I made $21.45 in my first job out of college, working the 2nd shift at Applied Materials outside of Austin, in 2001.  I thought it was good money back then.  So I guess that would have been $44.6K per year.  This was right before 9/11 and the very beginning of the internet bubble, so things got slow fast and I ended up leaving before getting laid off.  Plus, I was looking to return to my home area. 
I graduated debt free, with help from my parents and working part time, from A&M in 2001.  I drove old vehicles, lived in cheap apartments, and in general lived as cheap as I could.