For anyone who went to college in the days of dorm curfews and bathrooms shared by an entire floor, stories about upscale student housing with housekeeping service, hot tubs and plasma TVs leave many shaking their heads.

It's not just that those amenities weren't available in "the good old days." It's that a lot of working people - even college graduates - don't have those "extras" now.

This isn't just an Ivy League or Big 10 phenomenon. There are upscale apartment complexes in Normal that cater to university students.

If the students - or their parents - can afford these amenities and the entertainment doesn't distract them from their studies, there's nothing wrong with it.

However, students living in posh accommodations undercut their arguments that high college costs are leaving them too deep in debt and government should kick in more money for higher education.

Those students need a reality check more than a government check.

It's important to remember that for every student with a private bathroom and a barbecue pit, there are students crowded into marginal housing, living on packaged noodles and working two jobs. That's reality, too.

Those who limit their indebtedness by foregoing some creature comforts while in school may find a quicker ticket to the "good life" after college by not being saddled with as many loan payments.