<p>Quote: “1) Most Stanford grads are unlikely to have the personality to just “take a year off and travel.” They are usually very ambitious and driven and anxious to start their careers.”</p>
<p><em>laugh</em> So, how many Stanford grads do you know, Bay? Because I basically live, work and socialize with 'em all the time. Many of my good friends are Stanford folks. (That’s what happens when you live in Silicon Valley.) Either you know a very strange subset of alumni, or you’re just guessing. </p>
<p>While kids may start out as Type-A overachievers when they arrive, and there are certainly very focused subsets of students, I’d say that the average Stanford grad is not obsessively driven to start their career and would not consider taking a year off to travel a bad thing. Such urges are <em>so</em> common, in fact, that Stanford even has programs in place to make that easy to do – it’s easy to take a year off during your undergrad at the Farm. There are also many of grads who take time to volunteer locally or globally. </p>
<p>Of course, those things wouldn’t be options for this poster. Most loans of the type he’s discussing require payments starting even while the student is still in school. Even the ones that wait until graduation also require repayment starting 6 months after full time classes end. </p>
<p>1000+ plus a month is a <em>large</em> burden for a young person to handle, unless that person is going to devote a large chunk of their pre-tax income to the loans alone. I know it’s very hard to understand before it happens, but that kind of payment means doing without during a time of your life (early 20’s) when you want to have fun, go out with friends, date, start your life. </p>
<p>I guess what I’m saying is, “Is 4 years at this school worth spending the 10 years after that staying at home, eating ramen, watching basic cable, and taking dates to the discount movie house?” And no, I’m really not kidding. What young people forget is that if they’re making more money, they’re also paying more taxes, and the end result is the same – gosh, that’s a lot of money NOT going into your pocket for a long, long time.</p>
<p>(By the way, I ran the comment quoted above past my sweetie who was engaged to a Stanford grad among other things, and he laughed out loud, too. Look up the “Stanford duck analogy” sometime.)</p>