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?

Comments

Nah... I'm still alive...

[FroMan]

Student loans are not that bad if you do what I did, put most of college on credit card... No, that's not right...

More seriously, student loans are not that bad, infact are a decent investment. For a lot of jobs a diploma really looks good, so you should be able to demand more, especially when just out of school since you need that better pay to pay off college. Also, you do not necessarily need to go to a huge named school to get a decent education. If you start with a local CC for your first year or so to get the gen-ends out of the way then go to a "real" state school you can get a decent education at a reasonable price. All said an done, I probably spent less on college then I make in 8 months. While that may seem like a lot, school loans tend to have lower interest rates and payment is deferred upto six months after you get out.

Leave it alone

[perljon]

Nobody forces you to take a student loan. And by having them so easily available, it gives a choice of college when they would not have that choice. Now, that Visa that you got in exchange for a free T-Shirt that you racked up 15k on for beer and clothes... kill those.