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/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> The Cafe >> Student loan disaster /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1275480473 Message started by Jerry Eichenberger on 06/02/10 at 05:07:53 |
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Title: Student loan disaster Post by Jerry Eichenberger on 06/02/10 at 05:07:53 There is an article on Yahoo this morning about some woman who is $100K in debt from student loans, no job, and she keeps enrolling in college courses to defer payments on her loan debt. She'll likely never dig herself out, and the recent reform of the bankruptcy laws made it nearly impossible to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. This whole student loan thing is stupid. This gal wanted to get into "the best college possible" and did so, but at a ridiculous cost. When I first went to college in 1965, I was a poor kid who was living at home with my widowed mother. I went to Ohio State, a public university with reasonable tuition costs. I had a full time job. Yes, it took me over 4 years to graduate, but only by a quarter. I earned enough from my job to not have to borrow a cent. During the last two years, my monthly ROTC check paid my tuition. If any of you have kids on the way to college, please avoid student loans. Tell Johnny to live at home if need be, and get a job. Of course, if your kid really wants to get an education without having a job the answer is to work his butt off in high school and get an academic scholarship someplace. Or join the Guard. One of my buddies has a son in his freshman year of college. The kid joined the Air Guard, got about $10K signing bonus, gets all tuition and books paid, and gets another $10K or thereabouts upon graduation. And, as long as he can still pass the physical at graduation, he has a guaranteed slot in pilot training. Meanwhile, he goes to drill one weekend a monthly, and summer camp. He gets paid several hundred dollars a month for doing this. Between the free schooling, the bonuses and his monthly salary as a Guardman, he's on easy street. While my education may possibly have been a bit better at somewhere in the Ivy League, the extra cost and years, of not decades of student loan payments never make that route really worthwhile. Just my 2 cents worth. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by justin_o_guy2 on 06/02/10 at 05:51:24 Ron Paul made his kids work their way thru. Said NO to the loans. His attitude was "They cant loan it to you, unless they first take it from someone else, so get a job & go to school." |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by babyhog on 06/02/10 at 06:33:56 I worked my way through college... well, for the most part. I paid my first, and last semester's tuitions. My mom/step-dad paid the other semesters. My work money paid for gas/lunch/etc. Drove about 30 miles to school. No loans. I worked 2-1/2 days a week, went to school 2-1/2 days. My ex-husband (who makes MUCH more money than I do now) saved enough to put our son through college... we had to pay off his student loans while we were married (which were pretty cheap 25 years ago). He gave our son the option of living at home and using the money to get a nicer car, or living at school, driving whatever it was he was driving at the time. He chose the car, and lives at home, drives 50-60 miles to school. First year, he only had classes 2 days a week, so that helped. This year, he has clinicals too, on days when he doesn't have classes. But he won't end up with any hefty student loans either. My current husband's kids.... oh boy, IF any of them go to college, they will HAVE to have jobs.... the oldest (17) will go the military route, if anything. I guess I'm saying I agree with you. Student loans are ridiculous. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by Jerry Eichenberger on 06/02/10 at 06:53:24 Baby - I should have been more articulate. Student loans are stupid for undergrad. But professional school is another matter. I didn't borrow any for law school, but I went to night school and worked a full time job during the day. Lack of study time certainly compromised my grades, but I knew I would go into my own practice, so I wasn't trying to impress some hiring committee at a big firm. Medical, vet, and dental school do require loads of time beyond what we would normally think of as full time. Class and labs at least 30 hours per week, plus another 30 study time, minimum. So I suppose I can see borrowing one's way thru med, vet, or dental school, but's that's about all. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by buttgoat1 on 06/02/10 at 09:09:24 It never fails to puzzle me why people take out loans and then get upset when they are expected to pay it back? My oldest son has completed 2 years of college at a local school while living at home. He will finish up across the state, so there will be some loans going on, but hopefully they will be minimal. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by mikelhsr1982 on 06/02/10 at 10:09:10 7778747E7578737F786F7A786F1D0 wrote:
Thats what I did, thank god for the GI Bill |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by kimchris1 on 06/02/10 at 10:11:18 My son spent 8 years in the Navy as a way to help with his college. He just graduated in May with his Masters and is still going for more degrees. He has worked as many as 3 jobs as well. He is a very determined man and I am so proud of him. My daughter is raising 3 kids on her own. She also worked 2 part time jobs and put herself thru Massage school. She is now working on her Chiropractic license. All done with no student loans. Student loans I feel can be useful if used correctly. Yet they do have to be paid back. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by LostArtist on 06/02/10 at 10:51:58 student loans are just like any other loan except you have to pay them back period, there is no getting away from that. currently I'm on student loans for my graduate degree, I also have like 4,000 left in loans from undergrad that are on deferral for now, going to start paying on them before I get out of a grad school though, just cleaning up some other minor minor credit card debt (~$500) first. when I get out of grad school I'll probably owe around $25,000 in student loans, so it's the price of a new car, hopefully I'll have a much better job and I'll probably stay in the same crazy small apartment until I get the loans paid, depending on the job situation, even if I don't get a better job, I can still afford to pay them, just will take longer and I'll have no fun for years!!! I'd probably pick up a second job to help for few months here and there, no freelance graphics though, paid work that I don't have to think about like night stocker at some grocery store or Walmart or something while I keep my full time job at the newspaper. student loans aren't any different than car loans, buy what you can afford, not the dream thing you feel you have to have I'd much rather pay for school outright but that's a no go with the rest of my bills, tuition doesn't fit without taking another job which would make it impossible for me to go to school without ending up stressed to the max and killing myself. also student loans do have very flexible payment plans, so they don't have to kill you if you just don't go crazy, also work hard in school at networking and setting up job interviews when the time comes, even if you have to let some classes slip a bit. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by earlytimz on 06/02/10 at 11:29:47 I paid off my student loans a long time ago, but my ex-wife went back to school a few years before we got divorced. I learned a valuable lesson (finally something went MY WAY) about student loans during the divorce... They are yours forever. My ex has $12k worth and wanted me to pay half. The judge said "nope. you're taking that education with you & he won't be benefiting from it later on. They're all yours". I was sooooo relieved!!! |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by Aggie10 on 06/02/10 at 11:30:50 I wish i had known more what loans would do to me financially after graduation before i took out the money, more importantly before my parents took out their PLUS loans and I have to help pay them back. I graduate in December so I'll soon have to start paying back and i get married in December as well, so i get to adopt more student loans. My kids are definitely going to be working to pay there way and I'm going to start saving... after i pay of my loans :P |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by photojoe on 06/02/10 at 13:29:42 My Son was more than perturbed at the enormous tuitions when he decided that he would have a lot better chance to get where he wanted to go with a Masters. He also wanted to attend a "premier University" and was looking at 20-$50,000 here in the States. He wound up at The University of Glasgow. One year of post grad work there: 800 GBP, or $US 1600.00. Wound up graduating and working for the BBC in London until he came back here. They don't kill their students with debt over there. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by LostArtist on 06/02/10 at 13:44:21 a lot of Europe has nationally financed schools, the govt pays for it or part of it. that'll never happen in the USA |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by buttgoat1 on 06/02/10 at 13:45:47 I guess the other part of the equation is what is the degree in. My son and I had a talk about what major he would be studying. He is leaning towards chemistry and says that there is a decent market for that. He figured it out pretty quickly when he told me his department manager at Lowes has a degree in German. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by brownie17 on 10/01/14 at 09:15:55 Student loans can be a curse. You put yourself in a huge hole before you even get started. Unless, of course, you'll be making some big bucks. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by 1st2know on 10/01/14 at 19:16:18 Yes, avoid student loans. Students latch on to these loans because they want to go to a name brand school, and, they think they're in some sort of race. Here's how I put my kids through college: 1) Force them to take AP courses in high school. 2) Once they become 16, they can take GECC(English Comp, Art history,...) courses over the summer. 3) Finish all the GECC courses at community college at 1/3 the tuition. 4) Buy books that are one revision old. Once the books become one revision old, they drop in price to $5-10. 5) Take the maximum number of CLEP tests. (usually 8 classes). 6) CLEP/test out of any pre-reqs. 7) Finish at a state school, preferably from home. 8) Always make it a point to visit the school with their latest bill and question fees on the bill. This wont save you any money, but the school administrators need parental supervision too. The cost of my youngest's 4* year degree was about $21,000. And yeah, they should work while they're going to school, because they'll learn more about working for a living flipping burgers, or stocking the shelves at Target than they will at school. * took 5 and 1/2 years, but, it's not a race. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by arteacher on 10/01/14 at 20:39:18 I paid my own way through art college, then got student loans for my university degree and teacher's college (small ones because I was married by then). During the early '80s when interest rates went sky high (18% for a mortgage) the bank defaulted on my loan, which had been negotiated at 4%. I had switched branches, and the new branch was supposed to be transferring payments to the old branch where the loan had been negotiated. Suddenly I get a notice from a collection agency that my old branch had sold the loan to. The government maintained that I was three months behind and they did not know my current address. I went to my new branch and the money was still there. I went to the collection agent and he showed me copies of the loan cards with my old address crossed out and my new one written in. It turns out the bank had conspired to collect on a lot of student loans that had been at low interest rates when the interest rates had gone sky high. It was cheaper for them to sell the loans to collection agencies than to keep them at 4% when interest rates were so high. In order for them to legally default the loan they 1) could not know my current whereabouts and 2) the loan had to be three months behind, neither of which were true. I complained to my Member of Parliament, and her office said that that particular bank had illegally defaulted on many student loans and that the government was working on it. When the dust settled I received an apology from the bank (but not an admission of guilt) and the rest of the loan was to be interest free. |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by mpescatori on 10/02/14 at 00:15:28 4B6874734675736E7473070 wrote:
A number of things are "to be paid for" in the US, which are provided by local or federal government in Europe. Among these, College tuition and Health Care. Answer these questions : - do you have to pay a bill when you call 911 and Police/Fire Dept. arrive? If not... why should you pay for medical? Why can't it be provided? - do you pay High School tuition in the same way you pay for college ? Do you need a loan to see your children through 4 years of High School? Or does the State provide? I'm not saying "it's wrong"; I'm just saying "I don't understand"... Actually, nobody does... |
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Title: Re: Student loan disaster Post by justin_o_guy2 on 10/02/14 at 13:17:01 When the goobs got into the college finance game the tuition started climbing.. We are from the government, and we are Here to Help You,, |
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