The important question is, was the 4 years of beer and sex worth it?
They knew they were going to have to pay it back, they just didn’t know the timing of their income. Going 20 or 30 grand in debt to be on a career path with a median income of 70 or 80 a year sounds like OK math, until you get out into the job market and learn you don’t get to median income until you have 10 years of experience at least, which is about the time your loan is scheduled to be paid off, meanwhile they’re lucky to pull down 30 and suddenly they get a $500 a month student loan bill. We’d do the students a favor if in the booklet about majors we’d stop listing median income and swap it for entry, it would also help to put in the booklet what percentage with that major actually get work in that field. 18 year olds have enough of a tendency to make bad decisions already, giving them bad information doesn’t help them any.
They're not dumb. They're just inexperienced. How can you have lived so long and not understand the difference between intelligence and wisdom?