How in the hell can average debt be 20k?

Paying for College
1

<p>I don't really understand how that's exactly possible, unless the student has generous parents or can make a decent amount of money throughout the year.</p>

<p>Lets say a student gets 10 dollars an hour (pushing it) and works 25 hours a week for 30 weeks out of the year. Now, I feel I'm being a bit generous, since over the semesters that'd be 5 hours a day. However, students do sometimes work in the summers too. So, after that amount of work, the student would make 7,500 and, after 4 years, the student would have 30k.</p>

<p>Well, I personally don't think this is an average student, but lets assume it is.</p>

<p>Now, most colleges will cost roughly 10k with room & board and food (and lets include books too). Now, that'd be 40k after 4 years, and it's an amount of money most can't dispute. Sure, the price of it changes, but lets just make it simple and keep it at 40k.</p>

<p>Now, with the 30k the student makes, that still leaves him 10k in debt. That's without even considering the tuition!!!</p>

<p>So, now assuming tuition is covered for basically all students, I'd feel like this 20k debt could actually be "average", BUT the average student doesn't get a full ride. </p>

<p>So, lets say they go to a state school (which are 5-10k a year), at 7.5k. That's just enough for the students job to pay for (30k), but then it leaves the student with 40k in debt from housing, food, and books alone. That's at a state school! Now, considering going the "cheap" route leaves you (even with a job) well above the "average" debt, how can a private or out-of-state university do any better?</p>

<p>Lets say the school costs 25k, that'll be 100k in 4 years. Now, considering most don't even get enough scholarship money to bring the tuition down to state levels, I doubt many get full rides either.</p>

<p>So, how in the hell can the average debt end up being 20-25k? </p>

<p>Am I missing something? It seems the only way for this to happen is for your parents to actually pay a decent chunk (which many can't afford) or you work even harder. Either way, most students have to resort to some type of money they'll pay back in the end, and I am doubting it's around 20k on average.</p>

<p>Am I wrong? I just don't really see how in the hell this could be true. Not only do many of the kids I know not have 20k in debt, but after thinking about this it seems unlikely for it to be average. For everyone with 100k+ in debt, they're must be someone with excess of 60k, or just a bunch of kids with no debt at all. </p>

<p>If high debt was really rare I MIGHT consider this average debt everyone throws around here, but it isn't something super rare, because I know numerous people suffering from college debts.</p>

<p>Now, I apologized for this long post, but I have read about how the "average" student doubt is 20kish more than once here and until I find proof of this, I can't believe it.</p>

2

<p>I assume you're talking about the average student (not student + parent) debt after 4 years.</p>

<p>Parents that can afford it pay a big hunk of the cost.</p>

<p>When parents can't afford it, often there is financial aid that provides some grant money. And as you noted, students work off some of the cost.</p>

<p>And many parents take out home equity loans, or other loans, to make ends meet.</p>

3

<p>10K after food and dorm? wat are you smoking sir?</p>

4

<p>Something you aren't considering:</p>

<p>1) Most parents pay some or all of the money.
2) Sometimes, financial aid grants pay some or all of the money.
3) Some students go to "lesser" colleges that give them scholarships.
4) Some schools, such as state schools, are less expensive.
5) Some students live at home.</p>

<p>I am sure there are other things I am missing, but I think you get the point.</p>

5

<p>Citan-</p>

<p>10K is about ballpark for room and board in a dorm, at least at UCLA, where rates run between 9K and 11K:</p>

<p><a href="http://map.ais.ucla.edu/portal/site/UCLA/menuitem.789d0eb6c76e7ef0d66b02ddf848344a/?vgnextoid=45c51de9e5c32010VgnVCM1000008f8443a4RCRD%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://map.ais.ucla.edu/portal/site/UCLA/menuitem.789d0eb6c76e7ef0d66b02ddf848344a/?vgnextoid=45c51de9e5c32010VgnVCM1000008f8443a4RCRD&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

6

<p>umm.. at the school im going to the average need based offer alone is about 21k so i can imagine a lot of people graduating with 20k in debt.. i myself estimate that i will be graduating with 18-22k in debt</p>

7

<p>When colleges list their "average indebtedness at graduation" statistics, are they only counting indebtedness from loans they have administered as part of their financail aid packages? I'm with Jay. His analysis is flawed, but from what we see 20K is nothing. My son will be coming out owing way more than that and so will many of his friends.</p>

8

<p>how are you supposed to work 5 hours a day in college?</p>

9

<p>some people work full time to put themselves through college- my father did- depends on how bad you want it</p>

10

<p>well i'm a student
i'm going to a school that's known for its difficulty...i'm also going to play a club sport, work on the newspaper, and join a frat...
but if i want it really bad i can still work 5 hours a day?</p>

11

<p>fae, it's all a matter of priorities. If a person really wants an education and can only get it by working 5 hours a day, he will be willing to give up frat parties and sports to do so.</p>

<p>My son is taking a resident assistant job next year, which requires 20 hours a week of work. As a music major, he also must practice his musical instrument several hours a day. He realizes that this will mean very little social life or other outside activities, but that is a price he is willing to pay.</p>

12

<p>The 5 hours a day thing was being generous, as well as even averaging in any summer jobs. </p>

<p>I think 7,500 a year is a good amount for a college student, so at most they are going to make 30-40k after 10 years (the latter being a very hardworking student). That is only enough to pay (if enough at all) for your dorm, food, and books!!</p>

<p>So considering at the cheapest schools you'll just make a 20k debt, while being a hardworking student, how can the "average" be 20k?</p>

<p>Remember, I am saying that the parents are contributing little to nothing (which isn't uncommon, not every parent can pay 5-10k+ a year) and the student has to pay back everything given (no merit aid or grants).</p>

<p>In these cases, which I feel aren't a rarity, 20k is very unlikely. </p>

<p>Now, if they get some merit and grants or parents pay a decent amount, they'll be debt free at a state schools. However, what about private or out-of-state schools? There are plenty of people at those and I don't think each one of them has a great merit scholarship (or any at all), big grants, and very generous parents. So when you think about the fact that you are going to be paying 25-30k+ for tuition alone (lets say you are lucky enough to afford everything else through your own work, even that is unlikely), that racks up to 100k+. </p>

<p>Now, do you really think parents, grants, and merit aid are on "average" covering 80k+?? I highly doubt it, and I've seen plenty of cases where my point is proven.</p>

13

<p>And no fae, you will not be able to do that, so don't go to that school. (think about it, the sport and newspaper will be probably 2 hours a day, job 5 hours a day, and classes 3-4 hours a day. That's almost half your days spent doing nothing but hardwork. Now, what about eating? Say you eat 3-5 meals, that could cover at least an hour, and another hour or so for showering, washing up, etc. </p>

<p>So half your day (at least) is consumed by everything and you haven't considered schoolwork! Trust me, you will be spending a good amount of time on work if you wish to do well. So, doing that, you could pull it off, but would probably get minimal sleep (6 hours maybe?) on many nights. Especially if you consider doing a frat, which I didn't even toll in. The frat initiation thing is VERY time consuming from what I've seen 2 roomates do. Honestly, you'd KILL yourself after trying to pull of a sport, newspaper, frat, class, work, and schoolwork. </p>

<p>I wouldn't recommend it at all, it's not worth it.</p>

<p>What if you wanted to exercise? You couldn't do it. You couldn't ever relax or even do anything to really lower your stress level, and this is your freshmen year, so you haven't even adjusted to college yet!</p>

<p>I made the mistake of doing a club that took 4-5 hours everyday. I had roughly 4 hours of class, lots of work, and even without anything else it was a struggle. I didn't have any relaxing time and could hardly get to the gym and exercise without being in a huge rush. When you have lots of readings, multiple papers, etc and you have 10-12 hours to do work... sleep will be coming second and that's bad.</p>

<p>Don't do it, it's not worth it.</p>

14

<p>well that's my point i'm not going to work 5 hours a day</p>

15

<p>well that's my point i'm not going to work 5 hours a day</p>

<p>Thats your choice
as you will find, life is full of tradeoffs.
YOu dont want to work to pay for school, so you get loans, you don't want to do your homework, your grades go down, you don't want to cook, you get hungry or have to go out.
BUt for students who don't mind working, a job can help them meet other students, builds on their skills to get even better summer jobs, and reduces the amount of loans they need to take out.
My daughter has about $10,000 of loans after graduation, this is going to give her a lot more flexibility in choosing work, in where she choses to live, and with other things she would like to spend her money on.
Students who take out huge loans, will have to be much more selective, and may have to give up something that pays less, but is more interesting, so that they can service their debt.</p>

16

<p>My school costs 11K/year, I have about 3K in loans per year, the rest is grants and scholarships and my money from two jobs.</p>

<p>I work about 20 hours a week. 5 hours a day is pushing it, you would have to not be in any clubs or sports and not taking alot of credits</p>

17

<p>^You see, you work 20 hours a week (roughly the most someone can really work while going to school) and have scholarships and grants as well at a relatively cheap school. With all of that, you still are going to owe 12k! Now, that's not much, but considering the "average" is 20k, that means the normal student would be doing similar to you (a bit worse scholarship, grant or jobwise maybe), but I have yet to see a majority of college students I've talked to or know be in a situation like that.</p>

<p>I think the average debt should really be pushed up to 40-60k instead, it seems more reasonable. 100k+ being rare and 0-20k being pretty rare.</p>

<p>I just can't see such a small amount of debt being common, considering I know many who are boggled down by college debts, and we are always warned about it. If it's such a big deal, it has to be somewhat common.</p>

18

<p>I wouldn't advise anyone to take out more than $20K total in debt for undergrad.
You not only will have college expenses to pay off, but you will likely have wardrobe expenses for your new job- housing- health care- and savings.
The $20K is assuming that you either attend an inexpensive college/get merit aid/ your parents are contributing to your college expenses.
For those students whose parents are contributing zip- instead of taking out huge loans, I suggest attending a community college to cut costs, or work for a few years, preferably for a firm like Boeing which will pay you to continue your education- rather than take out big loans</p>