I don't know what the numbers are elsewhere in the world; but in Canada over 40% of university students graduate with no debt.
What's your subject? What was your dissertation title, which Uni?
I've been told that starting university at age 13 and winning the Putnam competition support this hypothesis. ;-)
Your scholarship paid course fees and living expenses for 4 (?) years [...] What's your subject? What was your dissertation title, which Uni?
As an undergraduate student, I received a $20k entrance scholarship; about half of that went to fees, and the remainder was plenty to cover my living expenses since I was living with my parents. This was at Simon Fraser University and I was studying mathematics. SFU doesn't have undergraduate dissertations per se, but the paper I published in Math.Comp. is rather equivalent: "Rapid multiplication modulo the sum and difference of highly composite numbers".
As a graduate student, I received a scholarship worth tuition + about 700 GBP/month (the amount was adjusted for inflation each year) -- the total value worked out to somewhere around $100k. This was at Oxford University (but the scholarship was funded by the UK government) and I was studying computing. My thesis title was "Matching with Mismatches and Assorted Applications".
I don't make as many new discoveries these days as I used to; but that's at least in part because I know much more.