40 per month to spend on electricity.  Forget the phone,
you'll just have to go without any service (even local) for the entire
internship.  Forget food, you don't need to eat anyway.  As far as support
from other sources, I have none.

Now, I'm not saying that I probably won't have to take a part time job to
help support me.  And I'm not saying that I won't have to continue working
part time to pay off the loan.  But, when I get a job, the job will be
paying me in _addition_ to the part time work.  I don't have to completly
support myself off of $4.25 ($4.85) an hour.

And don't tell me that there are no internships that are paid.  The
majority of the graduate students from this program do find them.  It takes
a lot of hard work to search them out and working with the institution to
find a good compromise.  You cannot simply settle for one that is unpaid
just because a few people believe that you should have to pay to work at
their institution.

Emily
*way beyond disgruntled postal worker status*