I completely get the impossibility of paying off 200K for an expensive non marketable degree and not being able to find a job, but I'm not fully understanding the issue with paying off a moderate loan when hired after graduation.
Comparing it to my loan, I graduated with $9,500 in debt and was hired at $10.50/hr. That creeped up of course but I initially made less than 25K/year. Compared to 104K now, that was very little income.
I was the sole earner, paid my rent, had a new but modest car, paid for my two kids (didn't even have maternity benefits on the first (the health insurance industry has never been a bed of roses), had a couple of horses and still paid off my loans in 10 years.
What I don't get is the primary reason why that doesn't work the same for anyone that graduates with student debt that is roughly half of their annual income these days.
I'm sure interest plays a part, but what else?
Do people just resent having to pay them back? They're cramping the new lifestyle norm?
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
First, I must say I'm the first in my family to go to college so I didn't have any advice about the difference b/w public and private colleges. Second, my guiance counselor was a complete dunce so didn't get any help there AND even if she weren't such a dummie, she wouldn't have been much of a help b/c the cost of college at the time she went to school was FAR less expensive than it is today.
I went to a private school that was $40,000/yr and got nothing for financial aid despite my parents' poverty (a combined family income of $75,000/yr before taxes w/ 4 children so do the math). So I took out loans from Sallie Mae.
No one told me, nor did I read in the terms, how much I would have to pay and over what period of time. I also lived on campus b/c I was an out of state student so tac on another $10,000 for living expenses. My school had a coop program which meant that it took you 5 years to get a BSN- do the math at $50,000/yr and I walk out w/ over $200,000 in debt.
Fortunately I had HRSA help for 3 years, but guess what, Auntie Sallie applied the payments to interest first so after 3 years of $3500/mo payments, I still have $193,000 to go.
Since I was so far in the hole, I figured what's another $30,000 to get a MSN and become a FNP? So I did that and doubled my pay right out of school. I now work 2 jobs (one FT and 1 per diem that is 1 day/wk) and have tripled my income. I can afford the $1400/mo loan payments which is still a lot of money, but I did what I had to do given what little info I was given/or lack of, at the time.
If I had to do it all over again, I would've gone to a state school and live at home. That's hind-sight. All I can do now is advise other prospective college students to think about the field they're entering, the school they're going to, how it will be financed, and how they will be able to pay it off.
Since I left undergrad, the cost of attending that school has shot up to $50,000/yr and that doesn't even include living expenses which are well over $10,000/yr. The issue isn't the students taking out loans they may not be able to pay, it's that the cost of college has shot up in a very small amount of time- has anyone stopped to ask whether the quality of that education has shot up at the same rate? Why is it so expensive? Why there are cuts to funding student loan programs? Why is the government making money off the student loan payments (Dept of Ed) when other companies don't pay taxes (ie GE and the NFL), etc.
I think if people want to get a college education, they shouldn't be punished after w/ payments they can't afford. There is a huge wave of former students sticking it to the government and these loan companies by not paying their debts b/c they can't afford them and further, no one wants to help them do so. The current figures for student loan debt in this country is now in the TRILLIONS of dollars and that is ridiculous. We need to stop victimizing the people who have that debt, and start looking at the colleges, the policy makers, and these loan companies for solutions or the problem will continue to get worse. Simply telling people that 'you should've done the math' isn't a solution to the greater problem- it hasn't yet and if you continue to do the same thing over and over and get the same results, you're insane!
Society is VICTIMIZING those who signed loan papers without reading the fine print? "Someone" should help bail out those who went to an expensive private school for an education instead of the state school they could actually afford? That "someone" might be me -- who went to the state school I could actually afford, read the fine print before signing the papers and paid off my student loans as agreed. Sorry you're in a fix, but I don't think *I* should have to bail you out.
It's not about the cell phone......that was an example I used when we were discussing a similar topic. It's the mentality that many individuals have. We need more stuff, more gadgets that ultimately create more debt.
Society is VICTIMIZING those who signed loan papers without reading the fine print? "Someone" should help bail out those who went to an expensive private school for an education instead of the state school they could actually afford? That "someone" might be me -- who went to the state school I could actually afford, read the fine print before signing the papers and paid off my student loans as agreed. Sorry you're in a fix, but I don't think *I* should have to bail you out.
I agree with this. And I one of those with a ton of federal student loan debt after going to not only one, but two very expensive private schools. I don't want to stick to the government but not paying my loan - I don't want to take that hit to my financial future! While I agree the cost of some education these days is terrible and yes, I wish that could change (and that is perhaps what we talk about), I do think one can manage to attend school and deal with the aftermath if they plan ahead.
As I have mentioned before on AN, I work as a school nurse at a high school. The school I work at has two college counselors that work with outside financial aid folks who come in just to talk with students and families about making affordable college choices. I wish those some folks had been in my high school!
Yes, I got my GED after I started taking my pre-reqs for nursing. I honestly feel schools are a joke for the most part, and would never pay more than the total of
It took looking and searching to keep the cost that low. And I paid as I progressed and used grants that are available to most anyone that wants to apply for them. Now I am a Magna Cum Laude BSN graduate from a well respected university, and have a job most people would like to have as a Nurse. No students loans…even though they really made an effort to try to give me a loan or two.
I know tuition has gone up, but I've heard that complaint since I went to school.
I'm trying to do the math to figure out just how much better it used to be.
I had a 9% federal loan of $9,500 for my BSN straight from HS. Starting wages $10.50
Same school (pre req's at the CC for negligible tuition, add $2,000 OOP) 6% $24,300 loan for books and tuition for the 3 yr nursing program. Starting wages $42.00.
Aside from it taking longer due to impacted classes and too many grads, I'm not seeing a huge difference.
You seem to assume that all nurses are paid at least $42 per hour. Many experienced nurses make less, if they can find jobs. In 2012, about half of new grad nurses in CA were still looking for their first nursing job 18 months after graduation. That does not include nurses who left the state to find a job.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Pay rate and employability can change overnight. There are no guarantees.
No, but that the funds will have to be repaid IS guaranteed. Therefore one needs to own up to, accept and honor that choice at the time the loans were taken, both in taking a risk at the time that circumstances for the desired job are what they are AND for the fact that they may not always be rosy. Otherwise those of us who DO manage our money well end up subsidizing those who do not. And that ticks me off. I don't get to claim "I didn't know that company would go bad!" when I buy a stock that tanks and then get my money back. Education is an investment in oneself. All investments come with risk.
You seem to assume that all nurses are paid at least $42 per hour. Many experienced nurses make less, if they can find jobs. In 2012, about half of new grad nurses in CA were still looking for their first nursing job 18 months after graduation. That does not include nurses who left the state to find a job.
I'm not trying to assume anything.
I'm giving a specific example related to my experience which includes the rate at which we start new grads, and the tuition in our area.
Regarding others' experiences, there are still nursing students taking out loans in the job climate that you described.
I disagree. As previously mentioned, the vast majority of American adults (70 percent) age 25 and older do not have college degrees.
A huge swath of people in this country have never had any aspirations for college and never will. I graduated from a high school in a working-class city where less than 10 percent of graduating seniors went off to college. Some high schools have dropout rates of roughly 50 percent.
There's a massive number of Americans who aren't even thinking of college; therefore, it is not imbedded within their psyches. I've met many people who are scornful of 'book learning' and see it as a waste of time and money.
My post wasn't meant to be a judgment call. The fact is, the pay gap between a worker with a college degree and one without is very evident.
The comment I made about it being ingrained in our psyches was alluding to the fact that most people think that they cannot move up (salary wise/position wise etc) without a degree.
Actually, 42% of people age 25 and up have an associate degree or higher so some people must think there is some value in the book learnin'
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
Society is VICTIMIZING those who signed loan papers without reading the fine print? "Someone" should help bail out those who went to an expensive private school for an education instead of the state school they could actually afford? That "someone" might be me -- who went to the state school I could actually afford, read the fine print before signing the papers and paid off my student loans as agreed. Sorry you're in a fix, but I don't think *I* should have to bail you out.