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With the enormous and increasing cost of college tuition do you believe it is ideal for under privileged kids to attend a University? I'm talking about kids who have no financial help at all from their parents.
I know many young 20 something grads who are buried in college loans. Even if they have jobs a big portion of their income goes to paying off school loans. Recent college grads make about 30-40k out of school, paying off 4 years of living expenses, tuition, and books takes a huge chunk of your income. For many recent grads they cannot even land a job in their major so they resort to waiting tables and working retail jobs. Working retail with college loans to pay off is almost impossible.
I was extremely lucky to have parents to who could afford to foot the tuition bill and my living expenses. I can only afford to enjoy adulthood and move out of my parents house because they paid for my education. I feel bad for other 20 something grads who cannot enjoy adulthood because they're chained down by school loans. I know some who would like to attend grad school to make them more qualified for higher paying jobs but simply cannot afford more school loans. It really makes believe that a college education is not worth the tens of thousands of debt when you can't even break even on your investment.
Yes but only if they study fields that'll likely lead to a job in the future (Science, Engineering, Medicine, Business, etc.) as opposed to, say, English, Music, etc. My personal opinion.
As compared to what? Seriously, I'm asking out of sheer curiosity here. I was one of those poor undergrads you mention and had the double whammy of being in a small town. The only reason I didn't end working retail entirely through undergrad is that I was a student majoring in biology and managed to get hired on as a medical secretary at a local hospital - for about $9/hour. There was NO career progression there.
My first job out of undergrad was a lab position that DOUBLED my salary. Since then I've more than doubled THAT salary and I'm about seven years out of undergrad. Sure, I have student loan debt and even more now that I'm doing an MBA but it's still been 100% worth it for me, particularly when I look at the people I graduated high school with who DIDN'T finish college and they're all working crap swing shifts at the local Wal-Mart after all these years.
With the enormous and increasing cost of college tuition do you believe it is ideal for under privileged kids to attend a University? I'm talking about kids who have no financial help at all from their parents.
I know many young 20 something grads who are buried in college loans. Even if they have jobs a big portion of their income goes to paying off school loans. Recent college grads make about 30-40k out of school, paying off 4 years of living expenses, tuition, and books takes a huge chunk of your income. For many recent grads they cannot even land a job in their major so they resort to waiting tables and working retail jobs. Working retail with college loans to pay off is almost impossible.
I was extremely lucky to have parents to who could afford to foot the tuition bill and my living expenses. I can only afford to enjoy adulthood and move out of my parents house because they paid for my education. I feel bad for other 20 something grads who cannot enjoy adulthood because they're chained down by school loans. I know some who would like to attend grad school to make them more qualified for higher paying jobs but simply cannot afford more school loans. It really makes believe that a college education is not worth the tens of thousands of debt when you can't even break even on your investment.
Student loans are taken out by kids whose parents can't afford to pay their way and also don't qualify for grants or academically based scholarships. Truly underprivileged kids (as defined by SES) are able to get help via grants which do not have to be paid back. Grants are typically coupled with a work/study program where they work to earn the money for living expenses and books. These students come out of college debt-free.
Some students today view loans as a 4 year vacation from work. The smarter ones work during school to keep their loan amounts at a minimum. In addition, community college, living at home, attending a public university instead of a private one are all cost saving decisions available to all students. Sadly, some want what they can't really afford and take out huge loans to get it. Some forget to focus on having to repay it...... someday.
Some students make poor choices as to major. Some don't take the time and effort to seek out internships and jobs to make them stand out to employers. Some kids think a college degree is enough. And some of them are WRONG. Other kids make better choices and are rewarded for them.
Yes, attending a traditional 4 year college and living on campus, eating at the dining hall, buying books, going abroad for a semester or even year, joining a fraternity/sorority, playing intermural sports, taking a spring break trip every year, etc. is an expensive proposition. Some students borrow funds that cover ALL of these activities and more.
I'm just saying there are other ways to go about getting a degree that minimizes debt.
I would imagine a significant amount of kids from the lower economic groups will get grants to help them with school. There are also schools out there with very reasonable tuition, so if you don't have money, those are the more reasonable options to explore.
Student loans are taken out by kids whose parents can't afford to pay their way and also don't qualify for grants or academically based scholarships. Truly underprivileged kids (as defined by SES) are able to get help via grants which do not have to be paid back. Grants are typically coupled with a work/study program where they work to earn the money for living expenses and books. These students come out of college debt-free.
Some students today view loans as a 4 year vacation from work. The smarter ones work during school to keep their loan amounts at a minimum. In addition, community college, living at home, attending a public university instead of a private one are all cost saving decisions available to all students. Sadly, some want what they can't really afford and take out huge loans to get it. Some forget to focus on having to repay it...... someday.
Some students make poor choices as to major. Some don't take the time and effort to seek out internships and jobs to make them stand out to employers. Some kids think a college degree is enough. And some of them are WRONG. Other kids make better choices and are rewarded for them.
Yes, attending a traditional 4 year college and living on campus, eating at the dining hall, buying books, going abroad for a semester or even year, joining a fraternity/sorority, playing intermural sports, taking a spring break trip every year, etc. is an expensive proposition. Some students borrow funds that cover ALL of these activities and more.
I'm just saying there are other ways to go about getting a degree that minimizes debt.
When I was in college in the early-mid 2000's which wasn't that long ago, I was advised that paying everything with student loans was ok. Can't afford a computer?...put it on your student loans, can't afford books?....student loans, can't afford a place to live?....student loans. On top of that there were always credit companies on campus preying on naive students getting them to sign up for credit cards for a free pizza or T shirt. We weren't advised AT ALL to monitor our loans and expenses. Being 18-22yr old most of us never had any financial knowledge or responsibility. The perception was that after you graduate you'll have a good job to pay everything off, no need to worry about the cost.
I wish I was advised more on the current job market and the skills actually needed to land a job in my major. Instead we were just being fed fluffy aspirations of what our degree could POSSIBLY achieve. Professors in psychology, anthropology, and history aren't going to say "you know this degree is virtually worthless and won't land you a job," those people are trying to keep their own jobs.
When I was in college in the early-mid 2000's which wasn't that long ago, I was advised that paying everything with student loans was ok. Can't afford a computer?...put it on your student loans, can't afford books?....student loans, can't afford a place to live?....student loans. On top of that there were always credit companies on campus preying on naive students getting them to sign up for credit cards for a free pizza or T shirt. We weren't advised AT ALL to monitor our loans and expenses. Being 18-22yr old most of us never had any financial knowledge or responsibility. The perception was that after you graduate you'll have a good job to pay everything off, no need to worry about the cost.
I wish I was advised more on the current job market and the skills actually needed to land a job in my major. Instead we were just being fed fluffy aspirations of what our degree could POSSIBLY achieve. Professors in psychology, anthropology, and history aren't going to say "you know this degree is virtually worthless and won't land you a job," those people are trying to keep their own jobs.
Did you have to sign anything to get the loans? Were you given disclosures about how and when the money would be paid back? Did you know what the interest rate was and how much your estimated payment would be? If not... why not?
You should have taken the time to understand the ramifications of your decisions. You took out the loans and spent the money. You signed up for the credit cards and used them. You picked your major. You didn't take advantage of career services to determine what type of jobs your major could lead to, what the pay scale would likely be and what employers wanted to see on your resume.
If thousands of other grads managed to figure out all this out, why didn't you?
Did you have to sign anything to get the loans? Were you given disclosures about how and when the money would be paid back? Did you know what the interest rate was and how much your estimated payment would be? If not... why not?
You should have taken the time to understand the ramifications of your decisions. You took out the loans and spent the money. You signed up for the credit cards and used them. You picked your major. You didn't take advantage of career services to determine what type of jobs your major could lead to, what the pay scale would likely be and what employers wanted to see on your resume.
If thousands of other grads managed to figure out all this out, why didn't you?
I am personally in good standing. I'm lucky to have a good career in this bad economy. I'm also very fortunate I have parents who paid for my education so I never had to worry about school loans.
In actuality thousands haven't figured this out. I'm speaking for the millennials such as myself who attended college, graduated, and have searched for jobs in this bad economy with no luck. There was no Student Loans 101 that educated us on student loans and planning on how to pay them off. Most people don't shop around for student loans like auto loans, they just put their trust in Sallie Mae. How can you go wrong? they're only the largest lender for student loans. Plus at 18 MOST kids have never had ANY financial knowledge or responsibility.
In college these days every student in every major is led to believe he or she will land a job after graduation. If we are assured this by our professors then why worry? We simply just memorized text books, regurgitated the answers, and got a good GPA to impress employers.
Career services in colleges is a joke. They just tell you how to format your resume, do canned mock interviews, and tell you what you should wear.
The reality is that thousands of recent college grads are buried in debt before they even taste adulthood. On top of that debt most are having a hard time finding jobs, each job opening is like competing for American Idol with tons of well qualified applicants. And even if you land a job out of college a BIG chunk of your income goes to student loans. I know many peers my age with decent jobs but have to live with mom & dad because they have to pay their student loans.
I think there are separate issues here. The pressing question seems to be "how much debt should a student take out to gain a degree?" That's completely different than "should under-privileged kids attend university." In some cases, the poor kids get huge breaks in tuition, or access to grants and scholarships. It's the kids who are more in the middle (and thus make too much money to have as much access to grants/scholarships, yet don't have families wealthy enough to foot the bill) who are really getting squeezed. I still think it's absolutely worth it to get a four-year degree, but students from any background should be wary about getting in over their heads in debt. Some debt will probably be necessary, and will probably be worth it in the long run, but students would be wise to do whatever they can to keep that number down. My parents did not pay for my school, but I was able to cover it with a blend of financially-based grants, merit-based scholarships, and some subsidized loans, then got a full fellowship for grad school. Tuition has gone up and financial aid has mostly gone down since then (I graduated about 10 years ago), but there are still options. I went the public university route because it was a better academic fit for my interests, but in my case, anyway, several of the private schools offered me better financial aid packages, despite them having a higher sticker price. Other times it makes sense to do a couple of years at a community college and then transfer.
Student loans (Stafford loans) are not just for kids that their parents aren't able to afford school. Any full time student can get a student loan as long as they fill out the FAFSA and make adequate progress. EX. Bill gates child could get a student loan as long as they filled out the FAFSA and met the other criteria.
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