<p>How is this possible? I am looking at $36,000 minimum, and this figure is the result of foregoing the traditional costly college experience (dorms, living in a college town, etc).</p>
<p>The article said that the average college debt figure was based on data reported directly by colleges, but colleges only have accurate numbers on a fraction of all loan sources that students can access (namely, federal loans and private loans disbursed directly to the school). What about private loans disbursed directly to the students, credit card debt, loans taken out by others on behalf of the student (e.g. mortgages), etc? That $24K figure cannot possibly capture the entire picture.</p>
<p>I don’t see how 24k is common unless you got free housing and/or commuted. </p>
<p>Or alternatively you worked part to full time while attending college. I know that many people commute so this would lower the price of housing but $24000 divided by 8 semesters = $3000 per semester. And this is basing upon the assumption that you will graduate in four years.</p>
<p>Scholarships / grants, parents paying your way, government paying your way (GI Bill for example), paying your own way and taking out small loans…</p>
<p>Tuition at UMD is like $8,000 a year if you’re in-state. So that’d be $32,000 for four years before grants, scholarships, and other sources for paying are taken into account. Hell, I think my education is nearly free because my dad’s employer pays a certain amount (I think like 50% of tuition up to $10,000). And my dad also saved up enough money to be able to pay for my education.</p>
<p>^ Wow you must be quite lucky.</p>
<p>But for a lot of people, they have to pay for room and board as well as rent. And their parents haven’t saved up. So it sometimes ends up as lots of loans, especially if it is a private college or university or an out of state public universty. Even at an in-state public university, some states have tuition out of control at flagships. But scholarships help to ease the burden for better students.</p>
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<p>Good post.</p>
<p>Add the American Opportunity Tax credit where your parents can get
$2,500 from the US Treasury for the first $4,000 in qualified
expenses for two years. There is a proposal to extend it to four
years.</p>
<p>My son worked summer jobs the last two years and saved $5,000 per
summer. How about working a retail job during the winter break?
A part-time job during the school semesters can probably generate
near $1,000 per semester and you have something to put on your
resume when you look for a job in your senior year.</p>
<p>Look for those little merit scholarships of $1,000 - you might
be able to snag one or two.</p>
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<p>These are choices unless they have no options nearby or have no
options near their relatives.</p>
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<p>These are parental choices that have an impact on the kids. There are
lots of parents that do save up; should we penalize them for
self-sacrifice?</p>
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<p>Again, this is a choice. There are state compacts, though, where
individual states give residents in nearby states, much better
rates than the regular OOS rate.</p>
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<p>These are the choices of the residents and politicians in the state.
Some parents do target states that better support higher education
when their kids are younger.</p>
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<p>Yes, they do.</p>
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<p>Yes to some extent. But the public elites like University of Michigan were not formed by enormous public money. In fact, these days, UMich and UVA hardly rely on state funding as they have large endowments and other funding sources. And parents live where there are jobs, not where the best public universities are located. </p>
<p>So my parents certainly wouldn’t move to Michigan or California (where UCB and UCLA are located) just so I can attend an “elite” public university for in-state tuition. In fact, that would be a ridiculous choice considerning the job markets in those states.</p>
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<p>Let’s say the school is UMass Amherst (just as an example). When the population center is in Boston and its suburbs, it is just very unlikely that a student who has relatives in the Amherst area. And same with many other state flagships which are located in semi-rural areas.</p>
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<p>Yes I agree. But a lot of times, these agreements are contingent upon no college in the state offering the same major. So for example, some one who lives in Rhode Island (a state with mediocre public university) has a son/daughter who wants to major in Computer Science or Computer Engineering. The best public options in new england are UMass Amherst and UMass Lowell. But those majors are offered at URI so tough luck to them. </p>
<p>One could argue that Harvard and MIT accept people from all states without discrimination and provide great financial aid but then again, most people are not qualified to get in to these schools. Certainly, I didn’t get in when I applied as an HS senior.</p>
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<p>If you’re on a budget, then you can’t necessarily expect to get
into the best schools.</p>
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<p>Well, it is nice to have a crystal ball when your kids are born.</p>
<p>In my state, we have an environment where you can keep your taxes
low and save up for a private school education if you wish. The
downside of that is that our higher-education system doesn’t get
a lot of funding resulting in high costs and not enough slots.</p>
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<p>Not everyone has a commuting option. But when I was at Boston College,
I did know of one student with an arrangement of work and company for
room in one of the private homes around the campus.</p>
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<p>That student might consider a variation on a major such as bioinformatics
which is mostly a CS degree with some biology courses tacked on. The
Tuition Break scheme in the New England states also provides a break
based on distance to your state U and an OOS U.</p>
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<p>The people that I know from MIT (we hire a lot of them) generally paid
full-fare.</p>
<p>Many of the things posted about funding an education are ideas and may
work for some and not for others. The thing is that an education is
possible with hard work, luck and creativity.</p>
<p>I had employers pay for 3/4 of my undergrad and all of my graduate
school and additional courses that I took at other colleges and
universities. I worked about 15 hours a week in my first year at BC
and worked full-time during the summer and winter.</p>
<p>Thats about how much I’ll have. I went to a state school for 2 years, then a private school. Both schools paid the bulk of my costs. Living off campus since sophomore year saved me a ton.</p>
<p>My bf has about 10k in loans - his parents paid for most.</p>
<p>I think 24k is a lot and regret some choices I made… I don’t think I’d go to a school where I would have to pay more, especially since I have more schooling on the way…</p>
<p>The approach of Community College where students can save up for state university makes the most economic sense, especially in states where community college costs under $1,000 per year.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it doesn’t always make the best educational sense.</p>
<p>In my state it does… UMD gets lots of transfers from the county community colleges. It’s also a great idea in Virginia… guaranteed admission to places like VTech or UVA.</p>
<p>It’s because there are plenty of people in my situation where their parents are footing the bill. I’ll graduate with literally 0 debt.<br>
I think that the statistic at my school (private) is 54% are not receiving financial aid.</p>
<p>"The approach of Community College where students can save up for state university makes the most economic sense, especially in states where community college costs under $1,000 per year.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it doesn’t always make the best educational sense."</p>
<p>It only makes the most economic sense if you’re not expecting merit aid anyway, because merit aid is almost non-existent for transfer students and unless you get need-based aid you have to pay for your two university years out of pocket. If my sister goes straight to a 4 year public and gets merit aid she will VERY likely end up with less debt than me, and I finished two years of CC debt-free before I started at a university.</p>
<p>Community college is $1000 in some states? Amazing. It’s close to $4500 here and the state school is $13500. Gotta love NJ.</p>
<p>I did the cheap route since my parents won’t pay and I don’t qualify for financial aid. Went to community college for two years on close to full scholarship. Got highest transfer scholarship available to state and private schools which still meant 20k a year. So I’m commuting to the closest public school, so my loan might be 10k in the end. </p>
<p>I couldn’t believe the numbers, but I forgot that lucky kids have parents that will give them money for school.</p>
<p>California CC’s are $26 per unit</p>
<p>This is what I’ve always heard, even though recently someone tried to tell me $14K? Who knows. But 14K is a lot closer to what I’ll have- of course, that’s not including interest 
And the interest is what I think a lot of people don’t consider. Then again, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of considering involved when young people go to all these schools and take out all these tens of thousands of dollars. I went to a community college for two years and then transfered to a relatively inexpensive state school. It’s definitely possible to graduate with very little debt at all. So many states have state scholarships you can get, and working during school really isn’t all that hard either. I did it for 2 years, and I would again if I could find a job. It helps save money to at least cover some expenses. </p>
<p>Gonna edit my post down some:</p>
<p>So many parents I’ve met and parents of my friends have told me that I’ve made the best decisions about college and how they wish their kids had gone the same route. Community college really isn’t a bad thing. There are some really good CC out there that give just as decent education that you find in state schools. I’ve heard so many people say that they don’t see why people just don’t go to a CC first. Of course if you’re getting merit aid it would just be smart to go to that school, but so many people rely on federal loans (which I had no problem getting as a transfer student). It just seems like such a bad idea to take out that many loans, every year, and at many schools it’s two or three times what I’ve had to take out. For every year. It’s just scary!</p>
<p>I think that an “average” debt upon graduation is misleading because there are large differences in prices. They should be broken down into three groups: private, public and community college. Private schools are usually ~2-4 times more expensive than public schools, and publics are about ~2-4 times more expensive than community colleges. They’re completely different leagues when it comes to pricing.</p>
<p>Here’s a random California Community College list of expenses page. They charge $26/credit hour. Of course the state is in terrible financial shape and really cheap community colleges might be a contributor. But it’s certainly an inexpensive way to get your first two years of higher-ed.</p>
<p>Costs in New England are more inline with what you’re seeing in NJ</p>
<p>[Fees</a> & Expenses](<a href=“http://www.hancockcollege.edu/Default.asp?Page=551]Fees”>http://www.hancockcollege.edu/Default.asp?Page=551)</p>
<p>$13,500 for state university is up there. I think that in-state rates in New England are generally about one to two thousand less.</p>
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<p>$10K is a pretty small loan amount these days.</p>
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<p>It is often a rude shock for both parents and students.</p>
<p>The thing is that the system makes it relatively easy to take out loans and a lot of students aren’t the best judges of how hard it will be to pay them back.</p>
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<p>In times of heavy inflation, it seems like big loans are the way to go. Incomes keep going up, home prices keep going up and stock portfolios keep going up making loans look like good decisions. There are people that bought homes early in the housing bubble that made a lot of money through the use of loans. In those times, the conventional wisdom is to take out loans.</p>
<p>On the other side of the housing bubble, though, when debt is hard to repay, jobs are scarce and it’s hard to get any kind of investment return, the conventional wisdom is to stay away from loans. They get harder to take out too. You were ahead of the curve.</p>