My wife put herself through the same aviation program as me without a penny in tuition or room and board money from her parents. Thankfully for her, she's smarter than I am and had academic & merit-based scholarships which helped with costs, and working 10hrs/day on weekends helped cover the rest. Her student loans upon graduation would buy a BMW 3 Series.

Big dumb me was an out-of-state student and while I had help from my parents, I was also under orders to get a job to cover my expenses. I did get a job, and at my high point was actively working 3 while taking between 15 and 20 hours of class. I also had an AFROTC scholarship that helped offset costs a little...and I still graduated with enough student loans to buy a really nice Escalade.

I'm not so much concerned that you ignorantly paint everyone who graduated from a collegiate aviation program as coming from a background of wealth, as much as I am that you sound really bitter about those who did.

Even if one doesn't know what its like to live paycheck-to-paycheck (which we all should hope we never have to do) while in college, they'll certainly figure it out when mommy & daddy cut the purse strings and they're drawing their $25k/year regional FO salary.

As far as working for free....well, you get what you pay for...