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You'd also need to look at average student loan burden for both undergraduate and graduate together, since we're talking at least 6 years of school here.
I attended an Ivy League university and took several theatre courses and am a member of the stage actor's union (though my undergraduate degree was not in theatre). Everyone I know whose undergrad degree was in theatre is not working in theatre in the way that they imagined, or else not at all. Most everyone I know with a nonprofessional master's degree is not working in the field in which they got their master's degree. And these are some top schools. I did not get a grad degree and now run a business, and the overwhelming majority of PhDs or near-PhDs with whom I went to undergrad are underemployed - typically in nonprofit or government jobs. There are some exceptions, but the supply of graduate students is so high that schools will keep minting degrees and taking money from kids who have no idea what $150k is.
Some of these same Ivy League grads are also calling for massive student loan forgiveness. Not extensions or better plans - both of which are readily available - but just wiping out the debt entirely. I was an English lit major but I still managed to get enough econ out of my alma mater that the disastrous effects of wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars overnight would prevent me from ever asking for something like that. Between my wife (who did get a professional grad degree) and me, we had about $110,000 in debt; we're about halfway paid off with all the undergrad debt gone and just the grad debt remaining, which we were able to get out from the astronomical rates that most grad student loans come in at - due to the inability of financial institutions to discriminate on the basis of the value of the degree, a professional degree with near-certain job prospects has the same borrowing costs as the Master's in Acting from the article. These rates are usually between 7 and 11 percent. We just went to the bank with which my business does business and they lent us the whole thing at 3%. That's over $25,000 in interest saved over 10 years - of course, it's no longer student debt, so we don't get to write it off or have access to any of the perks like forgiveness if you work for nonprofits, etc.
For as long as schools can get you to sign a piece of paper that commits you to sums of money you can't conceive of, they're going to keep printing degrees. There's a very easy change that would help a lot here: require any institution that accepts these loans to keep statistics on the job placement and income of their graduates. This would require a commitment from the borrowers, too, since the schools can't very well get your tax returns, but you could easily set up a system to collect this stuff anonymously. If you knew that your typical MFA grad was making $37k a year with $150k+ in debt, you'd probably think twice about it.
I've worked in professional theatre and toured with people whose lives consist of doing just that. There is nothing quite like it. But they don't tell you that, if you're lucky, you'll be spending your 30s and 40s on the road, because that's where most of the work is; and if you're unlucky, you'll be doing side jobs until they become your career. I still respect it as a career choice but I can't stand most schools that prey on the romantic idea of that or any other job ('you'll be a tenured professor, it'll be great!') to sell degrees that aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
This story tells you so much about what is terribly wrong with this country and young people. A masters degree in acting. $190000 in debt. And tax payers will foot the bill.
There are federal loans and grants, those loans can not be $190000, 20-30k max. and you can not charge them off in a bankruptcy, there is no loan forgiveness on federal loans and grants.
Regular bank loans, don't think you can borrow 190,000 from a bank if you have nothing to secure it with.
It wouldn't let me read the whole story. Just the first paragraph.
My first thought is anyone dumb enough to go 190k in debt for an acting degree is a first class nutbag to begin with. And her parents are no brighter than she is. Waiting tables might be an appropriate job for her.
This story tells you so much about what is terribly wrong with this country and young people. A masters degree in acting. $190000 in debt. And tax payers will foot the bill.
They'll foot the bill because they will never repay the debt.
Loan forgiveness is just the latest way to fleece desperate people looking for hope where there is none.
Anyone with that much debt and no way to recover honestly needs to consider:
a) Moving abroad and starting over where you cannot be garnished
b) Looking at some sort of marriage gig to someone old and rich.
c) Prostitution, high-end....but then there is item b.
d) Illegal activity like drug sales, theft etc.
e) Mega frugal like If you can make 60k a year and have 15k or so in living expenses...you could dig out. Basically, buy nothing new for years, go to food banks for basics or work jobs that feed you etc. live on a cot in someones basement etc.
This story tells you so much about what is terribly wrong with this country and young people. A masters degree in acting. $190000 in debt. And tax payers will foot the bill.
It's just another bubble called the college bubble. In 2005 you have people taking out huge loans to prop the housing market. Then that faded and people took out large loans to go to colleges taking some of the easy and less demanding majors and come this time graduates with a 200k+ debt and no way to pay it down quickly.
Unfortunately student loan is one of the worst loans out there, unlike unsecured loans that you can simply ignore or take it hit in your credit. Student loans cannot be forgiven and must be collected eventually.
I wouldn't invest heavily in collegiate education these days. Take $10k, I can name 2-4 professional training classes that can get you instantly a $75k job or more. Spend $15k you can probably hit 6 figure job if you do your HW without a college diploma.
Wrong. You can accumulate up to $135K in federally backed loans as a graduate student. The person profiled in the WSJ article had a masters in acting.
And since she worked for public radio, this qualified as a "nonprofit" and thus most of her loan was eligible for forgiveness after 10 years.
So yes, the US taxpayer would be paying off the federal guaranteed part of her loans. But nice try.
That's only if she manages to work full-time for a whole ten years there, and doesn't get married in that time.
Not likely.
So far there has not been a single debt forgiveness of this kind, and the first one will not occur until around 2020 at the earliest. That's a long way away. I'll be very surprised if when the time comes there is a significant number of payouts of this kind.
This story tells you so much about what is terribly wrong with this country and young people. A masters degree in acting. $190000 in debt. And tax payers will foot the bill.
Do you not think that the lender who chose to lend someone $190k for an acting degree, and the school that sells that degree for that price, deserve at least a small part of the blame? A smidgeon or two, perhaps?
Wrong. You can accumulate up to $135K in federally backed loans as a graduate student. The person profiled in the WSJ article had a masters in acting.
No, you can't. $20,500/yr is the limit and graduate programs last one year. Even if she took the classes over 2 years we are still talking about one year. If she became a lawyer she would get $20.5K/yr or $61.5K even if it took her 6 years to graduate.
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