To be fair, the agreement with my parents is that I should maximize my educational value. If that means taking a poorly paid research position instead of a bett

To be fair, the agreement with my parents is that I should maximize my educational value. If that means taking a poorly paid research position instead of a better paid internship, they are happy to foot the bill. As far as working during the academic school year, I TA for classes (and get paid) but the primary goal isn't to pay for anything significant but to learn. I feel extremely fortunate to have the wealth to pursue my ambitions under my own willpower without worrying about expenses. Now, I have been doing paid summer internships since I was 15 or so, so I do pretty much pay my expenses during the school year. Also, $100k per year is not rich, it's upper-middle class. I'm not sure where they got that from.