History Main / StarvingStudent

* Marie Curie was literally one of these while attending the Sorbonne. She actually lived in a garret in the French Quarter, surviving on pennies and often [[ForgetsToEat forgetting to eat]]. She passed out at least once at school (between classes, not during class as in the movie).

* In ''BrokenSword'' Nico mentions that she had to drop out of university because of this trope (she couldn't afford art supplies, although she was able to eat potatoes when she was doing printing with them).

Between tuition and textbooks, rent payments and transit fares, there's only so much money that a poor university student living on bank loans and [[ScholarshipStudent scholarships]] is able to put towards food. The StarvingStudent is a staple of higher education settings, where even those lucky enough to have financial support from their parents will still be thinking of money in values of mac and cheese boxes or [[UsefulNotes/RamenAsDehydratedNoodles instant noodles]]. The starving student will often have a rigid budget and spend their entire academic career just scraping by for necessities like clothing and food (but not, of course, for alcohol).

* Taken to ridiculous extremes (like everything else) in ''TheYoungOnes''.

* This trope is also the reason that some places have laws stating that college students (at least those living on-campus) ''have to'' buy a meal plan from the school (that is built into their financial aid/tuition package, and must be priced affordably). This way, they are at least assured of getting basic meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) in the dining hall.

* While they aren't students anymore, one episode of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' notes that JD, Turk and the other interns (apart from Elliot, whose parents pay for everything) have to steal hospital supplies (e.g. toilet paper, pudding, no big-ticket items or ''drugs'') to make ends meet.

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* Kvothe's struggle to come up with his tuition money drives a large part of the plot of ''TheNameOfTheWind'' and ''TheWiseMansFear''.

* This trope is also the reason that some places have laws stating that college students (at least those living on-campus) ''have to'' buy a meal plan from the school (that is built into their financial aid/tuition package). This way, they are at least assured of getting basic meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) in the dining hall.

* Ewon Jung of ''TotallyCaptivated'', an orphaned ScholarshipStudent who falls in with a group of loan sharks, calculates a conman's loan in terms of boxes of ramen at one point and will go along with almost anything for a free meal.
* Most of the cast of ''HoneyAndClover'', especially because they're [[StarvingArtist art students]].

* Implied with Malcolm in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', who is last seen in the finale quite cheerfully slaving as a campus janitor in between attending class -- [[IvyLeague at Harvard.]] One of the plotlines of the episode had involved the family worrying that they wouldn't be able to afford his tuition and the choice between getting an education and going on to do great things, or taking a corporate job offer with a six-figure salary, so it's a CrowningMomentOfAwesome, not a case of misfortune.

* While they aren't students anymore, one episode of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' notes that JD, Turk and the other interns (apart from Elliot, whose parents pay for everything) have to steal hospital supplies to make ends meet.

* From personal experience, this troper knows that [[UsefulNotes/AustralianSchoolSystem some Australian universities]], such as University of Western Sydney, attempt to [[AvertedTrope avert this trope]] by offering their students free sausage sizzles and/or breakfasts (although how frequently such services are offered varies from uni to uni and campus to campus).

* In ''LoveHina'', a recurring subplot is Keitaro looking for a job to pay for his studies. Made worse in that he routinely loses money to the PrettyFreeloaders' hijinks.
* In ''MaisonIkkoku'', Godai works to pay for his studies, but he never has money for anything. And when he has some money, he spends it on presents for Kyoko.
* In ''FruitsBasket'', Tohru Honda was this in the first episode, while she was living in a tent.

* While they aren't students anymore, one episode of ''{{Scrubs}}'' notes that JD, Turk and the other interns (apart from Elliot, whose parents pay for everything) have to steal hospital supplies to make ends meet.

* In ''ThreesCompany'', this is why Jack moves in with the girls. He's a starving cooking school student.

* Implied with Malcolm in ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'', who is last seen in the finale quite cheerfully slaving as a campus janitor in between attending class -- [[IvyLeague at Harvard.]] One of the plotlines of the episode had involved the family worrying that they wouldn't be able to afford his tuition and the choice between getting an education and going on to do great things, or taking a corporate job offer with a six-figure salary, so it's a CrowningMomentOfAwesome, not a case of misfortune.

* The [[Film/SpiderMan Spider-Man movies]] reflect this. Particularly the second movie which has Peter Parker struggling through college without money, his superhero identity compounding his hardships.

* In TimeRiders, Adam Lewis (who's already struggling) borrows thousands from his parents to go abroad, deciding he doesn't care if he'll be broke for the rest of his student life.

* From personal experience, this troper knows that [[UsefulNotes/AustralianSchoolSystem some Australian universities]], [[spoiler: such as University of Western Sydney]], attempt to [[AvertedTrope avert this trope]] by offering their students free sausage sizzles and/or breakfasts (although how frequently such services are offered varies from uni to uni and campus to campus).

* From personal experience, this troper knows that [[UsefulNotes/AustralianSchoolSystem some Australian universities, such as University of Western Sydney]] attempt to [[AvertedTrope avert this trope]] by offering their students free sausage sizzles and/or breakfasts (although how frequently such services are offered varies from uni to uni and campus to campus).