<p>I'd be interested to hear from grads or parents. How much did you (or your child) owe when you graduated from college? How long did it take or how long do you anticipate it will take to pay off your student loans? What are your monthly loan payments?</p>
<p>If you had it to do over again, would you have attended a college that was less expensive, or one that offered you a scholarship, so you wouldn't have incurred so much student debt?</p>
<p>I was recently listening to a financial radio show. A girl who graduated over a year ago with a BS in English called in. She owed $150K in student loans. She had no job prospects and she didn't know what she was going to do. You seem to hear more and more stories like this.</p>
<p>She did NOT have $150,000 in STUDENT loans. She had loans that were cosigned or taken out by her parents (e.g. PLUS loans). The max student loans don’t come close to $150,000 even if the student gets Perkins and Stafford loans.</p>
<p>My kids left undergrad school with Stafford loan debt only (less than $27K each). It will take them 10 years to pay for it…our gift to the grads will be to help them pay the loans as long as we can. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to what we were paying for college costs (as almost full pay family).</p>
<p>We were in the position to be able to support college costs for our kids. No we would not have done anything differently.</p>
<p>BUT we NEVER NEVER NEVER would have taken on $150,000 in debt for college…NEVER.</p>
<p>^^ Private lenders still offer “student” or “education” loans, which can certainly reach that amount very quickly.</p>
<p>I have $70k between Staffords, Sallie Mae, Chase, and The College Loan Co. My total payments (not including Staffords because they are still deferring) is about $500/mo. I do make enough to pay my loans, but not enough to move out of my house. I knew this going into psychology, that I would need to pursue a higher degree to find a “real” job. And I still plan to do this, but I am taking some time off to pay down some of my loans.</p>
<p>Sallie Mae was a 5yr loan, Chase & CLC are 20yr, and the Staffords I believe are 10yr loans. I will certainly have them all paid off before the 20yr mark (The Sallie Mae and Staffords coming much sooner, obviously). Even if I don’t make it into grad school. I have back-up plans. </p>
<p>The one thing I would have done different is NOT go to a CC right out of high school. My parents knew nothing about scholarships, nothing about student loan debt, nothing about college in general - they pretty much gave me CC as an only option, and then to transfer from there. I was Valedictorian, in tons of clubs, would have had excellent letters of recommendation - I could have easily gotten a good merit scholarship at one of the schools in my area right out of high school. But once I became a “transfer” student, the offerings were much, much lower. </p>
<p>If I didn’t get into another school out of high school that offered a decent scholarship, I would have gone to Penn State. PSU was still cheaper than my private but has a better reputation and higher placements. </p>
<p>Current parent class of 2015, graduate- USC class of 1979. Owed $300 in deferred tuition.<br>
I know, it’s a different world now, but we are doing our darnedest to ensure the same for D after her undergrad years. Her grad school is on her dime.</p>
<p>I graduated in 1980. My parents paid for my undergrad and didn’t have to take out any student loans.</p>
<p>My husband and I started saving for our D’s college expenses shortly after she was born. By the time she was 18, we had enough saved to send her to just about any college she desired. We did this on my husband’s salary as a school principal. I was a stay-at-home mom. We had to make a lot of financial sacrifices. Because we had saved so much money for our D, she didn’t qualify for any financial aid. Even though she knew we could afford to pay for her college, she decided to apply for various merit scholarships. Her scholarship will pay for just about all of her educational expenses for four years. So, she can use all the money we saved for her graduate school. However, it’s likely her employer will cover the cost of that. So, she will be blessed with a huge financial windfall once she graduates from college.</p>
<p>It sounds like you have planned for college expenses nicely and that your daughter has planned as well! TERRIFIC for all of you.</p>
<p>Re: grad school reimbursement…this job benefit has been reduced or eliminated for many types of jobs. When I got my masters, and beyond, my employer paid 50% of my costs. Now, my former colleagues are lucky if they get 10% (pot is smaller and more people are using it). My husband’s first company paid for any masters courses 100%. His current company doesn’t pay a dime. I hope your daughter has this benefit when she needs it…but if not, she is fortunate that you have a savings she can use.</p>
<p>If she decides to work at the research laboratory where she is interning, they will pay 100% of the cost for her to get a graduate degree in computer science. A neighbor, who is employed there, is just finishing up his master’s degree. He graduated from college 2 years ago with a degree in computer engineering.</p>
<p>In the DC suburbs, they are literally begging for computer science graduates. They can’t fill all the cyber security jobs that are available, and anticipate that thousands of additional jobs will be created over the next couple of years. My D’s college is one of the leaders in academic research in this field.</p>
<p>Thumper - they are still called student or education loans regardless of being co-signed (and my co-signer is NOT paying on them, nor did they contribute to any of my school costs). They are not set up the same way a “personal” loan from those lenders would be - they have different terms in regards to deferment and forbearance, all student-specific. There is really not much difference in terms between the Staffords and the privates I have. Actually, two of my private lenders have significantly lower interest rates than all of my Staffords.</p>
<p>Back when I graduated in the 80s I had about $5000ish in debt. I only had to pay for a couple of years though. When my father-in-law needed a tax deduction he paid off both my loan and my husband’s. Pretty good deal. Hopefully I can do this for my kids down the road.</p>
<p>S1 will probably graduate with around $20,000 or so in debt. But that’s before grad school. S2 – too soon to tell.</p>
<p>I had deleted a sentence out of there…I meant to say that Kutztown University would have been the cheapest 4-year option, but PSU has a better rep. and higher placements so it would have won over KU. My private undergrad had better opportunities than PSU. Figured I’d clear that up so it doesn’t look like I paid more to go to a worse school.</p>
<p>This is scary for me. When I graduate, I will probably have around 33k in loans in my name. On top of that, my mother is insisting that I pay the PLUS loans she is taking out for me, which comes to 44,000. I can see where’s she’s coming from, but it’s still intimidating. My dad, on the other hand, has offered to take on the burden of the PLUS loans for his half even though he can’t really afford to do so. It’s a really awkward and generally terrible situation. There are certain aspects of my current school that I love, but others not so much, and I don’t know if it’s fair to my dad or fiscally responsible to stay here. Does anyone know of top universities that give good financial aid for transfers? I know that’s not an easy question to answer, but so many of the schools I want to apply to are need-aware or don’t promise to meet anything close to full demonstrated need, and it’s really disheartening.</p>
<p>We all have different thresholds of the kind of debt we want to carry. My kids have loan payments of $270 - $400 a month (the $400 includes grad school) for ten years. To be honest…I wish it was less…but it’s manageable for them (and us). Anything more would be more of a burden.</p>
<p>I think my total student loan debt in the early 80’s was around $6K and I still remember writing the $56/month check! My sons will have about the same. D will have around $43K in federal loans when she graduates, due to year round coursework and 2 years at grad rates, but is in a BS/MS program with decent employment prospects and starting salaries. I’m guessing she may live at home for a year or two as she’s a frugal soul and dislikes being in debt and I’m willing to help her make payments if necessary.</p>
<p>I graduated with 10,000 over 20 years ago. The loan was on deferment for awhile, forbearance for awhile, and the balance is now about 4k. My monthly payment is $107 and the interest rate is 7%. The loan was for grad school at a well-known school that opened many doors for me – totally worth it!</p>
<p>I would not permit my child to borrow for school in the current economy. She has a summer job and a campus job and I work two jobs to ensure that she is not saddled with debt.</p>
<p>My D took out a small amount in loans freshman/sophomore years - we wanted our kids to have some skin in the game. She has a bit less than $5000 to repay beginning Christmas Day. </p>
<p>My son will have even less debt, since he is living at home this year & thus costing us a lot less than he would if he was still “away.”</p>
<p>I had no debt. I would LOVE to have gone to a top name school, as I had the stats to do so. However, my parents didn’t have money & my supposedly-good high school never mentioned anything about how financial aid worked. I ended up going to General Motors Institute, which was owned & subsidized by GM. By living at home while I worked & in a low-rent townhouse with 4 other girls while at school - our furniture was lawn chairs! - I graduated without debt.</p>
<p>My H’s parents paid for his education. They also paid for his sister’s long-time boyfriend to go to Kent State, since his parents were unable to do so. They are really good people.</p>
<p>^^ I see this a lot, where guidance/school counselors don’t inform their students very well, even during personal meetings. Considering they have been through college and typically have a masters in education, they should know the game well. </p>
<p>At my high school very, very few students went to college (it was a technical high school, so most were just expected to go into the workforce right away). My guidance counselor was of no use to me at all and I had to research it all on my own, and even that didn’t always lead me to the right information or the right decisions.</p>
<p>I graduated undergrad (top half of the 80s) with 1500 in debt. My h, on the other hand, had close to 10k and 3 different loans - national direct, guaranteed, (pre-Stafford days, I guess) and the a loan from the school. Consolidating would have lowered the payments, but cost a lot more in interest. So, for a couple of years, we had 3 loan payments. It was rough, and I don’t want my own kids to have loans. If they had them, and then married one like I did, they’d end up living back with me indefinitely. </p>
<p>If my own D’s choose wisely, they can get through undergrad without debt thanks to savings and working in higher ed. It probably means forgoing prestige for security, but considering neither are looking at high paying careers, it’s definitely the choice to make.</p>
<p>It’s going to be a rough go for me, went to my dream school which my parents were paying for, bad economic downturn, and now I’m on my own, I’m currently a “junior” but going part time while I figure everything out. I thought I would have about 27k? (something like that? Whatever the limit is on Stafford) at the end of school but now that I’m paying my way, I’m going to end up with about 60-70K in student debt… Yes, that is transferring to a state school. No, I don’t have the option of living at home. Yes, I would of gone to a CC my first two years if I had known prior. For me, it seems unavoidable. Mostly private loans (parents make too much) and a bleak future as far as having any money goes o.O College will have me drowning in debt for a Bachelors of Science by the end.</p>