Current college students:

Student Lounge College Life
21

<p>If you’re going to be in debt, educational debt is far better than consumer debt. A good education is valuable beyond money. You only go around once, so you shouldn’t hold yourself back because of something like money.</p>

<p>That said, you may be able to get just as good an education without a lot of debt. It really comes down to your options and preferences. There are a lot of cheaper schools out there, but it would be false to say that you get the same quality of education in every field at every school. There is a give and take, across financial, academic, and other factors. The ideal, of course, is to get a good education with little debt. That may or may not be possible in your case; only you can know how fully you’ve explored your options.</p>

22

<p>I will graduate with approximately 40K in debt (I think… it might be less), and my parent’s will also have about 40K in debt, or will have paid about 40K for me to go to school. Everything else is being paid for by financial aid, which, from a college that costs about 60K a year to attend, isn’t that bad.</p>

23

<p>I currently have no debt as a college freshman. I have $10,000/year in scholarships as well as an additional $3000 nonrenewable for this year only. My grandparents had a 529 for my education set aside, but I will run out of that within 2-3 years. My parents bought stuff for my dorm room, so I only pay for books and my sorority dues. I plan on entering a co-op program starting this summer where I work every other semester instead of going to school. Sure, this means I won’t graduate until after 5 years, but it’ll be worth it to make some good money while in school and hopefully avoid debt.</p>

24

<p>Thankfully my family has sponsored my education, but also the university I am attending. I got a scholarship that pays the whole entire tuition bill, so I only have to pay food, housing, and books. It’s pretty good, considering that’s only about $10k a year. My family’s fund for college is large enough to pay for that and still have a lot more money left over for me for graduate school.</p>

<p>So zero debt coming out of the undergraduate level. :)</p>

25

<p>Average student debt I think is somewhere around $20-25k…DO NOT go 80k in debt for only undergrad!!! Especially if you think you will at all be considering grad school after…you don’t want to add debt to 80k.</p>

<p>I have a scholarship from my school that covers almost half of the whole tuition, room, board, fees, books, etc. cost of attendance list thing. My parents pay the rest of that, groceries, personal items/whatever else I need, plane tickets to get home, clothes, extra lessons I want to take on other instruments not covered in my degree program, all dorm items/supplies, etc. (to start college, and during the year whatever I have to buy)…everything else, and I’m not required to sell my books back if I want to keep them, which some I do want. I’m pretty sure my college fund was technically started before I was born…although it was just in a different account name then, not 529 when you’re not born yet. So I’ll have no debt when I graduate, and I’m probably going for 5 years for my double degree, and yes, my parents are paying all of it, 5th year included. However, for grad school, they said they’re not paying any tuition most likely, but might help a little for rent somewhere and food, and probably plane tickets if I’m far enough away still that I need that to get home.</p>

<p>I’ve made some $ playing piano accompaniments for some students outside of what required for my accompaniment class, but not a lot because I don’t do that very much, it’s just kind of when I have time/want to, not actually a hired job, professor calls when she needs me for students.</p>

<p>I’m one of only 2 kids in my family. I’m a freshman. My sister is a junior in high school now, and they’ll be paying the same for her. My parents said they pay all of undergrad (whether that’s 4 or 5 years…).</p>

<p>If your parents can’t help at all, look into some cheaper options. If the difference between your scholarship and what little your parents may help compared to the total cost is $20-30k, don’t take that much debt…don’t forget all the interest adding up on all that too that you have to pay back. If my parents weren’t paying it, I wouldn’t be going to this school because I could not take $20-30k debt a year. I don’t want that…considering I want to go to grad school after.</p>

26

<p>PLEASE DON’T GO 80K IN DEBT! If that amount of debt seems to be the only option for you right now with the schools you have applied to, apply to other schools - tons of college deadlines aren’t until february, march, rolling etc. You might have to sacrifice certain personal preferences but please don’t do it.</p>

<p>My parents help pay $5K/year and have graciously loaned me another $5K for junior and senior year tuition (that I eventually have to pay back). I have tuition scholarships for about $18K/year. I pay the rest out of pocket (rent, books, food, CC, travel etc)…I took on a RA-like position to cover my housing/food junior year, I got scholarships to completely cover my study abroad trip, and I have anywhere from 1-3 part-time jobs during the school year and a full time paid internship in the summer. I will finish college next semester with around $15K in debt to my parents (which I will have to pay off - no “parent forgiveness” lol but fortunately no official loans or interest). </p>

<p>It sucks to be in debt period - whether you are 15K in debt or 100K. While it may feel the same to you in college, the amount of debt you take on will impact your after-college life significantly. Bottom line - having a degree/a fantastic job out of college won’t save you from drowning in $80K - it’s simply not worth that much. Come up with other options, or just wait to have your financial aid packages in hand before you make decisions like taking on that much college debt.</p>

27

<p>I commute to a UC (I’m a California resident), so my debt is $0 thanks to financial aid. My parents pay for gas, books, food, everything. I do not plan to stop my education after undergrad so I will mostly likely eventually have to take my first loan in a few years.</p>

28

<p>Thanks for the Pell Grant, It covered my community college tuition. My CC was a non-residential campus, and I made the decision that I wasn’t going to be able to hold a job during the school semester, so instead of pulling out a loan I opted to continue living with my parents. It sucked, most of my friends moved away from their parents earlier that year. I’d rather live with that social set back then be in debt.</p>

29

<p>I applied to 23 schools, so I’ll see what happens…about my parents making 20k more, the college said that they’ll look at both years.</p>

30

<p>When I graduate in June I will have $15k in debt. Not too bad, and I should be fully funded for my PhD. Currently the only thing my mother pays for is my rent, which is about $550 a month. I pay for everything else (bills, clothes, food, going out etc) on my own.</p>

31

<p>My mom said she’ll pay for food…probably because I’m the reason our food bills cost so much. Organic food is expensive!!!</p>

32

<p>My mom is paying for the majority of my education. I have contributed around 5k. I am a junior in college, and I still have a couple more years to go. Hopefully I will graduate with little to no debt.</p>

<p>I would NOT take 80k out just to go to school. You better be getting a really marketable major with that amount of debt.</p>

33

<p>I’m surprised how many people are freaking over 80 K in debt considering if I went to my school flagship without my parents help, I would be in 80-100K in debt if I decided to dorm. Yes, it’s a horrific amount of debt, but if you aren’t getting top scholarship offers or your parents don’t want you at home, there aren’t a boatload of choices.</p>

<p>I’m going to be about 70-80K in debt by the end of my college career, and I’m not too thrilled and it’s scary at times. My parents paid the two years then couldn’t anymore from a job loss and I work full time to try and pay what I can without loans (living expenses,books,etc). Yes I could have transferred to a state school but then I’d have to move to a place with a higher cost of living, lose internship opportunities, add another year onto my schooling, drop both of my minors and lose a lot of my professional ties in a city I’m working very hard to find a job in. So for me, debt was inevitable.</p>

34

<p>I definitely would have joined the military if I had to pay my way.</p>

35

<p>I start college again full time sometime next year, hopefully with the GI Bill this time around I should have little to no debt by the time I’m done. As numerous people have pointed, 80k is NOT worth it no matter the brand name. The name is not going to help you much when you’re struggling to pay that back afterwards. I would recommend looking into CCs for a year or two or if you want the full “college experience” look into the ROTC scholarships if you don’t mind working for the government for a few years afterwards.</p>