<p>Student debt seems like a huge problem right now, much more than it should be.</p>
<p>I read about people going to private schools without aid for $50-60k a year, and I can't for the life of me figure out how they made that decision unless their parents are rich or it's at a school that is truly worthwhile (Stanford, for example).</p>
<p>My parents middle class so I can't get any grants, but at the same time they can't (or won't) help me out very much. I'm going in-state to Cal Poly, and even $24k a year seems like a lot of money for 4-5 years of studying. I have this overwhelming feeling that I'm going to be tied down with debt until I'm in my 40s. </p>
<p>Everyone - even those who aren’t in college - should be worried about student loans. Massive debt shouldered by an entire generation of people has created a bubble that will hurt the economy seriously, sooner or later. </p>
<p>Honestly if I don’t get the aid I need form the school that accept me then I will not attended it. One thing I really hate about college are loans, and I do not want to mess up my credit at a young age.</p>
<p>I’m not taking out any loans either - I am also commuting. What scares me is that the school I got a full scholarship to was a school that I applied to absentmindedly - it had an application fee of 25 dollars and basically everyone applied there as a safety to your safety - I was never anticipating them giving me a full scholarship, and I wasn’t even really anticipating going there in the end. Scary to think that there was a strong chance that I wouldn’t even had applied for a number of arbitrary reasons and that my second best option would’ve entailed 20k in loans a year… Welp. I feel very fortunate. </p>
<p>Even with financial aid and scholarship money, I would still be extremely uncomfortable with taking out too big of a loan to go to a top school. </p>
<p>I don’t plan on taking any loans. I am attending my state flagship with several renewable scholarships, totaling around $18k per year (full COA is around $20k). I qualify for some need-based aid and I won a few local scholarships, so that should cover the rest. </p>
<p>I really don’t think any school is worth taking out a large sum in loans. I’m not in love with KU by any means, but I don’t like my dream school enough to take out $80k in loans. </p>
<p>I’m not too worried. If I get in to a top school, I’m lower middle class and pretty much guaranteed a full ride. If I don’t, my state flagship usually offers top graduates from my school full rides.</p>
<p>I guess it’s unwise to take out loans, but honestly, if I had to do so to attend a top college, I would. Call me shallow.</p>
<p>“Loans” are not inherently bad - if you can finance an education with only federal loans; you’re in a pretty good spot. The only issue is when federal direct loans aren’t enough and you have to begin dealing with private banks - that’s when the debt becomes big and often suffocating. When people in this country talk about student debt, they aren’t talking about the average debt of 6k of a Princeton graduate who only had to take out a single Federal Subsidized loan - they’re talking about the NYU grads who are shouldering 100,000 in debt and few job prospects in one of the most expensive cities to live in. </p>
<p>The caliber of students on this thread isn’t commonplace - very few people in the real world are fortunate enough to have full scholarships like many people on this board/forum do - so more often than not, most students <em>have</em> to finance their college education with some loans - and that isn’t really the end of the world; just be financially wise about what you’re doing with the loan and what your prospects are out of college. </p>
<p>With that being said - I am very debt averse - I have always wanted to go to grad school; and I know I’ll have to finance grad school with loans (unless I somehow strike gold and land a full scholarship or something similar) - so I’m not only trying to graduate from UG with no debt to put off crushing financial obligations - I’m also trying to maximize borrowing power for graduate school. </p>
<p>I qualify for financial aid in the more prestigious colleges, and if I don’t make it into any of those, then I’ll go to the state school, which is ridiculously cheap, and I’m 100% sure I’d qualify for scholarship there anyway because the requirements are super low lol. Like for in-state (???) kids 3.5+ GPA and 26+ ACT score are all that’s needed for a full ride, and there’s at most one school in the entire state that doesn’t inflate grades… Kinda depressing, actually, but I’m so not complaining.</p>