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Are Student Loans Burying Graduates?
DrHogie asks: "This is an interesting Op/Ed piece on student loans -- and how they bury the graduate in a load of insurmountable debt. As someone who is considering going back to college to finish his degree, are student loans (and the degree they get you) worth the debt load?" Update: 05/09 5:45 GMT by C :I apologize. The link in this story is bad, and I can't locate the original story on Yahoo. In the meantime, here's a replacement story in the same vein, and an article about student debt and how most college kids are having to work more to offset rising tuition costs. The original question is still valid, however. Is college getting to be too expensive for the average high school graduate?
I had to pay for my first year of college with mainly student loans. I didn't qualify for enough student aid, and didn't recieve much scholarships. I realized I wouldn't be able to handle that debt x4 years, so I followed my brother's advice, a sailor, and joined the Air Force Reserves. I got a nice elistment bonus ($8000), plus the GI Bill (almost $700 a month, for 3 years), and a well paying weekend job ($200 a weekend). I was able to recieve more money in federal aid after enlisting and didn't have to take any more loans to pay for school. I highly suggest this for anyone thinking of paying for school by themselves, i.e. no rich uncles. Even the waiting a year part, since I got 2 stripes for having 30 college creditsand the GI Bill only pays for 3 years anyways.
Th
Your desire to accept student loans should be proportional to you ability to pay them off.
For example, if you are planning on getting a degree, and similar people with that degree are offered a median starting salary of US$45000, then you might be able to tolerate a significant debt load after you graduate because your debt payments will be a relatively small fraction of your monthly income.
If, however, your likely starting salary is US$20000, that same debt load might not be such a good plan because it is going to be a significant fraction of your monthly income.
As noted by other posters, an education can be a good investment, provided you will ever have the means to pay off your debt, and you make the most of you time in school so that you actually learn something.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, its too dark to read.
are student loans (and the degree they get you) worth the debt load?
From the 2002 Statistical Abstract of the US (warning - this is a PDF):
Median Annual Income by Educational Degree (No 664)
Overall - $32,092
High School Graduate - $27,669
Some college, no degree - $33,035
Bachelor's degree - $49,180
Master's degree - $59,376
Professional degree - $81,606
Doctoral degree - $71,732
Obviously, the answer to your question depends on how much debt you're carrying. But education does pay off.
The wealth numbers (which I don't have on me) are even more striking. The vast majority of Americans are in debt. If you have a college degree or above, you can begin to break even (especially if you own your house and are middle-aged or older). Those with Master's degrees have the most wealth, followed by those with Doctoral degrees. (Master's does better than doctorate, I suspect, because of all the MBAs.)
If you're a programmer wanting a productive way to ride out the recession in school and you've already got a bachelor's degree, consider going to grad school in CS, mathematics, EE, or any of the 'hard' or even soft sciences. (particularly if you're female )
Why? First of all, it's a great way to develop all those great ideas you weren't "allowed" to when working in a closely managed and directed "role" with the concommittant "responsibilities." Second of all, here's a little secret: in grad school in the US, they pay YOU , not the other way around. Low wages, but beats workin'! Third of all, your entering, say, CS with a psyche background, or math with a bio background, or physics with an engineering background is not only possible at the best schools, but positively encouraged. It's not "off topic" or "irrelevant" background, it's cross-disciplinary .
A few years work experience-- or even more than a few years--particularly in any area of computer support, installation, management, programming, are all viewed very positively by selection committees (I know, I've sat on them). Why is this? Well, for one thing, they can get certain kinds of specialist work done around the department for about a third of the commercial rate. For another, you're going to appreciate the chance to work on your own projects far more actively than a kid fresh out of college who's maybe done one or two closely supervised "independent" projects. You know how to organise and present your work. You can make decisions for yourself. You don't necessarily believe everything the professor says. This is called critical thinking and it's positively discouraged in high school, can get you labelled as a troublemaker at work, is encouraged in some university classes, discouraged in others -- but in graduate school and beyond in academics it is absolutely essential .
Furthermore, hving been in the "real world" you know the real economic advantages of developing and owning your own Intellectual Property-- as distinct from developing IP for someone else. You can develop all sorts of ideas into almost marketable products in graduate school--prototypes--and create the opportunity for yourself to develop it further when you get out. It's much, much easier to get invesment with that Ph.D. after your name, and the prototype you and only you developed in your pocket .
For those of you who quit to go to work for awhile say, half way through your undergraduate degree, you might as well take a few courses at a time while still working, at the local state or community college to get back into it. Cheaper, and it gives you more flexibility in which course of study you choose to get your undergraduate degree in, because the competition at those institutions is just not as stiff. If your heart is in the field you're switching to, believe me, you will ace these courses, and be able to transfer into a "real" school -- with scholarships . The other advantage of taking a few classes is that it will eat into your savings enough that these won't literally count against you when it comes time for the real school to calculate your financial aid package. If you've switched to working-part-time while taking your classes, all the better.
Basically, there are a number of winning strategies for finishing degrees and even changing fields in the process that don't involve taking out huge loans and going for broke. What you need to do is take up the discussion with the financial aid officer and some of the faculty you are interested in working with at your "dream" school, your "safety" school and your "University Near Mom" school where you can take a few courses(that's what we used to call UNM, which is a very good school for a very reasonable price BTW).
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