What’s Worse Than Credit Card Debt? Student Loans

I think that it’s more of an issue with our Education System in America than the financial faults of hardworking students and parents who only want their children to succeed. You compared going to a college that you can’t afford to buying a car/house that you can’t afford, but it is very different. Where on your resume do you put what type of car you own and how big your house is? Just like most products, better colleges tend to cost more money. However, it doesn’t matter how much money you have (to some extent), if your grades/scores/application/interview aren’t good enough to get you into that school, you won’t be paying tuition to attend that school. Maybe you can refresh my memory, what is the minimum SAT score for buying a BMW? Do you think a 3.8 GPA is good enough to buy that mansion?

Now I am stuck in the same position as many people, I tried hard in high school and got into a very good (and expensive) school. I earned a decent scholarship from my school, but it doesn’t come close to covering tuition. My parents don’t make enough money to pay for me to go to school, they also make too much for the government to pay for me to go to school. So what did I do? I took out student loans and will be in debt for quite some time after I graduate. Why? I would hope that a degree from my school will help me earn me a considerable amount more than a degree from a community or state school. Hopefully the money I make with this degree minus the amount I spent on school will be greater than the money I would make with a degree from a lesser school.

But does this have to happen? Why should hard working students suffer because they are forced to choose a school based on their parents financial standing rather than their ability to do well in school? Kids are put in the position of having to make a choice between being in debt for a large portion of their life in order to attend the best school they got into or go to a cheaper school and stay out of debt. I’m not a fan of the government giving money away, but education is definitely one area where they need to. And the current financial aid system is not good enough. When my school told me how much financial aid I would be receiving I thought they were joking. The amount they gave me plus the amount my parents earn could pay for me to attend my school… but then my parents wouldn’t be able to pay their mortgage, utilities, car payments, and other necessary bills. Education is very important, but parents shouldn’t have to give up everything to pay for school. Something needs to be done about this, either tuition needs to go down or the government needs to give more financial aid for students, but right now the system is not helping many people that need its help.

you’re an idiot for writing this. basically you’re telling kids to give up their dreams to be something awesome to save the country a few bucks. I’ve got $60000 in student loans on top of $10000 in credit card debt b/c of living expenses and i’m a year and a half away from graduating. the issue is the government needs to fix the system so it works again.

Yay! UWG! Pretty much agree with you. I did my core classes at a community college, it saved me a lot of money too, then transferred to UWG. Really didn’t owe much in loans and was still able to follow my dream…but I’m in grad school now and will be paying for it later. But I’m in my niche and networking.

I don’t know if the point has been made, but it is also worth considering whether the school you’re attending will accept any credits that have been accumulated in high school. I was fortunate enough to have a solid idea of where I wanted my career to progress to, and had 50 credits by the time I finished HS. I went to a state school (State University of New York at Binghamton) and finished with a BS of Accounting in 3 years. If you can save time (and therefore money) it’s worth considering that factor too.

Nobody seems to be mentioning the sky rocketing tuition rates. The cause is simple…easy access to student loan money. Universities, public and private alike, have capitalized on this and jacked up their tuition rates. They excuse it with reasoning like “expanding degree offerings” or “improving curriculum.” That’s all well and good, but not when the additional degrees offered are things like Putting Green Management…not at the cost of skyrocketing tuition for everyone.

Private schools have to price themselves higher than public to appear of higher quality. They really have no choice, plus they get to rake in more money. Win win for the school. Lose lose for every student whose parents aren’t loaded.

Unfortunately, I see no realistic solution. Reducing total loan money offered will keep qualified students out of school, something we need more than ever in today’s globally competitive economy. Loan reductions would have to occur with a simultaneous tuition (and subsequently program offering) reduction across the board at every school. Not going to happen.

At 22 I thought my dream was to become a family therapist. Now I am a 30 year old Marketing Manager with a masters in Marriage and Familty Therapy and a student loan. While I don’t regret accomplishing my masters degree or my decision to switch careers, I would recommend heavily weighing out why you want the expensive degree and if it is feasibly worth the payments you will be making well past your 20 year college reunion. Our plans and dreams change, you have to think about how a $1000+ monthly payment will factor into future plans and what sacrifices will potentially have to be made to maintain these payments (i.e. if you shell out 200K for Georgetown Undergrad followed by Columbia Law and a year after graduation, you find out you can’t stand your job and dream of becoming teacher, well, you’re SOL my friend).

And on another note, from my personal experience, smart networking & strong performance will far outshine any school name on your resume. If you’re a sharp & proven professional, it all boils down to who you know and being at the right place at the right time.

I do agree up to a certain point. There is no need for someone to go above what they can afford. Unless you are going to a school like Harvard or Duke for something you know they are just much better at than any other school then you shouldn’t do it. It is like they said, why would you buy a Mercedes when you can only afford Hyundai? Where does the line get drawn between receiving a high quality education and just overspending? I believe it is all about finding a balance. If there is a school that is really expensive but you know is entirely worth it in the end then go for it but if you can get the exact same education but for a fraction of the price then it’s obvious which is the better choice.

Great article. It is too little too late for me. My parents are upper middle class, so when it came time to decide on a school my mother’s yearly full take home pay was supposed to help me through school. This is what I was told. I wanted to be, and became an engineer. So I applied to a private school that had a CO-Op program[added an additional year] and was known for engineering, and you could start taking core classes immediately. Due to my parents salaries I received next to nothing in grants or help. This coupled with a severe family problem. It turned out my mother pissed away most of the money set aside for my education I was on my own. I accumulated about $124K in undergraduate federal and state backed loans between 2 and 5% with no accumulated interest. After graduating(2006) this greatly weighed on me, and limited where I could land a job. While interviewing in my mind i knew my monthly payments would be high and my yearly salary had to start near 50K. I consolidated these loans into a 30 year loan, and my monthly payment is $744.00 a month. I basically have two mortgages to account for every month now. I am very fortunate that I found a job right out of school and picked a major that could afford these loans. My plan has been to pay more then the minimum payment each month as my salary increases throughout my career. This though limits how I can live my life, and causes me to make sacrifices. Looking back on it if I knew this was a possibility I would have gone to a public school.

This post was just designed to incite emotions from people, so I kind of resent that I fell into the trap. Here I go anyway.

Coming from someone who went to a 40k school – it was worth every penny. Not only do I make a lot more money than my peers who went to state schools or worse private institutions, I received a better education and experience. I’m sorry, but Chem 101 at a community college is not the same as it is at Duke.

However, the author has a bit of a point when they bring up Wake Forest. Once you get outside the top 20 major universities and top 10 liberal arts colleges, things get dicey real fast. You can’t be an English major at Wake Forest (which by the way is a respectable school) and accrue a ton of debt. You need to be an engineer or something far more vocational that you know will pay off quickly. There was a New York Times article recently about an English major at NYU who was now completely indebted. Well, yeah! If you’re an English major at a top school (which I consider NYU), you better really work hard to get great experience in your internships so you have something to balance your non-practical major when you apply for jobs.

So yes, the author is right that some practicality needs to be added to this equation, but let’s not be silly here, community college doesn’t equate to a top school.