Posted on 06/01/2010 4:44:02 PM PDT by jerry557
Like many middle-class families, Cortney Munna and her mother began the college selection process with a grim determination. They would do whatever they could to get Cortney into the best possible college, and they maintained a blind faith that the investment would be worth it.
Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle. For much of the time since her 2005 graduation, she's been enrolled in night school, which allows her to defer loan payments.
This is not a long-term solution, because the interest on the loans continues to pile up. So in an eerie echo of the mortgage crisis, tens of thousands of people like Ms. Munna are facing a reckoning. They and their families made borrowing decisions based more on emotion than reason, much as subprime borrowers assumed the value of their houses would always go up.
Meanwhile, universities like N.Y.U. enrolled students without asking many questions about whether they could afford a $50,000 annual tuition bill. Then the colleges introduced the students to lenders who underwrote big loans without any idea of what the students might earn someday — just like the mortgage lenders who didn't ask borrowers to verify their incomes.
Ms. Munna does not want to walk away from her loans in the same way many mortgage holders are. It would be difficult in any event because federal bankruptcy law makes it nearly impossible to discharge student loan debts. But unless she manages to improve her income quickly, she doesn't have a lot of good options for digging out.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
A good part of the blame belongs to people who demand that you have to go to college to become something.
It simply isn’t true. College isn’t for everyone, smart or not.
Many of these persons will flock to other countries to doge the repayment of student loans
Had to read pretty far down to get to this nugget:
“She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It’s the highest salary she’s earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women’s studies.”
Probably out on a limb for some useless liberal arts degree. Would you like fries with that?
I just finished reading this and was shocked by that!!!
Two years at a community college with a transfer to NYU would have saved her $45000 and her BA diploma would look exactly like the one she has now.
>>Ms. Munna does not want to walk away from her loans in the same way many mortgage holders are.<<
She can’t. They will hound her for the rest of her days. Hey, Ms. Munna — PAY IT BACK LIKE YOU AGREED!
And I had a hefty student loan debt when I left college and started working. I paid it back over 10 years as I agreed to do.
I have no sympathy for someone who borrows money then cries because he/she has to pay it back.
Not to mention that most of the dumbest folks I’ve ever had to horror of working for had advanced degrees...
I wonder if she teaches Sunday School or works with youth groups to keep up her job skills...out there in San Francisco
I also noted that her expenses include $750.00 a month for rent in San Francisco. Assuming she has a room mate who pays the same, you still do not get much in SF for $1500.00 a month.
God forbid Mommy should have to sell the B&B or give her a room
I wonder. Something tells me a future Timmy Geithner is among this lot, and today he's sexting pictures of his boyfriend. Oh wait, that would be a future POTUS.
That’s the society we live in. The schools and parents push their kids into thinking that if they go to college, there will automatically be a dream job at the end waiting for them. If they dont go to college, they will be garbage men or working at fast food for the rest of their lives.
That’s not the kids fault. That’s the parents that are doing that. And the schools are also to blame because they play into the scam. Universities dont advice kids about the loans they are taking out or advice them about the truth of the job market because if they did, they would lose students and the university loses money.
Go to a law school admissions office and they will flood you with more bullcrap than you would hear from a used car salesman.
Many? As in 10%?
These people have no one but themselves to blame for their situations.
More proof that some people are too stupid to benefit from attending college.
Does that means she probably wants to be lesbian priestess?
The idea that everyone should go to college has led to the proliferation of worthless degree programs like the one in which the woman in this article was enrolled. It just seems like all of the people who couldn't hack it in real majors would end up taking these programs instead.
Mr Trebek... I think I’ll take religious and womens studies for 100,000 dollars!
The schools promise these young kids all kinds of things. It was rampant in the technical schools teaching ex cops, plumbers, or carpenters to pass their MCSE. They’d promise these people $70k right out of school even when there were no jobs for experienced engineers.
“Someone should have told this poor sap that she could have obtained the same degree in BS from a state school for far less than that.”
The school was probably telling her all kinds of BS to get her convinced it was a good idea.
>>The schools promise these young kids all kinds of things. It was rampant in the technical schools teaching ex cops, plumbers, or carpenters to pass their MCSE. They’d promise these people $70k right out of school even when there were no jobs for experienced engineers.<<
No one promised me a damn thing. There wasn’t even Computer Science when I went to college (I am an IT professional) — my degree was in Business Administration (and has served me well in understanding business processes and details).
And did you see what she majored in “womyns studies and religion.” I am sure the Career Center had stacks of job openings for that particular skill set!
Lemme get this straight...
Religion: politically incorrect in business
Women’s studies: Has this womyn no common sense? Why would you want an employee with a cr@ppy attitude?
and the degree is interdisciplinary! Wowzers!!!!
If someone wants to go to college to study religion and women’s studies, that’s fine by me. But if you have to go into hock for $100,000 to get a college degree, you better make sure that you get a degree that you can earn enough money with to pay back the loan.
I keep seeing teachers complain about what they get paid, basing their objection on the fact that since they are so highly educated they should get paid commensurately. They don’t seem to understand that the monetary worth of your education is a function of what someone else wants to pay you to use the information and expertise you gained by attaining the degree, not what you paid for it. A degree in religion and women’s studies pretty much qualifies you to write about them - if you can find someone who wants to pay you for that - or to become a female cleric. Neither of which is going to pay a whole lot.
I really dont think the type of degree is the issue...
I know a History major who now owns his own company. And I also know an Engineering major who is working as a bartender and can’t find any other work.
Which one was smarter?
I’m not saying she isn’t whacked. I’m saying the colleges, trade schools and so forth are committing fraud with what they tell parents and kids. The schools couldn’t lose with easy money and increasing tuition.
“Which one was smarter?”
Which has a prettier wife who isn’t a nag?
I have no doubt. I am sure that even the most honest of barbers would gladly give a bald guy a hair cut if he was being paid a buttload of money to do it.
You are one callous son of a b!tch. May your words rise to greet you heartily.
Well, times of big debts mixed with loose morality do breed sexual exploitations. The two go hand in hand, history big picture wise.
Mom Stole My Beer - Send the Police!
32-year-old Fla. son calls 911, demands mom's arrest after she takes booze
It's hard to be 32 years old and still live with mom, but when she takes your beer away, sometimes you have to take it like a man.
Charles Lee Dennison, over in New Port Richey, learned that the hard way this past weekend when he was arrested for calling 911 to complain his mother had poached his pilsener.
Dennison was "very intoxicated" and demanded that the police arrest dear old mom when officers responded to his initial 911 call Friday night, according to tampabay.com. The sloshed son told cops that if mom wasn't arrested and charged, he'd keep calling the emergency number.
County Sheriff's deputies instead charged him with making false 911 calls. Dennison was still in jail as of Tuesday morning, being held on $150 bail.
Hopefully mom's kicking back with a cold one while junior sits in jail.
Religion and women’s studies? For 100k?
THAT in itself should be ILLEAGAL. Whoever comes up with these crock of B.S. degree programs should be drawn and quartered.
I can’t help but wonder just WHO did she think was looking to hire people with a degree in “religious and woman’s studies” and WHY she thought there would be some kind of demand for such a thing?
Where do people come up with these hair brained ideas?
And why am I supposed to feel sorry for them?
The stupidity of people will never cease to amaze me.
“my degree was in Business Administration “
Thats why nobody promised you anything. ;)
The bigger stupidity is the bank that lended her the money for that degree.
Just like banks giving out adjustable-rate $500,000 mortgages to people making $30,000 a year and then expecting those people to pay when the rate resets.
That should be criminal right there...
“The bigger stupidity is the bank that lended her the money for that degree.”
Nope, there is no risk for the bank so why should they care.
>>You are one callous son of a b!tch. May your words rise to greet you heartily.<<
Which part is callous? The idea that responsibility is something people need to embrace or the fact I have no sympathy for people who make extremely bad decisions and then cry over them? “Religion and Womyn’s Studies” — think about it.
I paid my debts — and it wasn’t easy and took 10 years (which was my agreement). I guess it IS callous to think others should do the same.
I suppose it is callous of me to think that paying your mortgage should be done as well.
Dang, this must be my DU account and I wasn’t paying attention...
With the Feds now taking over student loans, their probably is a "bridge" for her, i.e. she works for uncle sugar in a new green jobs capacity and her debt will be expunged!
And we will help pay for it! ( Sarc/ off)............
>>Thats why nobody promised you anything. ;)<<
Back then we didn’t have all them newfangled concentrations and what have you. Of course, my degree is written in Cuneiform...
She's making above-average wages and she's whining?
” graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women’s studies.”
What?????????????
Is that a career???
Let’s get this straight.
Girlie takes out a loan with no guarantee of career that would provide means for repayment.
Girlie can’t afford the payments.
And it’s someone’s fault who’s not Girlie?
For the love of God, someone, be a grown-up, please. STAND UP AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS. No one held a gun to her head and forced her to take out the loans.
If the students are adults, it is indeed their fault. As I said above, no one forced them into a loan.
And anyone who’s stupid enough to believe that a degree in women’s studies will inevitably lead to a six-figure job deserves a LOT of financial pain.
It’s called being smart..
When I graduated with my B.A. I only had about $15,000 total debt. I went to community college for the first few years and then finished at a university. Also worked at least part-time and my parents let me live at home for periods of time. Sure I took some grief socially. But this all saved me a BOATLOAD of cash. 10s of thousands of dollars. Now the loan im paying back today is cheaper than a car payment while most of my former classmates are drowning in debt.
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