Posted on 05/13/2012 8:32:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Kelsey Griffith graduates on Sunday from Ohio Northern University. To start paying off her $120,000 in student debt, she is working two jobs and will soon move in with her parents. Her mother, who co-signed on the loans, is taking out a life insurance policy on her.
"If anything ever happened, God forbid, that is my debt also," said her mother, Marlene Griffith.
Griffith, 23, wouldn't seem a perfect financial fit for a college that costs nearly $50,000 a year. Her father, a paramedic, and mother, a preschool teacher, have modest incomes, and she has four sisters. But when she visited Ohio Northern, she was won over by faculty and admissions staff members who urge students to pursue their dreams.
"As an 18-year-old, it sounded like a good fit to me, and the school really sold it," said Griffith, a marketing major. "But when I graduate, I'm going to owe like $900 a month. No one told me that."
With more than $1 trillion in student loans outstanding in this country, crippling debt is no longer confined to dropouts or graduate students. Now, nearly everyone pursuing a bachelor's degree is borrowing. As prices soar, a college degree statistically remains a good lifetime investment, but it often comes with an unprecedented burden.
Ninety-four percent of students who earn a bachelor's degree borrow to pay for higher education -- up from 45 percent in 1993, said a New York Times analysis. This includes loans from the federal government, private lenders and relatives. For all borrowers, the average debt in 2011 was $23,300, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
At Ohio Northern, recent graduates with bachelor's degrees are among the most indebted of any college in the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
And for over half of graduates, they haven’t learned anything that will help them become productive citizens.
I guess the only people without College debt are the poor - who usually get to go College for free - and athletes.
When the Feds took over the college funding,
I knew it would only be a matter of time.
The NWO wants everyone owing them $$$$$
What better way to get them right out of school,
owing the gov?
Can you say IRS enforcement?
It is a familiar tactic / strawman used against ANY time of reform. Want to reform drug laws then you are pro drugs. Want to reform entitlements and welfare, you hate the poor. Stand against abortion and you are anti women. The list goes on and its an effective tactic.
Everyone I know with a higher education degree got it off the backs of their rich parents. Few, especially if you arent from a favored class / race, are able to complete without that financial support. One of the many crimes of the student loan program are the women who suck up federal funds to get degree’s only to stay home. There should be a rule mandating 4 years of work for anyone receiving federal aid. If you fail to work, you must pay a portion back so those that actually want to learn and work can gain access. Why should we, as tax payers, fund the education of those who dont want to use it.
Higher education in the US
When the Feds took over the college funding,
—
I agree. Additionally, Obama is freely giving out student loans in order to keep kids in school and out of the work force.
In similar fashion Obama is freely giving out Social Security Disability checks in order to keep the unemployment numbers down.
Does the article ever mention, even in passing, what degree Ms. Griffith was graduated with?
That is key.
Precisely. Whenever the article leads off with an anecdote, you can bet that's what it is.
I’ve been wanting to post this for a while. I live down the street from the University of South Alabama, a public school that I guess would be a medium size university. Over the last few years, I have watched them build two new multi-million dollar class room buildings. No big deal. I’ll assume their enrollment is increasing. But they also built an incredible number of apartments (student housing). Okay, again, increased enrollment. Now, let’s talk about the multi-million dollar student center, with indoor basketball courts, a swimming pool, and I don’t know what else. And let’s talk about the new clock tower. Yes, a brand spanking new CLOCK TOWER! Every college has to have one of those, right? How about two ball fields, one for baseball and one for women’s softball? And, to top it all off, I would venture to guess that their new entrances, all brick work and beautifully landscaped, must have cost near or above another million. I can’t for the life of me understand how they can have that kind of money, and, if they do, why not lower tuition instead of building unnecessary brick walls and clock towers?
I must have missed it. What’s her degree?
Actually, just like the “housing bubble” it’s just another GOVERNMENT SCAM!
You think “government” is going to do anything? Government CREATED the problem....
Honest...I only posted ONCE!
She is a marketing major. She obviously picked the right school, since Northern Ohio U seems to do a masterful job of marketing.
I notice the average was at $23K.
My Daughter just graduated with a four year degree yesterday.
It will take a while to get everything settled but near as we can figure her total collage loan will be around $20K. Total cost would be around $50,000 but she did well, got a few small scholarships and we sunk all the spare cash we could into each semester.
Less than most people’s car loan and her plans are to work like a dog and get it payed off as fast as she can.
Another huge contributor to this problem is the high school “guidance” department’s “advice.”
I cannot count how many student/parent college “information” programs I attended with my 3 children or programs that parents and kids attended separately where the audience was explicitly told not to worry about the cost of the education. There was a concerted effort on part of high school guidance offices and college financial advisers to push students to attend schools without regard to cost; the local community college was acknowledged as the option for those who had no other options...Families were encouraged to find the perfect school and then deal with the financing. Have a reach school (pricey, selective) and a safety school (cheap, local) Really? Really! It is one of the most important financial investments a family will make and we were told we should not worry about the costs?!?! So it seems to me that there was an effort to push students towards the pricey schools to enhance the school’s reputation without regard to what a family was comfortable borrowing/spending.
So rooms full of students and parents did just that~they did not worry about the costs. The children got into expensive schools which made the high school look attractive in the evaluations. However, now students and parents are left with huge loans; tho I don’t know how parents and students can act as if they did not know there would be huge payments associated with the huge loans~it was all spelled out to both students and parents. How can anyone assume loan payments would be any different for a $200,000 mortgage than a $200,000 student loan?
BTW, our family did consider the price, and all 3 went or are paying in-state tuition or equivalent sums....no bargain, but much cheaper than the $50,000+/year charged for out-of-state and private schools.
You are exactly right. Sadly, many high schools are trying to enhance their reputations as 'high quality" schools. These schools are measured on such things as the percentage of grads who go on to 4-year colleges, or the numbers of AP students, etc.
Two questions parents should always ask at these "information" meetings: (1) How many of your graduates are required to take remedial English and/or math classes their freshman year? and (2) How many of your graduates are STILL at the same college for their subsequent years.
I almost guarantee the guidance counselors will not answer your questions. They know the answer, however. Sadly, even the best graduates from the best schools are ill-prepared in language and math skills. These students often incur a year's worth of remedial classes, at college costs ... thousands of dollars spent and loans taken out to learn material they should have learned in high school.
So here is how to fix this situation:
#1. Set a federal minimum GPA students must have prior to entering any university in which any student at that university accept, VA, Pell Grant, Federally backed loans of any kind or Federal Research grants. If you didn’t have a HS GPA of at least 2.5 (C average) then you shouldn’t be going on to College. Similar to the Japanese model but their min GPA is more like a 3.5.
#2. Require any public university to open their financial books 100% and posted online for anyone to audit.
#3. Establish a list of “desirable” programs eligible for Federally back loans & grants. If you want a degree in “Gender Studies” then you best save your pennies and pay your own way.
#5. Reduce the number of Student Visa’s the US gives out every year. The massive inflow of foreigners into our University System is inflating demand and increasing costs. This prices real American’s out of the market for our own publicly funded universities.
#6. Charge $20,000 per year for every Student Visa. This income from these funds will fund the Pell Grant program.
#7. Allow anyone to default on their student loans through bankruptcy after 10 years has passed paying off a student loan. Once a single student loan has been default that person will be ineligible to sign or co-sign any further student loans for life.
#8. Prosecute the AMA for restricting the number of certified university medical programs, as unfair monopolistic trade practices. The AMA does this to keep costs high and protect industry profits.
#9. Restrict University’s from padding their programs with needless “filler” courses. For example a bachelor’s degree program currently takes 5 years on average.
These are just a few ideas but the most important thing we need to do is to reduce the demand for college, lower demand will cause lower prices.
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