<p>I noticed this article is from 2006…I googled the author and it seems like she is now working as an assistant editor at Parents Magazine, and writes on their blog. Glad she got a job! That amount of debt is scary!</p>
<p>I’m glad she got a job, but I don’t think assistant editors get paid squat. I don’t know if my kids really realize how long it was before we live in a nice house. We shared house or apartment space until I was 30 or 31, I think. Bought our first (tiny) house when I was 33.</p>
<p>Queen’s mom:</p>
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<p>The sad truth is, most students who are super involved, and take the most challenging courses, do so for the sake of college admissions.</p>
<p>I agree with you 100% that students should take the most challenging courses for the sake of learning, students should play soccer because they’re passionate, not so they can get into Harvard.</p>
<p>And yes, that’s the type of students most “top” colleges want; the passion is gone.</p>
<p>I think that USNWR is to blame for publishing the “first tier” college rankings. Many kids skip out going to a good school just because of rankings.</p>
<p>That’s why admissions more selective every year.</p>
<p>Sorry but I have to place blame with the parents in this article. My husband worked his way through undergrad with about 3 jobs and still had student loans, not nearly to the extent being discussed here, just from our state flagship. But we learned first hand how tough it was to pay our bills and that student loan debt and have enough left over to buy groceries in those early years. Nobody has ever helped us and we’ve worked hard for what we have. I wasn’t going to let that happen to my daughter if I could help it.</p>
<p>When my daughter was looking at colleges, there were many more places she could have gone if we had been willing to allow her to take on debt but I strongly advised her against it. Was she disappointed at first? You bet - welcome to the real world my child. </p>
<p>She was NMF so had good options and chose one where she’s being paid to attend, including room and board. She will graduate in May with two undergrad degrees, absolutely no debt and on her way hopefully to a fully funded Ph.D. program (fingers crossed). We will support her as much as we can until she finishes her program. She said recently that she’s happy with the way things worked out and she couldn’t have been happier anyplace else. A couple of her cousins graduated from ivies and are tending bar and waiting tables to pay their bills at the moment.</p>
<p>We also know professionals who took the more expensive route at the bigger name schools and they all say if they had it to do over again and knew then what they know now that they would have opted for the lesser expensive option. They say that the doctor down the hall from them who went the less expensive route makes roughly the same income they make, yet without the loans. Sorry, it’s a no brainer to me.</p>
<p>I don’t know about you but nobody ever asks me where my degrees are from or even what degrees I have…all they care about is the quality of the work I produce. I like to think that has more to do with my work ethic than the schools I went to.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong. If you’ve got the money to do it, great and more power to you. But if you don’t, graduating with a house note worth of debt is not going to make your life any more enjoyable.</p>
<p><<“Nowhere in the article does it say her parents had any money saved to pay for their daughter’s college education. Her mother took out $22K in loans and the writer says the family had “other financial obligations” but this middle class family had NO money saved for college?”>></p>
<p>Her parents shouldn’t pay for college. She’s the one being educated, not them. I’m a firm believer kids should put themselves through college and this girl did. I give her props. She made her decisions, she’ll find a way to live with them. Her loans were a bit much but she did what she wanted on mostly her own dime. I think it shows more strength then some kid taking 80k from mommy and daddy</p>
<p>"If you’ve got the money to do it, great and more power to you. But if you don’t, graduating with a house note worth of debt is not going to make your life any more enjoyable. "</p>
<p>I heartily agree, and that’s coming from an extremely satisfied customer of an expensive college. IMHO, the difference between spending $200,000 and borrowing $200,000 is the difference between sense and lack thereof.</p>
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<p>Most parents *want * to help pay for their child’s education. They consider it a worthwhile investment in their child’s future. For many parents, borrowing a manageable amount to pay for education will be part of the equation and a sound strategy. Borrowing excessively is a bad decision. </p>
<p>Please don’t portray kids who allow their parents to pay for, or help pay for, their college education as weak and coddled. Although it may not be your intent, it makes you sound terribly arrogant.</p>
<p>^^I didn’t mean to appear arrogant and am sorry if i offended anyone. I realize not all are weak and coddled, but I firmly believe that it is a student’s responsibility to put themselves through college. But that’s just my opinion and my expereince. Where I live nobody’s parents pay for college. It just isn’t done</p>
<p>I hope you have included a rock-solid financial safety on your list, as well as a few schools where your stats put you in the running for a big chunk of merit aid.</p>
<p>rocket – So if your parents offered tomorrow, you wouldn’t take it?
It’s not always a moral issue. Everyone has very different circumstances.</p>
<p>Why do people dig up threads from a year ago anyway???</p>
<p>wjb-I do. I think paying for it myself really made me evaluate my choices
dbwes-No, I wouldn’t take it. My mom is offering to pay for books and I said no. She put herself through school-that’s enough. It’s up to me now</p>
<p>
Everyone I know is paying for their children college, so I don’t think paying for Children College is an anomaly. I’m also of the opinion that the children should not take loans of up to $100,000 to get a degree but if parents are ready to pay then it should be fine.
I don’t think you can identify best usage of money anyway. A 2 week European vacation can cost you $20K or a luxury car can put you back $50K. So what is worth and what is not should be a personal decision.
I’m against taking loan for a luxury car too but lot more people are ready to take that loan but not student loan.</p>
<p>Quote:
I’m Graduating From A College I Can’t Afford</p>
<p>I’ve just started my senior year of college, and if things go as planned, this spring I will proudly accept a diploma that I’ve paid a lot of money for. Well, I haven’t paid for it quite yet. Actually, I owe $88,718.75 to various lenders–a sum I expect will take more than 20 years to repay. It’s a daunting prospect, but I tell myself that it’s a worthwhile investment. Fingers crossed! </p>
<p>How does a 21-years-old end up with such an enormous debt? For me, it was simply because I wanted to go to the best college I could, and, at the time I made the decision, I really didn’t fully understand the burden I was taking on. </p>
<p>As a senior in high school, I’d considered a range of colleges: I looked at some State University of New York schools, other state universities, and a few less expensive private colleges. But, in my heart of hearts, I really wanted to go to the best college I could possibly get into. I had it hard in high school, taking challenging classes and studying hard so I could earn good grades. I’d played soccer and joined after-school clubs to show community involvement. I’d practiced taking the SATs for months so I would score competitively. </p>
<p>I applied early decision to New York University, and the offer of admission came on a rainy November afternoon. I remember slowly opening the damp 8 1/2-by-11 envelopes, being ever so careful not to damage the life-altering information inside. When I saw the word “accepted,” I felt like my dream had come true. </p>
<p>[I’m</a> Graduating From A College I Can’t Afford | NYU Livewire](<a href=“NYU Journalism - Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute”>http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/livewire/money_work/gen_debt/)</p>
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<p>OMG…</p>
<p>This student will have a monthly payment of more than $700 for 20 VERY LONG years! How crazy is that? That’s like 2 extra car payments for 20 years (over and above one’s own car payments).</p>
<p>I don’t see how a debt like that won’t grossly interfere with a love relationship, home-buying power, and just the ability to “move on” with one’s life. This loan will be paid back during the ages of 23-43. Those are very significant years in a person’s life. Those are the years that you marry, raise a family, etc. And, what if your spouse has a similar debt? </p>
<p>Crazy. And, so unnecessary.</p>
<p>I wonder how students who do not qualify for financial aid besides the unsub stafford and whose parents arent contributing are supposed to pay, in your view, rocket? I nearly couldn’t even get my parents to cosign my private loans, and had they not done that my options would have been to forget college or to go one class at a time when I can fit it between working myself to death for the next 20 years. </p>
<p>I don’t disagree that it’s good for students to contribute to their education, even a significant portion, but given that financial aid is determined not by MY need but by my PARENTS NEED, I have to wonder how the expectation that a student should pay every dime themselves is realistic. The kids drowning in debt aren’t exclusive to crazy expensive, private OOS students who declined scholarships at cheaper schools.</p>
<p>^^They could go to community college, go into the military to help pay for it, or live at home at go to a local branch campus of a state school. All those options could be covered by stafford loans.</p>
<p>I’m paying for every dime, as are all of my friends in college. So, it’s clearly doable.</p>
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<p>The problem is that the financial aid system is built on the assumption that the parents ARE paying. I could share your view if each of my kids could have filled out a FAFSA and had their EFC set by considering their assets and income – and earning potential - alone – but my kids were stuck in a system that assessed THEIR ability to pay by looking at MY income and assets. For the private schools it was worse – the schools also insisted on looking at their father’s income and assets, even though he is not part of the household and was not contributing a dime towards college.</p>
<p>I think its great that you are paying your own way through college. My son paid his own way for his final two years. His junior year the unfairness of the FAFSA system was particularly acute – at that time he had lived independently, worked full time, and supported himself for 3 years. That could be easily documented by his tax returns. But he was not eligible for any loans or grants because he was age 23 and FAFSA still decreed that he was “dependent.” (A year later, after age 24, things changed – he had spent down his savings, had limited income the previous year, and so he qualified for grant money that was in excess of his tuition – but the point is, under the current system, if all kids were paying their own way through school, most kids would either have to serve in the military or wait until age 24 in order to make ends meet).</p>
<p>“^^They could go to community college, go into the military to help pay for it, or live at home at go to a local branch campus of a state school. All those options could be covered by stafford loans.”</p>
<p>I did go to community college and on to a state school, am ineligible for all branches of the military due to medical reasons-- I have spoken to recruiters numerous times, and I am not welcome at my parent’s house. Now what?</p>
<p>Not to mention that none of the schools within driving distance of my parent’s house could be paid with an unsubsidized stafford loan. The maximum unsub stafford for a junior is what, $7500? For tuition, books, gas, school supplies, etc, etc. Maybe doable if you have a cheap school nearby, but that sure wasn’t an option for me.</p>
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Do you get any sort of financial aid? If so – did you fill out a FAFSA including your parents financial information? What is your EFC?</p>
<p>^^I’m still in the application process, but I did get a full tuition scholarship from UAlabama. My parents did file a fafsa(they aren’t cruel or anything, they just aren’t paying for school) our EFC is around 15k.</p>
<p>Actually, if all kids were paying for thier own education, the cost of an education would come down to earth. If student loans weren’t locked out of bankruptcy the cost of tuition would come down, as well. The educational system is very artificially inflated by these two factors, imho.</p>