Posted on 05/30/2011 7:47:07 PM PDT by TheDingoAteMyBaby
Forget term papers and roommate conflicts. For many students, the biggest college stress comes after they leave school.
Six months after graduation, those first student loan bills start arriving and for a Florida student in 2009, the average amount owed was about $21,000, according to the California-based Institute for College Access & Success. In this market, many graduates are unable to get the high-paying jobs needed to pay that debt.
Student loan debt nationwide now tops $913 billion and surpassed credit card debt for the first time last year, a study from college financial aid website FinAid has found. The situation is so tough that 85 percent of college graduates expect to live with their parents, said consultant Twentysomethings Inc.
"It's alarming because clearly we are in a job market where young people are more than likely going to graduate without a job," said Matthew Segal, president and co-founder of Our Time, an advocacy group for people under 30. "And they're in this hole that they have to dig themselves out of."
Last year, 8.5 percent of Florida borrowers defaulted within the first two years, compared with 7 percent nationwide. The national default rate has risen to 8.9 percent this year, according to figures released this month, but state figures aren't yet available. Defaulting hurts a person's credit and subjects a person to aggressive collection techniques from the government, such as withholding wages.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
Institute for College Access & Success
The two don’t necessarily go together.
>The situation is so tough that 85 percent of college graduates expect to live with their parents, said consultant Twentysomethings Inc. <
No way. obama said he would bring “hope and change” and that you will make a million dollars just by voting him in.
“Student loan debt nationwide now tops $913 billion” ?!?
and yet the liberals continue to push students into college, who require massive remedial classes, and probably shouldn’t go at all ?
this is insane ! almost a trillion dollars of debt ?!?
Welcome to the Obama recession new grads
Why not have a title that says, “92 percent of student pay student loans on time”. Always doom and gloom.....the media is so annoying.
When are people going to realize that higher education, as it is now, is a gigantic scam! Ignorant consumers (students and their parents) actually put up with these colleges. Want to see a restructuring ... eliminate all government financing and subsidies for college educations ... you want it, you pay for it. Bet that the capitalist system would invent a completely new and improved college system.
Why wait until you own a house or credit cards to default? Get started early - right after you graduate!
Anyone submitting a resume listing Women’s Studies. Black Studies, Ethnic Studies or Gay Studies as a major does not deserve an interview with a private sector employer because manifestation of a history of poor judgement disqualifies the candidate. The only poorer judgement is the one made to finance this individual to go to college in the first place.
The next brewing scandal is disability loan foregiveness for student loans. Lots of former students are applying for disability loan foregiveness. There is lots of pressure being applied to the Department of Education to turn disability evaluation to the Social Security Administration. Lawyers are very skilled obtaining fraudulent disability claims from SSA. Either way, expect successful disability loan foregiveness claims to jump.
No need to claim disabilty because Obama and the Dem Congress passed legislation that would automatically forgive any student loan debt that was in default after 20 years.
Add to that that they have been trained to see themselves as victims and corporations as natural targets of lawsuits. Hiring them represents fiscal dereliction of duty.
Welcome to the Obama recession new grads
I can see it now: July, 2012-Obama announces if re-elected, he’ll restructure student loan repayment plans.
I have not heard about the 20 year limit. If a loan goes into default, the IRS can garnish wages and tax refunds. The rats have reduced interest rates, provided loan foregiveness after 10 years to government and non profit workers, and substantially expanded income contingent repayment. Disability is just another tool in the financial catastrophy of student debt.
Granted, there is a lot of BS (womyns studies, gay studies, black studies, etc) and the places charge waaaaay too much.
But learning technological or petroleum engineering without years of training? Not likely.
I agree. Although the liberal arts colleges would lobby vs it and be devastated, since the Federal government has taken over the student loan program,I honestly believe that most liberal arts majors, communications, ethnic studies, women’s studies, art history etc should not be eligible for student loan financing nor should they be eligible for Pell grants. Math, science, engineering and technical degrees and perhaps Education majors should be given preference for loan financing.
The AnointedIdiot, Pelosi, and Reid to the rescue with a bailout.....oh wait....it’s called “hope and change”..../s =.=
We could all do better, if all students paid their own way through college. Vocational/technical schools followed by building one’s own business/equity is one route.
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