Slashdot Mirror
30% of America's Student Loan Borrowers Can't Keep Up After Six Years (cnbc.com)
The IRS recently ruled that under some circumstances employers can link their 401(k) matching contributions to the amount of an employee's student loan repayments -- making it easier for recent graduates to take advantage of this employer benefit. But that's one spot of good news in a sea of bad, according to one anonymous Slashdot reader:
Two new articles criticize America's student loan policies (under both the Obama and Trump administrations). CNBC cites reports that within six years, more than 15% of student borrowers had officially defaulted, while 10% more had stopped making payments and another 4.8% were at least 90 days late. And for-profit colleges fared even worse, where nearly 25% of graduates defaulted, and a total of 44% faced "some form of loan distress."
These trends were masked by Department of Education reports which stopped tracking repayment rates after just three years (reporting defaults rates of just 10%), according to Ben Miller, senior director for post-secondary education at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. "Official statistics present a relatively rosy picture of student debt. But looking at outcomes over more time and in greater detail shows that hundreds of thousands more borrowers from each cohort face troubles repaying."
These trends were masked by Department of Education reports which stopped tracking repayment rates after just three years (reporting defaults rates of just 10%), according to Ben Miller, senior director for post-secondary education at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. "Official statistics present a relatively rosy picture of student debt. But looking at outcomes over more time and in greater detail shows that hundreds of thousands more borrowers from each cohort face troubles repaying."
This implies that attending college is a stupid decision. However, there is significant evidence to the contrary.
A college degree is correlated with financial success, but it is not clear if it causes that success, especially for artsy degrees. A tech degree is almost certainly worth it. A business degree is likely worth it. But not much else.
You don't say? Because I had to fish a resume out of the trash from HR because it came from a community college instead of a recognizable one.
Colleges are like brand names. You might not like to hear it but a lot of people get filtered out because of bullshit HR drones picking 4 year colleges over community colleges.
Solution: Go to CC for the first 2 years, then transfer to the 4 year college for your junior and senior year. Your degree is identical to those who were there for all 4 years, but it cost you much less. The tuition is much less, and you can live at home rent free, with Mom buying the groceries.
At least in California, the 2 year community colleges are set up as "feeders" to the UC and CSU systems. It is much easier to transfer CC->UC than CSU->UC.