If you come out with a worthy degree, then it's not so bad.
If you only went to college to "discover yourself" and took an easy major, then it's a very hard lesson (and perhaps a good one).
I can believe that New York's rates are the highest- simply the cost of staying alive will kill you!
So for the same money as a short term car loan you get an education loan payable long term...and the underlying asset holds value for life. Not a bad deal at all.
This college senior has no problem with that. There are people in other countries who would kill to get an opportunity to go to college here and get an American salary, regardless of the debt. Get a worthy degree and a good job (Hoover economy my ass), and show a little financial restraint, and you'll have that $20000 paid off before you know it. But of course, it's always easier to whine than to take responsibility for oneself.
Hey. Liberal professors need to eat too. <sarc.off
1) When universities discovered that more students were able to afford school, they began to raise tuition.
2) A rise in tuition meant that students needed to borrow more money, and, with easy loans, more was made available.
3) Go to step 1.
This leads to an overall increase in prices for an education.
The same thing happens with US health care.
The more money the government pumps into the system, the higher prices go.
Of course, many people get squeezed out in the process.
Come in as an illegal and you get to go to college for free.
We will have managed a college education for our son, tuition free.
We used dual enrollment during high school (which is a tuition free program and he earned his AA during his high school years.)
Florida has a generous merit based scholarship (paid for by the lottery) called Bright Futures and if you choose a state university, and make a respectable score on either ACT or SAT, you are awarded either a 100 percent tuition scholarship or a 75 percent tuition scholarship (for a lower SAT/or ACT.)
We happen to live in an area where there are several state universities, so add to that the fact that the student lives at home, and you have a Bachelor's degree for the cost of books (which I estimate to be around six thousand for the four years.)
It took six years but, paid as I went owning nothing when at graduation. I ate the same type of foods that some of people turned down as not good enough in some stories after Katrina. And liked it. I have since made up for the the food i missed. :-(
Sounds like there ought to be an investigation into our institutions of higher education for PRICE GOUGING!!
Is that all?
Back in the 60s I paid my college tuition with a summer job. Things have changed. Yes, government backed loans have helped that a lot.
Are you kidding me? A college grad with $19,000 in debt is in fantastic shape. Most college grads are into six figures in no time at all. Hell, I just got a $22,000 car loan and I'll pay that off in four years easy. It costs money to get an education but hardly anybody regrets the choice.
Thats nothing compared to what my niece and her husband, now both doctors, owe............FWIW, they both are paying back their loans!
They both consider those loans a benefit rather than burden. Both would have been forced to enroll in institutions they could afford if it were not for the loans and both would have received a CSU system education, the equivalent of a junior college degree, and had to endure an entry level corporate job at sub $40K.
Today, because the loans allowed them to enroll in the university of their choice, one owns a small corporation and the other is a key, technical employee in the equivalent of a large corporation. Both enjoyed the benefits of the employment and business contacts they made in these more costly undergraduate institutions.
The first to graduate, 4 years after college, earns about $250K/year and employs 9 people. The other, two years after graduation, earns $65K/yr as a government employee with equates to a salary of about $80K/yr in the private sector because of the generous benefits accorded employees of the UC system which are currently the focus of public scrutiny and anger.
I owe, I owe
So, it's off to work I go....
the sad truth is - for many young people now, many college degrees make no sense. job and wage growth is all concentrated in the service sectors, and you don't need much in the way of college to hold those jobs. people who work in the trades, whose jobs cannot be offshored, can do very well. A Mercedes Benz mechanic can make 85K a year. One son of an older friend of mine, makes north of $80K - as a conceirge at a Manhattan hotel.