Ahh yes, thanks :up: Tuition and fees is under $10k. Students definitely save money in their Junior and Senior years (maybe Sophomore) living off campus, splitting rent with friends, and a steady diet of water and ramen noodles. If you join the Army or Marines you will probably serve in Afghanistan. Depending on the job you choose before you enlist you might even get shot at. If you are in the infantry you most likely will get shot at. If you join the Navy you will most likely live on a ship and never spend a day in Afghanistan. If you join the Coast Guard you will most likely never leave the United States. And If you decide to join the Air Force you will probably get addicted to World of War Craft or some other computer game (all branches will still give you free education and money for housing and allowances once you receive your honorable discharge).
You want to forgive student debt yet you mention them foregoing buying cars and purchasing homes. So the debt would be forgiven, which the taxpayers would then have the burden of, and they would just jump into more debt? What is fixed?
Because education, including higher education is a huge benefit to society. Financing public institutions through a debt scheme on students reduces public accountability of these very public institutions. We continue to reduce the financing of public Colleges per student (subsidizing the student) and continue to subsidize the institutions on the backs of the students. Society benefits from a well educated population, there's a pay back to the taxpayer. That is very different then debt taken on to finance your personal well being.
I never went to school in USA. I finished college and did my masters in Turkey. I studied in a state college and paid a very small fee for each term. It is like 300-400 US Dollars per semester. Of course this was a state college but again in Turkey best colleges are state colleges. Consider Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton being state colleges. Private colleges in Turkey are for the kids of rich and their diploma won't get you a decent job. Whatever, I am not trying to compare Turkish Education System to US Education System. Now that I do have 2 kids who will go to college in 10 years, I am starting to worry. They are smart fellas so most likely they will aim for Ivy League schools. How the hell am I going to afford that? I am seriously considering going back to Turkey so they can go to a good Turkish State College but just do their masters or MBA's in USA. I am just making enough to pay for the mortgage and other bills. I can't put aside too much money towards their education. I feel like they will be screwed when it is time for them to go college because their daddy didn't make enough money to save some money for them. I know there are scholarships etc but again they are limited and not easy to get. Oh boy. Sensitive topic for me.
Im going through college right now but if I could redo one thing it would have been like another fellow said: TAKE 18 credits. Secondly TAKE ONLINE COURSES. A lot of colleges now offer college courses online and you can take like 2 in the winter and 2 in the summer. If you add in the 6 credits you get for every winter and the other 6 from every summer im sure you can get through college in 3 years or less. Thats about $60,000 at most from a SUNY school. That sucks but its at least manageable.
Actually, Ivy League-type places are more likely to be doable, since they have been much more aggressive in replacing loans with grants for lower-income students (more generally schools with large per student endowments). It is the lesser private schools (which typically have lower endowments) that can't afford to do that.
The government should just stop guarantying student loans. Tuition rates would miraculously stop tripling the rate of inflation. Poor kids who want to go to the elite college of their choice will have to downshift their expectations a bit and go somewhere that will be less prestigious, but more affordable. The education they get will be equalized after a very short period. As jeff notes above, the really elite colleges will move heaven and earth to get the really elite kids. Those of us who don't walk on the moon shouldn't worry about either. Practical note to you youngsters suffering in higher ed related debtor's prison. Resist the urge to consolidate various and divers student loan debt. If risk of default is a real possibility, it is much better to have a bunch of smaller creditors who collectively won't care so much about you, than a single leviathan with that much more incentive.
I had a $28k student loan debt after I graduated in 2008...Right in the middle of this cancerous economy it was terrible. They hiked up the interest rates so much from my 3rd year and 4th year loans that I was getting raped by these guys. I was without a job for 1 year, not at my fault because I was good at what I did but it was because there were no jobs for a guy with 1 and half year experience at the time. People at manager levels were taking jobs thats were 2 levels below them. Directors were taking Manager jobs. I was getting no shot so I as soon as I got a job and started to save I tried to get rid of these high interest loans... THESE LOAN PROCESSING SHARKS wont even accept a bigger payment from me online. It could only be minimum payments online, They were fucking taking $80 bucks towards the principal and $80 towards the interest. What???????? I called them, chewed these fuckers out and have finished off the high interest loans (7%) but paying over the phone. They had to send me a email verifying my transaction with the phone support person. So sketchy. My fiance has a $70k+ loan out for NYU only because its reputable and so she can get a job as a Nurse. She graduated in September and no luck yet, hopefully something comes through soon for her. Its a nightmare...I can pay everything off but I barely have any interest on a 2 of them as those were my 1st/2nd year loans (less than 1%). I find it really terrible we cant pay off principals online, the phone people start acting like sales people to keep paying minimums when I said, "lets close this stupid loan"
I do not recommend anyone pay to go to a Private school unless there is true reward by the time you graduate. Most private schools are basically like the Hunters, Baruchs, SUNY/CUNYs of the world. Whats crazier? SUNY and CUNY schools are now so much harder to get into then most private schools. Most private schools will accept illiterate kids and their scholarship money is so laughable unless you get a full scholarship its almost pointless to go Private
The problem with Student Loans is that there are services denied to the consumer that are available to other basic lown owners. You can't re-finance them and you are only allowed to consolidate once?!?! One solutions where government does not need to get involved to better a situation is to let corporations compete with one another to collect the interest by providing competitive rates. Now the way that the Government COULD help is to allow a portion (or all) of a worker's 401(k) to go towards payment of owed student loans without penalty. This would allow pre-taxed dollars to pay off someone's debt.
stay on ur kids - educate them from early on - most learning occurs in the home.....i still sit with my almost 16 year old at least 3-4 nites a week. make them get the straight A's and reward them, try to save a bit of money in a combination of 529's/life insurance policies.... there will be grants and scholarships there - hunt them down - and apply for them all.... and dont be fixated on Ivy league. especially the 1st 1-2 years in college - online and community colleges give one the price flexibility and an opp to get the basci courses succesfully out of the way.
interesting... used to be the SL interest wasnt tax deductable either ur making above like 90K or something. now theres a worksheet and it starts to get phased out above 70K (single) and 135K (joint filers) year show me how me a newly trained single, physician making less than 75K - especially in suburban areas. come on. essentially the interest is not tax deductable. pretty crappy cause the med school kids have some of the largest balances.
I graduated in 2010 and it has been tough since. I am one of the guys with a big student loan to pay each month and it basically takes away my money. I haven't been able to find a higher paying job in this economy either. I know some of my high school friends actually doing better than me, and they didn't go to college, due to not having these monthly loans. I don't complain, because I feel it will work out for me in the long run, but it definitely has not been the post-college life I expected so far.
