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You make some good points. The issue is clearly not black and white.
However, surely you have to know some people that got low-paying or unmarketable degrees that are literally drowning in student loan debt? I do.
I would personally find it brutally irresponsible to send a kid off to a big $$$ private school where they racked up 120k in student loans getting their teaching degree or social work etc. I am looking at exactly this scenario for my friends kid. I'm suggesting they go the JUCO route and then transfer. Otherwise they are going to be BONED when they graduate with debt for decades.
I don't know anyone who sent their kid off to a big $$$ private school unless they had scholarships to offset the cost close to what a state university would cost, or unless they could afford it. You have to use some common sense, and most people do. We qualify for zero need based financial aid, but both of my college aged kids scholarship shopped--they applied to a wide variety of schools and picked the one that a) gave them the best financial deal and 2) they liked. They also applied for every local scholarship they could. I know lots of kids who are starting out at community college for the first two years in an academic transfer program to our state university. What most people don't realize is that the cost of room and board/tuition/fees at a state university is between $20K and $30K/year depending on where you live. People my age could still "work their way through" but it's very difficult now because tuition costs are so much higher. You can do it a class at a time and take 10 or 15 years to finish your undergrad, but if you do that you're losing the salary advantages that a degree offers during that time and delaying your career and earning potential long term. The average PELL grant (need based aid) is only around $4K a year. The rest has to be paid from loans or savings. Keeping student loans affordable is critical to an educated workforce.
I don't know anyone who sent their kid off to a big $$$ private school unless they had scholarships to offset the cost close to what a state university would cost, or unless they could afford it. You have to use some common sense, and most people do. We qualify for zero need based financial aid, but both of my college aged kids scholarship shopped--they applied to a wide variety of schools and picked the one that a) gave them the best financial deal and 2) they liked. They also applied for every local scholarship they could. I know lots of kids who are starting out at community college for the first two years in an academic transfer program to our state university. What most people don't realize is that the cost of room and board/tuition/fees at a state university is between $20K and $30K/year depending on where you live. It's very difficult to work your way through anymore unless you do it a class at a time and take 10 or 15 years to finish your undergrad--if you do that you're losing the salary advantages that a degree offers during that time and delaying your career and earning potential long term. The average PELL grant (need based aid) is only around $4K a year. The rest has to be paid from loans or savings.
Average student loan debt for graduates is currently 27k.
I agree that there are people that use common sense but for a poorer but decent student it's not hard to come out with 60k in debt from a in-state public school. Factor in a non-lucrative major paying 35k a year and that's a serious burden.
Sounds like your kids weren't "average" college applicants and were able to get some aid. A lot of kids have just enough parental income to curtail their aid and parents too strapped to contribute....and not good enough scholarships to reduce the burden enough.
You probably don't hear the horror stories so much because it's not something people like to bring up. Sure they will mention scholarships etc. but nobody pipes up at a party that their son is going to ABC state college, got no financial aid and they really can't help them too much with the cost so the kid has 80k in student loans becasue they changed majors and are on the 5 year plan.
Students should pay more and what is wrong with that idea? The poor need the help so tax the students with a higher interest rate and call it a day. Welcome to the real world! Now pay up!
Why is it that the Repubs want the rates to double? Hmmm, are they afraid of "certain" types of people getting too much education or something? It just makes one wonder...
Anything that you can partisanize seems to make you wonder.
Student loan programs need to be privatized. The government created the loan program, but added no protection through bankruptcy. Some of these low interest loans have been quadruppled as a result of defaults. It has created an industry of corrupt predatory lenders who take over defaulted loans, and legally double and triple balances through excessive charges.
The government, the college system, and lenders have colluded to rape students and their parents.
Quote:
Originally Posted by totsuka
Students should pay more and what is wrong with that idea? The poor need the help so tax the students with a higher interest rate and call it a day. Welcome to the real world! Now pay up!
NO!!! Universities should charge less. The unintended consequence of government involvement is the insane rates of tuitions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goinback2011
How do you think they're funding the grants for 'low income' students?
...and billion $$$ stadiums, food courts, saunas, and a resort atmosphere. Yep, that's what we all look for in a good college.
Disneyland is cheaper, and these days a diploma is mostly useless.
And that teaches you more than the type of research, analysis and writing that you would get from a major that teaches you how to research market trends, analyze customer preferences and write business proposals? Business degrees teach you how to run regression analyses to come up with the statistically best markets to enter. You are saying that your political science degree prepared you to run a business better than that?
According to national averages, you will make more money being a plumber than majoring in any of the following:
Horticulture
Journalism
Visual Communication
Paralegal/Law
Public Relations (PR)
Zoology
Art History
Hospitality & Tourism
Fashion Design
Sociology
Anthropology
Radio & Television
Spanish
Sports Medicine
Photography
Graphic Design
Interior Design
Sports Management
Classics
Criminal Justice
Psychology
Public Health (PH)
Recreation & Leisure Studies
Religious Studies
Music
Athletic Training
Art
Kinesiology
Physical Education
Animal Science
Theater
Social Work (SW)
Human Development
Biblical Studies
Theology
Fine Arts
Broadcasting
Exercise Science
Culinary Arts
Child and Family Studies
But yet we need people in those fields don't we. Maybe it's hard for you to believe but some actually want a degree that they are passionate about regardless of the money they make. Why should someone major in business when they have absolutely no interest in the corporate world.
But yet we need people in those fields don't we. Maybe it's hard for you to believe but some actually want a degree that they are passionate about regardless of the money they make. Why should someone major in business when they have absolutely no interest in the corporate world.
They should major in what they want. But they don't have a right to burden the rest of society with their indulgences.
As for those fields listed, most of them pay low because there is an over-supply of people for those jobs or they don't take special skills. We probably don't need to produce a lot more of them.
Last edited by hoffdano; 05-31-2013 at 07:52 PM..
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