<p>I don’t understand why you’re so unnecessarily combative, Adam.</p>
<p>When you get older and have a home of your own, you will find yourself with a lot of monthly payments. Rent. Water. Cable. Car insurance. That adds up. Quickly. No starting salary is likely to be over 5,000 a month, not even for an engineer. (And we all know engineers are just rolling in the money! [/sarcasm]) Do you really need to add to those monthly expenses exorbitant amounts of student loan payments, most of which will be on the interest for the first, oh, five or ten years? </p>
<p>Wouldn’t you rather sacrifice a few hangovers and nights ending at 5 am for financial security in the future? I’m not saying don’t take out loans if you need them. If I didn’t take out the max federal loans, I wouldn’t be able to go to college either. However, taking out private loans that pile up on interest during your four years of “fun” is just not worth it. It shocks me how financially irresponsible you are.</p>
<p>As usual, the key is moderation. It’s important to have a full college experience, but it’s also important to have an affordable college experience. Perhaps taking out a minimal amount in loans is fine. I will be borrowing a relatively small amount this year. Part of the reason is to establish credit. However, one must remember that taking out loans now means tough choices later. For instance, I expect my debt upon graduation to be about the price of a new car. Therefore, I won’t be buying a new car, even if I have a good job (which, as Delfino just said, is not a guarantee). </p>
<p>If you’re looking to take out a loan to reduce work hours, that’s fine. </p>
<p>…How did this thread turn into a debate about paying for college? I’ve learned to stop looking ahead to “easier days to come,” since they usually don’t come. There are more efficient ways to give oneself a mental boost.</p>
<p>I hate the term “college experience” so much!!! Go to college to earn your degree. The “college experience” just isn’t possible for a lot of people, and just because you don’t want to put yourself in tons of debt and move away to school doesn’t mean you’re going about earning your college degree the wrong way. I hate in when people look down on people who don’t care about having the whole social experience of college and moving into dorms and whatever. Sometimes there are just better and smarter ways of doing things for some people. If you would rather work through college and not be in debt the next few years(or ten, whatever) of life after school I think that’s great. I haven’t been taking any risks with school just for this purpose because I know I’m not going to be greeted by someone on the corner ready to give me a job as soon as graduation’s over. Way too many people get too loan-happy in college when they don’t know what the future holds.</p>
<p>Average starting salary for a petroleum engineer is $60k. For most engineering disciplines (and computer science), avg. starting salary is $50-60k. Yes, minus taxes it will be less than $5k a month, but still . . .</p>
<p>I’m not bringing this up only to correct you on a technicality–I’m bringing it up to say that spending money on a degree like engineering/CS can be seen as an investment. It may be worth going into debt a little bit to make sure that you can do well in an engineering program.</p>
<p>But still, your voice is a good one to be heard. I agree with you mostly–it is easy to be flippant about finances when you have mommy and daddy footing the bill . . .</p>
<p>My mother’s first job out of college as a writer for a pig magazine paid about the same as her brother’s first job out of college as an engineer for a sewing machine company which paid about the same as her other brother’s first job out of college as a junior city planner. Today that salary would be about $40,000 a year. </p>
<p>So yeah, excuse me if I don’t think major makes much difference when it comes to starting salary.</p>
<p>you are ignoring mountains of evidence to make your point</p>
<p>I think it is a good one to bring up though, a lot of college students (including me) don’t really know what it is like to pay for everything yourself.</p>
<p>it’s not about the college experience; it’s about having a life. I don’t understand why some of you guys don’t value your current years as much as your future years. Although I live in canada and the tuition is much lower.</p>
<p>“it’s not about the college experience; it’s about having a life. I don’t understand why some of you guys don’t value your current years as much as your future years.”</p>
<p>Because we have different goals and values than you?</p>
<p>“you are ignoring mountains of evidence to make your point”</p>
<p>I’m really not. Maybe the starting salary for a petroleum engineer is high, but so is the starting salary for advertising at a bit more than 50,000. Mechanical engineering is around 50,000 too. Biology majors can expect to make 40,000 a year.</p>
<p>Basically what I’m saying is it’s all about the same. Petroleum engineer is obviously an outlier on the high end. With a bachelor’s you can expect to be making $40,000 a year.</p>
<p>I fail to understand how $10,000 or so more in yearly salary justifies six figures in private (read: usually high-interest) loans. Your attitude towards money is juvenile. </p>
<p>“lib. arts majors are lecturing the engineering majors on fin. responsibility”</p>
<p>lol still you are still rounding to make your point. over 2/3rds of the majors on that list make over $55k on average.</p>
<p>english, communications $35k</p>
<p>55k - 35k = 20k.</p>
<p>and no where did the OP say that she wanted to take out 100k on priv. loans. that’s from your anecdote about your friend. i’m not defending that.</p>
<p>You’re going to get the biggest kick in the pants after graduation; my only regret is that I won’t be there to see the dumbfounded look on your face.</p>
<p>“i admit that going into 100k of private loans for an engineering degree is a bad idea, but i never argued against that in particular”</p>
<p>Oh, okay, so YOU’RE NOT EVEN TALKING ABOUT WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. I’m saying that it’s. a. bad. idea. to. go. into. debt. period. end. of. story. who. cares. how. much. money. your. major. will. supposedly. make. </p>
<p>Everyone I know who’s graduated from college, from engineering to forestry to english to photography, makes 30-50k starting salary. Granted I’ve never met a petroleum engineer, but I know mechanical, chemical, civil, and computer engineers who did not make that much as a starting salary. My uncle is a mechanical engineer with 20 years experience who doesn’t make much more than 60k.</p>
<p>well, yeah if you can avoid it (duh?). i agree. at least you are giving up your argument, supported only by personal anecdotes, that all majors pretty much make the same money out of college.</p>