A closer look
Long before Ivy League institutions required you to mortgage your future for a degree, they operated on a heavily agrarian payment plan. In colonial America, hard cash was incredibly scarce. So, Harvard allowed desperately broke students to settle their academic debts with wheat, vegetables, and living farm animals. One historical record even notes a student paying his tuition with an actual sickly cow. Today, they demand $60,000 in liquid capital, which frankly makes the cow seem like a totally reasonable alternative.
