<p>Barnard, I don’t think you’re understanding. Nobody is saying people shouldn’t take out loans. People should take out the appropriate amount of loans, work if necessary, get scholarships, etc. borrowing 40k a year is not an appropriate amount of loans… Anything above say ten grand a year is excessive and could significantly limit their future endeavors.</p>
<p>And another thing to the poster that mentioned other loans you can get out of by settling… Sure, they can reposess your car, take your home, etc. the difference is they can’t take back your education. How would they repossess that? It’s completely different as it’s a non tangible thing.</p>
<p>There are a few here on the boards who do say nobody should take out student loans at all. </p>
<p>I really don’t know the answer to what I see as a major problem. It is clear to me that some state schools are much more affordable than they are in other states. There aren’t any here that are as cheap as $10K/year. There are people here who say the kids need to get full ride scholarships or join the military and that’s simply not possible for a large number of kids. Our directional schools give out like 10 full ride scholarships a year. What about the other 24,990 students? A lot of kids have medical conditions that prevent them from joining the military. Community colleges may require purchasing a car which completely eliminates the savings when compared to four year universities because it is expensive to have a car and pay for gas, insurance, etc. </p>
<p>Some here just make it sound like there are easy solutions out there and I don’t see it as being that cut and dry.</p>
<p>I think we’ve discussed the car thing on another thread. Where I come from, kids get jobs at 14 and buy their own car… Pay their own insurance and buy their own gas. That’s never considered to be part of college costs.</p>
<p>Plus keep in mind many times parents contribute towards college with their savings. So if the school is twenty a year maybe they pitched in half. We don’t have state schools for ten a year either. Community college is probably on the border.</p>
<p>I do agree with the state schools comment. It’s crazy how much they vary. in my state, the state schools cost what community college costs in other states.</p>
<p>Penn state, while not a true state school, cost more then my private lac. My sister went there for two years and her two year loans were more then my four year loans.</p>
<p>There are plenty of people out there who are supporting themselves (and their families) with jobs that don’t require a college education. It’s insulting to say that <em>every</em> job, and <em>every</em> person needs a college education to be successful and earn a living.</p>
<p>My older S did 3 years at community college, living at home, and driving a “beater”. He worked part-time to cover his car and books. His father and I paid for his tuition with money we’d saved. He transitioned to a 4 year state school, living in very cheap and very crummy shared student housing. This made sense because it was just about a wash between paying rent, and paying gas to commute. He went to school full time and worked part time. Then he found a fantastic job and is now going to school part time and working making enough money to **support himself while working part time<a href=“except%20for%20tuition,%20which%20his%20father%20and%20I%20still%20pay”>/b</a>. He has also found even cheaper housing. He’s still driving the same “beater” car.</p>
<p>My younger son got a full academic scholarship for 4 years that covered all of his expenses, but due to switching majors will be in college 1 additional year. He does not have a car, although he realllllly wants one. His father and I will pay his final year of college from the money we’d set aside.</p>
<p>Our children will both graduate debt free because 1) Their father and I “did without” so we could give our children the GIFT of a debt-free college education. 2) Our sons both worked very hard to earn their share of their educations. 3) We are all willing to “do without” today, in order to have the futures we envision for ourselves.</p>
<p>In our family, you can’t always get what you want…but you get what you need. We don’t feel like we’re all just “entitled” to have something because everyone else has it, or because it’s new and shiny.</p>
<p>With parental support, it’s a whole different story. Not all parents are willing or able to provide that level of support. </p>
<p>Working full time at minimum wage gets you $15,600 before taxes. That only covers tuition at a state university with no living expenses. Back in my college days, it was reasonable for someone to work their way through college. Tuition was $680 per term. You could work 202 hours at minimum wage ($3.35/hr) to pay one term of tuition. That is pretty doable. Now, you have to work about 1000 hours at minimum wage ($7.50/hr) to pay one term of tuition. That’s a pretty significant difference.</p>
<p>I think that some of this discussion is very regional: if you live in rural Montana, you can get a great job straight out of high school that pays $80k a year in the oil fields. Since it’s rare to have a college degree, you can also get a normal job that pays pretty well with just a high school diploma. Then your state school costs $13k per year, all inclusive. So it’s pretty hard to see how someone in that situation would feel the need to rack up a lot of student loan debt.</p>
<p>Contrast the Northeast, in which people who work at the gym have master’s degrees (so good luck getting anything with that high school diploma) and the state schools cost $25,000 or $30,000 per year.</p>