<p>Pharmacies are far from a monopoly.</p>
<p>We have Rite-Aid in town in addition to WalMart. I believe that one of the Target stores in the area has a pharmacy too.</p>
<p>The reason banks are giving out these student loans is because they are not dischargeable by bankruptcy and because there are ways to get back the money that are not as easily available to VISA or other places that float funds. People are getting student loans that could not get a charge card with a $100 limit at the GAP, and I am not exaggerating. This is truly the case. A woman we know, who is hitting some tough times, had her car repossessed, is in foreclosure for her house, has a rock bottom credit rating still was able to cosign a hefty loan for her daughter for college. Her credit was poor enough that the interest rates were usurious, but they did release the funds. She had already taken out a bunch of PLUS loans for another kid but the house foreclosure put a quash on that source. So she now owes more on student loans for at least 3 kids as cosigners or primary on PLUS. Her oldest is $90K in debt, is a philosophy major.</p>
<p>As a fairly high-achieving student - one who is top 2% of my class, had a 2200 SAT score, etc - loans ended up inevitable even for me. I can’t imagine an average student from a middle-class family avoiding them. I will end up $40k in debt even with my parents providing me with $10k/yr + a small monthly allowance AND my choosing to attend a state school. That’s substantial debt. I’m lucky that my state school is top 15 in the nation for my major and that I’m doing engineering. </p>
<p>Private universities cost so much, that even with need + merit aid, they end up the same or more than the state school. </p>
<p>I’m holding out for scholarships, and as a hardworking student I expect to get some in my jr/sr year, at least. But how much? It won’t be covering the whole $40k.</p>
<p>At a time when our education system continues to deteriorate, it seems there’s simply more and more obstacles for sending students to college.</p>
<p>With luck, xcloudy, your summer engineering internships will bring in $$ and will decrease the $40K debt load you’ll have to take on.</p>
<p>I have huge student loan debt (all told about $96,000), no credit card debt, I rent (no house) and I will be paying past retirement (paying using the 30 plan so I can afford the payments). Why so much? I was a single parent, got cancer in college, and this is BA, MA and PhD debt combined. Incidentally I am driving a 22 year old car my kids call the ghetto van. Not all high debt stories involve irresponsibility, using the loans to buy bling and beer, or stupidity.</p>
<p>^^Were you able to get a good job with your Ph.D, kidsandliz? If so, the money would have been well worth it…my H’s Ph.D made it possible for him to get into a great industry and paying back $100,000 debt would have been imminently doable.</p>