Want to pay cheaper college costs or not get hit with a huge loan payment after graduating. Here's some tips:
1) Go to an in-state college.
2) Get your first two years of courses (ie, the prerequisites) at a community college or junior college
3) Live off-campus either sharing an apartment or living with relatives
4) Take relevant courses to your degree. Don't take fluff that you don't need.
5) Rent books or buy used
6) Take online courses
7) Only borrow what you need for the classes. Don't take extra because it's like "free money"
8) Work while you study so you can pay for some of your costs with cash.
I'd like to know the percentage of students/graduates who are buried by student loans that did any of these. I'm guessing very little. There's a whole hell of a lot you can do for yourself instead of whining for more help from the government.
Some very good points, esp the in-state and attend two cheaper years. The downside to the community college is that you have to be really careful what you take and where you want to transfer to. Many colleges can be very picky about what they will transfer in which is all compounded because you don't necessarily know who will accept your application.
Also - long, anecdotal story short - not everyone can easily work while attending school. I did it and was only one of 3 in my graduating class that held a job throughout the course but my grades did suffer.
One thing that annoys me is that a lot of colleges require fluff classes so you can't necessarily get out of that. They build an image about what their student should be like and that often includes 'well-rounded' and that means a host of liberal arts, science, math etc that are not required for your degree. I could have finished in two years if all I needed were core classes. The fluff added those other two years (which I was able to mostly complete at a cheaper school)
Where are the parents in all of this? Why aren't the parents helping their kids avoid these pitfalls by explaining the consequences?. Why aren't the parents saying "Junior, you're going to have a REALLY hard time finding meaningful employment with your art history degree?"
At one time, I was perhaps the biggest defender of universities, degrees, etc, but no more. Universities pedal degrees they know are worthless and people who frankly don't have the skills to major in something worthwhile eat these up (I'm looking at you, degrees ending with the word "Studies"). People should be smarter than that and know those degrees aren't worth the paper they're written on. The blame goes both ways and the idiots who show up periodically on CNN whining about their $150K in student loans for their Women's Studies degree are just advertising their lack of critical thinking and analytical skills.
But them not being worth the paper they are written on is a relatively new phenomenon. The parents are slow on the response as it used to be you could get a very good job with a 'studies' degree. Granted it was basically because you had a degree but its really only been in the last 8 years or so that its all come crashing down. Thats not much time to reverse generations of the 'any college degree = better job/life' mantra
When you evaluate a degree program, you must look at it as an investment. NOTHING in life is guaranteed. NOTHING. BUT, you need to evaluate the job prospects in a field, average salaries, etc. before assuming debt.
I think its unrealistic to expect that students are able to accurately study and examine the work place they are going to enter when they graduate. An 18 year old has no experience in market trends or any type of market analytical base to go on and now they must track the 4 year trend of a job while they were in college? I am no expert but basing a major change off of a 2 year trend for a degree that has historically done very well seems a bit of a knee jerk reaction so you might wait longer. Oh you are three years in and the market for your job tanked? Now what? That happened to me.
I started college. Hey - Architects are doing great! Three years in that all changed and got even worse by the time I graduated. In the span of 4 years Architects had gone from an average rate of unemployment to something like 14% - higher than degrees in arts or humanties! Do we really expect that 18 year olds can spot trends that the rest of the world doesn't see?
There are now some obvious low hanging fruits like an art degrees where I think almost everyone can agree that its a bad decision but we have to realize not everyone who is in this boat made that decision. Sure the really dumb ones make the really big headlines with their 150k debt but many are struggling with 30-60k of debt. (Side note: I firmly believe this will profoundly impact retirement issues. If someone is paying off debt into their 40s how big do you think their retirement savings are? Recent graduates are missing out on the best time in their life to invest)
18 year olds are not taught how to critically analyze a job market or trends. They are not even taught financial planning in schools. How many 18 year olds really understand what they are taking on? My bet would be very few. I was incredibly lucky that my father spent time teaching me about finances but I am not so naive to assume that other children get the same education. All I need to do is look at the housing market/amount of debt americans carry to know that the vast majority of parents are not suitable finance teachers/role models.