student loan relief

[MolaKule]

Originally Posted By: Dwight_Frye
I would be willing to bet that if you looked at the timeline for when a certain political party decided that everyone needed to go to college, taxpayers should subsidize below market loan percentages, and students should be given extremely liberal payback terms spread out over decades with the rapid rise in tuition costs you would see an obvious corollary. I.e. cheap money being available = greedy educators and administrators taking huge salary increases and setting up a system with the ridiculous tenure program where they were set for life and beyond, all on the taxpayer's dime. And those same college and university employees vote in a monolithic bloc for that same political party that steers money to them. And recently, we have had two major candidates of that political party run on even more largess directed to the colleges and university and tried to buy votes by promising to forgive loans that students were legally and contracturally obligated to pay back.
How about this for a revolutionary solution: Break the backs of the teacher's unions and other public employee unions and make them take pay cuts and lower tuition or be out of jobs.
The taxpayers would be happy I'm sure.

Why do people today think they deserve free rides? Because someone told them they do, people who would benefit from a free ride.

I had to find an institution that would lend me a student loan, and I had to pay it off myself, so why does anyone else think they should be forgiven a loan or a free ride?

 

[MolaKule]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
It's very simple, you borrow the money and you have to pay it back.

Seems like lots of younger folks want to sign on the dotted line, borrow a ton of money.....
then feel like not paying up and let loans go into default.

Part of being a responsible 'adult' is repaying your student loans. My oldest sister repaid $50,000 loan for law school (graduated in 1992) over 6-7 years. Many law grads today don't not want to repay the $150,000 student loans cause the law jobs they are finding pay peanuts. They should have done their research before getting into so much debt.

My sister bills her clients $500 an hour, new law grads are no where near that when working at a law firm fresh out of school. Bozo kids expected big $$$ after passing bar exam. It doesn't work like that.

 

[SteveSRT8]

We see the same issue with many new hires here. Younger folks expect to make top wages from day one.

Life seldom works that way. There used to be a stigma associated with being a laggard but not anymore...

 

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: Phishin
The problem with college is: Everyone thinks its their right to go and that it's the best option. Oh, and they go wherever they want, without consideration of costs.

I'm 40 years old. When I was a senior in high school, I had a brother who was a junior, and one who was a sophomore. We were raised by a single Mother. I could have went anywhere: Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Duke, etc. I was visited all these schools and had acceptance letter from them all. But even playing Football at Dartmouth, I would have been on the hook for $40k/year, and Notre Dame and Duke was even more!!!

So I went to a different school: DePauw University. I could go there for $4500/year. It is an incredible school. They have a HUGE endowment (especially for a very small liberal arts college), and their stance is simple: If you get accepted, we'll crunch some numbers and decide what you and your parents can afford to pay for school, we'll take care of the rest. It was a No-Brainer for this kid!!! Especially with 2 younger brothers wanting to go to school too.

I was a double major in Chemistry and Religious Studies (just for fun) and by the time I was 26 years old, I was making $80k/year at a Pharmaceutical company doing R&D. You have to shop around. You have to go where it makes sense. You need to utilize powerful alumni for internships and jobs once you graduate.


Most of the actual Ivy League, and a few well-endowed liberal arts schools offer both "need-blind" admissions and true need based aid. But these are actual Ivy League, not the words "Ivy League" used as an adjective by folks trying to inflate the academic value of any number of schools.

So, the student is admitted without regard to their parental ability to pay. And once admitted, the college offers sufficient aid that no loans are required.

A few examples:

http://admission.williams.edu/affordability/

http://finaid.yale.edu/costs-affordability/affordability

Take a close look at the links. If you can get in, you can go. The average aid award at Yale, for example, is over $40,000/year.

None of the true Ivy League offers any sports scholarships. If you can play, great, but it doesn't affect your ability to pay, or your need.

My daughter graduated from an Ivy League school, and my son is currently at one. My son's aid award for his Freshman year was $39,000. You guys know that I've got a decent job/income. Yet the net cost of his first year at an Ivy League school was $19,000. A figure I was able to pay. A burden, sure, but not beyond my means.

No loans.

And no bizarre sense of entitlement on either kids' part that I have to bankrupt myself to cough up $250,000 for them to go to their "dream school" with a specious and poorly planned future beyond that.

DePauw, by the way, is a fine school and from your story, an excellent choice.

 

[rshaw125]

End all government involvement in student loans and solve the problem.

 

[wings&wheels]

For most prospective students college should be viewed and analyzed as an investment;

where do you want to be/what do you want to be doing in x years,
what will that pay over time incl. career progression,
what is the entire the cost to get there including the cost of money (don't underestimate your costs),
what returns will I forgo while getting there (foregone wages while you are in school...another cost)

Do the calc and determine if the numbers work for you.

If you can pursue a field you enjoy that doesn't pay, but the numbers still work out, enjoy. I do have a problem with folks accruing staggering debt getting a less than marketable degree and then whining about the situation they are in. For profit schools can be a different situation, some are outright predatory and I do sympathize w/ their victims.

Talented engineers in current fields will get good jobs, we cant hire enough of them, same with accounting/finance types. Good sales types are also always needed, but the truly talented ones are born, not made.

I love history but majored in accounting.....

 

[CT8]

Smart enough to go to college ,dumb enough to realize they have to pay it back. This nation is being swamped by the parasite class.

 

[Mr Nice]

Maybe students have to reach out to people employed in the field they are interested in and 'shadow' them ?

My nephew will be graduating with a Political Science degree and niece with a Communications degree. I have a feeling both will be disappointed with their job prospects, but they chose those college majors. Both are nice kids but don't understand in the real world you have to compete for a job with tons of other applicants, deadlines and metrics to meet, bull [censored] to put up at any job and having to keep your mouth shut, etc...

My brother keeps hinting for both of them to apply for a government job (local, state, federal) but both have Mickey Mouse degrees.