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I'll probably owe ~40K, but I'm expected to make 80K right out of school, so no worries.
May I know what is it that you study to expect 80k right out of school? 3.5 years into engineering gig I'm nowhere close to 80k, so I'm interested in this very much.... Thank you...
Parents partially paid for my state university education (I paid the rest with part-time/summer jobs). My Masters was paid by the company I worked for at the time.
Back from the dead
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I was shocked when I read an article about student loans where this professor owed over a million dollars, that's $1,000,000 after all fees and interest combined! Here's an excerpt from: Student loan horror stories: What's the worst that can happen?
Matthew Bridges* is a 65-year-old college professor who teaches science classes online. He's also, in his words, "a fugitive" because an insurmountable level of student loan debt has upended his entire world.
By his creditors' last tally, Bridges owes a jaw-dropping $1.75 million in student loans. To escape unrelenting harassment from debt collectors, Bridges fled the country in 2006 to live and work in the Philippines.
Bridges spoke to WalletPop recently during a brief visit back to the U.S., where he shared his story and explained why he took the drastic step of leaving his homeland. For starters, his college debt load wasn't always so staggering.
Bridges first earned a science degree in 1984 and later obtained a PhD. in 1996 from a for-profit college in Texas. By the time he finished his doctorate, Bridges owed $104,000 in student loans.
Over the course of more than 25 years, however, interest on all his loans has compounded, and late fees plus penalties have been tacked on to what he owed. Some interest rates were as high as 29.99%, and collection charges of roughly 25% have been added to his debt, he says. "I'll never be able to earn my way out of this problem," says Bridges.
Because he is dyslexic and suffered various physical ailments, Bridges endured long bouts of unemployment throughout his career. At one point in his earlier years, "I was eating out of a dumpster," he recalls.
Later, when he earned his PhD at age 51, his employment prospects still didn't improve much. "No university wanted to hire anyone 51," he says. "They wanted to hire people who were 30."
It's only been in the past seven years, after being diagnosed as a lifelong dyslexic and getting medication from a Veterans Administration hospital, that he's been able to work steadily. He says his income has ranged from $20,000 to $50,000 annually, with 2009 being his "best year ever."
Still, his earnings aren't enough to even pay the interest on his student loans.
<25,000. Thank the Lord for that! Close to 20,000 (I believe). I've got to work on this so I can go to grad in my mid-late 20s.
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Phd left country to escape loans
