It's 1983 in Wallingford, New Jersey, a sleepy bedroom community outside of Manhattan. Seventeen-year-old Edward Zanni, a feckless Ferris Bueller-type, is Peter Panning his way through a carefree summer of magic and mischief, sending underwear up flagpoles and rearranging lawn animals in compromising positions. The fun comes to a screeching halt, however, when Edward's father remarries and refuses to pay for Edward to study acting at Juilliard. In a word, Edward's screwed. He's ineligible for scholarships because his father earns too much. He's unable to contact his mother because she's somewhere in Peru trying to commune with the Incan spirits. And, in a sure sign he's destined for a life in the arts, Edward's incapable of holding down a job. ("One little flesh wound on a Pekingese is all it takes to get fired as a dog groomer, even if you artfully arrange its hair so the scar doesn't show.") So Edward turns to his loyal (but immoral) misfit theater pals to help him steal the tuition money from his father. Disguising themselves as nuns and priests (because who's going to question the motives of a bunch of nuns and priests), they merrily scheme their way through embezzlement, money laundering, identity theft, forgery, and blackmail. Along the way Edward learns the value fo friendship, hard work and how you're not a man until you can beat up your father (metaphorically). How I Paid for College is a farcical coming-of-age story, as if The Catcher in the Rye was rewritten by David Sedaris and performed by the Fame kids.