Basic Trope: A college student can't afford food because everything else is expensive.
- Straight: Bob, a student at Tropeville State, has difficulty affording food, so he doesn't eat regularly.
- Exaggerated: Bob is only able to eat a couple times a month, and even then it's only something like ramen.
- Downplayed: Bob eats semi-regularly, but it's not very much and it's not very good quality.
- Justified:
- Bob is paying for his education out of pocket, which sadly doesn't leave much for food.
- Bob is living off-campus, but the high cost of rent and utilities (even with roommates) doesn't leave much for food.
- Bob has special dietary needs that the campus dining hall just isn't very good at accommodating.
- In order to save money, the school does not offer meal plans to its students.
- Inverted:
- Bob has too much money and is hardly able to eat all the food he has.
- Bob can't afford very much, but can afford food.
- Subverted: Bob's fridge and pantry have only scraps but eats at the cafeteria.
- Double Subverted: The cafeteria food is expensive, eating their is a special occasion
- Parodied: Bob has to subsist on the fumes from the nearby bakery, or Food Porn on the Internet.
- Zig Zagged: Bob, as it turns out, grew up as a Spoiled Brat leaving him Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense now he's free of parental oversight. He blows his entire allowance trying to impress his new found friends during freshers' week and insists on buying the latest editions of every textbook on the reading list in spite of his lecturers' advice. This leaves him barely able to afford food... until the allowance from his parents comes through. Which his dad threatens to cut until Bob learns financial responsibility. Which happens, and he does, even taking a small part time job to pay his way... only to lose it and go back to his bad old ways by the next episode.
- Averted: Bob makes sure to budget enough for food, or has some means to get food for free.
- Enforced: They've already written Bob as coming from a poor family, or not having a family and supporting himself, so even if he can afford to go to school, he's going to struggle with affording everything else while he's there.
- Lampshaded:
- "Poor Bob. I feel sorry for him, but he'll never be hungry again after he gets that med school degree."
- "(knock, knock) Sorry to bother you, man, but I'm starving. You have any food you don't want to eat?"
- Invoked: The heads of Tropeville State limit their students' finances to teach them adversity.
- Exploited: Alice, a wealthy student, uses Food as Bribe to get Bob to do her work while she goes out and parties.
- Defied:
- The school (or the law) requires that any of its students (or at least students who live on campus) have a meal plan built into their tuition/financial aid package. Even though the dining hall's offerings aren't the best, they're better than nothing, so Bob eats them.
- Bob, who is living off-campus, applies for government and/or charitable assistance, and gets it due to the fact that he has low (or no) income. He gets some help (even if it's limited) with groceries.
- Bob's parents send him food and money, and he budgets both wisely.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Bob dies of Malnutrition.
- Reconstructed: Bob's college has a food bank for poor students. While he's still underweight and could stand to eat more, he won't starve.
- Played For Laughs: Despite the food in the cafeteria being plentiful (and free), the students opt for starvation because it's just that bad.
- Played For Drama: Bob's focus and therefore grades begin to suffer because he's eating so little. He's kicked out of school, but can't get a good job because of his bad transcript, so he's still starving.
- Implied: Bob is unusually skinny, and he seems easy to bribe with food.
Back to Starving Student. If I hadn't bought art supplies, I'd love to eat...
