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What were these college students thinking when they took out these student loans?

Svnla

Svnla

Lifer
1) $160K for a degree in Sociology from Arizona State = http://news.yahoo.com/student-loan-slavery-paying-more-loans-month-193700432.html


2) $34K for an associate degree in multimedia from ITT = http://news.yahoo.com/student-loans-come-debt-harassment-203600868.html

(and he wants to go back to school and rack up more student loan debt)


3) $35K to study theater managment (is it a real major?) and then changed = http://news.yahoo.com/first-person-three-attempts-student-loan-forgiveness-denied-171700117.html


4) $80K of student loan (to study creative writing/library science) at 31 years old and will be paying until she is 55 = http://news.yahoo.com/first-person-70-000-student-loans-counting-215600287.html


5) $49K (after several years of forebearance) for a BS in psychology at 53 years old = http://news.yahoo.com/student-loan-story-feel-am-sinking-161100050.html


6) $33K with a degree in accounting = http://news.yahoo.com/student-loan-tip-pick-accounting-not-history-205000064.html (at least this guy knows right from wrong and does not blame anyone or asks for his loan to be forgiven)


7) $18K for a degree from an online school (University of Phoenix) = http://news.yahoo.com/first-person-student-loans-happy-pay-back-231600645.html

At least he knows that:

I borrowed the money. No one forced me to do so. Therefore, I have sole responsibility of paying it back, and I do not expect anyone to do it for me. I will not accept charity or seek loan forgiveness. I firmly believe in paying off my own debts.
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What were these folks thinking? Future college students, read these articles and learn from them.

8) Edit 5/30/13 - $180K loan and give up of paying off = http://finance.yahoo.com/news/true-confession-ive-completely-given-193302452.html
 
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that's why i went to state. 4k in tuition per semester.... then get a grant that covers 3.5k of it.
 
Most have been told since childhood the needed to go to college. At 18 they are given tens of thousands if not eventually over a hundred thousand dollars to go to school. Who offers that kind of money to people with no credit history or income?

With over a trillion dollars in outstanding student loans, the system is rigged. Trying to pin the problem on individual choice is missing the point. While it is true particular individuals (many of them) are making bad decisions, we should not live in a society that allows such a staggeringly large financial punishment for those decisions. Muchless the ability to put oneself in that position.

Back in my day tuition rates at my Tier One university were a hair over $3k a year. The student loan bubble is pushing up tuition.
 
HendrixFan said:
Most have been told since childhood the needed to go to college. At 18 they are given tens of thousands if not eventually over a hundred thousand dollars to go to school. Who offers that kind of money to people with no credit history or income?

With over a trillion dollars in outstanding student loans, the system is rigged. Trying to pin the problem on individual choice is missing the point. While it is true particular individuals (many of them) are making bad decisions, we should not live in a society that allows such a staggeringly large financial punishment for those decisions. Muchless the ability to put oneself in that position.

Back in my day tuition rates at my Tier One university were a hair over $3k a year. The student loan bubble is pushing up tuition.
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high schools continually push college as being the only option, along with every movie and TV show simply making it expected that everyone went to college. it's ridiculous, not everyone needs to go to college, and there's a lot of well paying jobs that lack for employees based on the lack of skilled labor. a gender studies degree isn't gonna prepare you to fill those (or any, for that matter) jobs.
 
I do think this is a major problem, but can't sympathize with the Arizona grad. If you spent $40k/year in pure debt to go to school for 4 years you did it wrong. And I don't like to nag on majors, engineers are not the end-all-be-all, but seriously for a sociology degree you had time to work part-time (I know as a liberal arts major). Really no excuse for that.

Some of these are worrying, though. I read of a student who got a PhD in Toxicology and makes little with $100k+ in debt. Seems like an important enough field to pursue if you are passionate.
 
Fayd said:
that's why i went to state. 4k in tuition per semester.... then get a grant that covers 3.5k of it.
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Hah, got you beat. 4 year State U with BS degree for less than $5K. But that was 18 years ago. Holy shit I'm old.
 
Baked said:
Hah, got you beat. 4 year State U with BS degree for less than $5K. But that was 18 years ago. Holy shit I'm old.
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To be fair your experience is irrelevant if you graduated 5+ years ago. I graduated in 2008, pretty recent, but tuition is now like twice as much in-state. Although affording college is a problem that everyone can relate to it has become much more pronounced in the last few years.

Also the jobs we used to sustain ourselves then are much harder to get now. Especially in a larger city with a larger labor pool.
 
I got you all beat: got a trust fund, never went to school, day-traded it all to nothing. I now live in a van down by the river under a bridge.
 
Baked said:
Hah, got you beat. 4 year State U with BS degree for less than $5K. But that was 18 years ago. Holy shit I'm old.
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well, mine is right now, finishing up second semester of master's program. and yeah, total debt for this year, about 2k. got another grant for fall of next year, but didn't get it for next spring. oh well.
 
My nephew goes to Indiana University, Bloomington. I think his tuition for 15 credit hours is like just shy of $4000. But his housing costs are astronomical, especially for something not much better than an Army barracks.

I came away with $42k I debt, but from what I understand for my particular university, that's fairly normal. I have nothing against librarts majors, but some or most just don't seem like they would be worth the debt.

Student debt will prove disastrous for the US in the future.
 
Svnla said:
$34K for an associate degree in multimedia from ITT = http://news.yahoo.com/student-loans-come-debt-harassment-203600868.html
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"As soon as my loans came out of default status I immediately re-enrolled into a different college, with all new student loans. In hopes that by changing degrees I will be able to find a career that will actually pay enough for me to live on -- and to pay my bills. I am dreading graduating, however; doing this is going to add another $40,000 to $50,000 to the total that I already owe. "

IDIOT. There should be no loans available for someone with such poor financial decision making skills.
 
I made money going to college as far as tuition, grants, and scholarships are concerned. However I did borrow money for rent and living expenses and because Gray Davis defunded everything one summer which cost me a pretty penny after enrollment. I paid it off early - about $16,000 for two of us. What's really interesting is talking to people around me who had 8% student loans while mine were 2.25%. What a difference a couple years can make.

For those of you not planning on paying your student loans off be warned that the penalties are incredible. I know people who took $40,000 loans and now owe $100,000. Pay off your $300/mo bill or pretty much screw your entire life up.
 
Baked said:
Hah, got you beat. 4 year State U with BS degree for less than $5K. But that was 18 years ago. Holy shit I'm old.
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$250/semester for all the credits you can handle

But that was before you were conceived😉
 
My wife went to WGU. It's a flat rate all you can eat cost. She managed to grind out with a lot of hard work her degree in 3 semesters. So 9k total cost for her degree and now is moving to a master program.

And a thought.

If this people are truly in a no way out situation why are they still paying? Your job is minimum wage, you don't own anything of value, you live in your parents basement, and you have no prospects of moving up in the world, so why pay?

Let them garnish your paycheck, it will be less than your payments because they have to let you eat, then get on welfare and get a place to live. Seems like a better alternative.
 
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When I started med school (UCSF) it was 11k/yr in state, 2 years after I graduated it was 28k/yr. Pretty much every UC program tripled in price tripled in price the last decade.
 
AreaCode707 said:
"As soon as my loans came out of default status I immediately re-enrolled into a different college, with all new student loans. In hopes that by changing degrees I will be able to find a career that will actually pay enough for me to live on -- and to pay my bills. I am dreading graduating, however; doing this is going to add another $40,000 to $50,000 to the total that I already owe. "

IDIOT. There should be no loans available for someone with such poor financial decision making skills.
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What is he supposed to do? He hasn't been able to get a job in his "field" for 9 years. Going back to school puts his loan payments on hold and gives him a better chance at getting a job that enables him to get out of debt in the long run.
 
One if the biggest problems with student loans that hardly anyone ever mentions is that huge chunks of the money isn't even paying for school. It is paying for housing, food, entertainment, etc.

Paying for Living expenses with school loans should be restricted to some reasonable amount. It would probably make more students work during school, but that's okay.
 
So why are tuition rates climbing so fast? Shouldn't they be getting cheaper or at least keeping pace with inflation?
 
sourceninja said:
My wife went to WGU. It's a flat rate all you can eat cost. She managed to grind out with a lot of hard work her degree in 3 semesters. So 9k total cost for her degree and now is moving to a master program.
.
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A bit off topic, but I've been fascinated by WGU's approach.

If you have time, I'd appreciate it if you could share your opinion concerning WGU. In particular, did the degree experience have the rigour that your wife expected? And is she finding that her employer respects the WGU degree?

Anything else you could share concerning your wife's educational experience at WGU would be appreciated.

Uno
 
OlafSicky said:
So why are tuition rates climbing so fast? Shouldn't they be getting cheaper or at least keeping pace with inflation?
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Because too many students ignore the cost, since they can borrow almost as much as they want. As soon as students weigh the debt burden as much as they weigh other factors when choosing a school, you'll see tuition go down or stop rising.

Heck, there was a story a few years ago of a smaller private college in Virginia that found out through market surveys that people didn't want to go there because it was too inexpensive and they assumed that meant low quality. They raised tuition 20% and applications rose 35%. Go figure.

A friend's daughter decided to go to Arizona State. Loved the campus and the weather. Didn't care very much about the cost because, hey, that's what loans are for. It's $30,000 a year for a non-resident living on campus. She did get some grants and scholarship help, but graduated $70,000 in debt.

Now she's earning $30,000 as a middle school teacher in a miserable lower-class district. She would be the first to tell people that they can't ignore the cost and they better understand the magnitude of the debt. She has to share an apartment with a roommate because she can't afford to live on her own with the loan payments, and she doesn't see that changing in the foreseeable future.
 
Fayd said:
that's why i went to state. 4k in tuition per semester.... then get a grant that covers 3.5k of it.
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Same here bro. State college ftw.

I should look up an old internet friend. He was going to some expensive 30k/year school last time I checked.
 
kranky said:
Because too many students ignore the cost, since they can borrow almost as much as they want.
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I just can't understand how this happens. My parents provided no real guidance when I was getting my college education, but I knew not to max out my loans because I would have to pay the money back. How can someone just ignore this basic fact?!? 😵 It just boggles the mind that these idiots are not considering the consequences of their own actions. It's like coming across someone hitting themselves in the head with a hammer, and genuinely confused as to why they have a splitting headache. How do you not understand the cause->effect relationship here?
 
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