<p>I do not think bankruptcy is the answer! Just like the housing bubble, people who take out any form of college loan should learn the whole scoop about the loans they take out. To that point, I am totally against students at for-profits getting loans. They are targeted just like the snakes who gave out morgages in 2005.</p>
<p>moderators, please remove blog-mention above. It’s just a plug to get traffic.</p>
<p>The only degrees I would consider going $50,000-200,000+ in debt for are finance, engineering, computer science, mathematics, medical, and law as they are really the only ones where you’ll be able to “easily” pay back student loans and the fact that you will make enough over the course of your life that your college degree cost will seem insignificant. And, I would only do that if I got into an elite school. Some of [these</a> kids going into that much debt for degrees like sociology](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-student-debt-crisis-owing-163540505.html]these”>The 1% of the Student Debt Crisis: Owing $150,000 in Loans), Native American studies, or art history need to realize it is not worth it.</p>
<p>Erin, my point is that many.many banks began making larger loans with the 2005 Bankruptcy Act. The banks blame irresponsible borrowers. How about irresponsible LENDERS. Of course there were less grads declaring BK for student loans in 1960, because the banks didnt make such large private loans.</p>
<p>Every study and report shows that people with a college degree earn more over their lifetime. If kids would choose to go to reasonably priced schools, work during school, go to community college and transfer, etc, they could graduate with a reasonable amount of debt. </p>
<p>Those in trouble have option set up by the government to help. You can also work in the non profit world and after 10 years have the remainder of your loan balance forgiven. Do good, help the country and also get your loans forgiven. Nice deal IMO. </p>
<p>Before student loans only the well off could afford school. So the government tries to level the field. Now people complain about the loans that allowed things to be equal.</p>
<p>Back in the day when only the rich went to college we were talking about far fewer colleges and virtually all degrees lead to greater earning power. Now we have for profit schools popping up like dandelions in a summer lawn fudging their reported employment outcomes and convincing loving but gullible parents that going into 100K in debt for a degree of dubious value is a good idea. If you convince parents that your school/program is the only way that junior will ever get the training that leads to a career that will make him happy, imagine all the hoops you can get people to jump through.</p>
<p>There has been so much pressure put on kids to go to the most prestigious programs and not enough said about controlling cost. Before the mortgage crisis came along to remind us all that really bad things really do happen, there were decades of college admissions talks to naive young high schoolers focused on the concept that college choice should never be about money, follow your dreams, find a way, shoot for the moon etc.</p>
<p>It’s good that some of us are too cynical, jaded, or skeptical to be taken in by such marketing tactics but the cards are stacked against the trusting and optimistic among us.</p>
<p>It wasnt only the rich who went to college, it was the rich and smart who went. Many people attended NYC’s City College and Baruch who werent rich by any stretch. I work with their children and grandchildren. My mother has friends who attended college on the GI Bill who were not rich. My parents went to the flagship U in their state and both lived at home. Every time people talk about cutting loans down, they talk about not wanting to go back to when only the rich went to college. I think that is not factually correct. What the present system does is allow the poor to waste money as much as the rich, for kids who may not be college material, or pick majors that don’t lead to employment. I dont mind the rich wasting their own money, but imho, it is criminal to encourage the poor to do so. </p>
<p>Here is an article that I think offers a less biased view. Kudos for Washington Post, whose owner also owns Kaplan, which now does not only test prep, but also higher edcutiona, and has significant numbers of kids defaulting on loans</p>
<p>[Senior</a> citizens continue to bear burden of student loans - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/senior-citizens-continue-to-bear-burden-of-student-loans/2012/04/01/gIQAs47lpS_story.html?hpid=z1]Senior”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/senior-citizens-continue-to-bear-burden-of-student-loans/2012/04/01/gIQAs47lpS_story.html?hpid=z1)</p>
<p>Three of my four grandparents graduated from their home-state public Us back in the 1920’s. They were able to pay out of pocket, or to work their way through.</p>
<p>My parents graduated from their home-state public Us in 1950. My dad had the GI bill, but my mother worked her way through.</p>
<p>In 1980, two years out of my BA, I changed fields and went back to school at my home state U, and yes, I could work my way through the year and a half I spent there. Heck, I even knew some international students who managed to cobble together their full costs by serving as RAs and working 20 hours a week in a campus job.</p>
<p>Next fall, Happykid will transfer from her CC to an in-state public U. She won’t be able to work her way through. </p>
<p>1920 to 2012. Something clearly has changed.</p>
<p>Happy, I agree things have changed, but not for the better. Expanded loans, private loans, PLUS loans are making things MORE difficult, not less. I was responding to Bchan who said, “Back in the day when only the rich went to college” That day did not exist, at least not in the last 60 years.</p>
<p>I started a thread a few weeks ago with a pie chart showing the percentage of students with loans by loan amount and those with huge debt (over $50K) were a pretty small percentage - the vast majority had manageable loans. Maybe they were a pain in the neck in starting a career but it seems that most graduates don’t go overboard on student loan debt. My feeling is that there isn’t a crisis except for maybe 5% to 10% that took on really big loans to go to school.</p>
<p>I had $30,000 student loan balance in the 70’s and had to borrow money for trainfare for a couple of weeks to get to my first job. I think my first job’s annual salary was $12,000. But I had balance paid off in full in about 10 years. I took fewer vacations and bought less furniture/clothes for awhile. I don’t see the huge burden being discussed. For those foolish enough to borrow six figure+ sums, that was a bad mistake on their part but I was always part of the parenting practice of children should learn from their mistakes. I have no interest in bailing them out. No one forced them to borrow these funds. It was not a life/death need to borrow these funds as could be argued with a health emergency. It was a choice they made and probably a “vanity choice”.</p>
<p>How did you accumulate $30K of debt in the 70s?</p>
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<p>I have also read of studies that show the income gap between college degree earners and non-college degree earners is not appreciable when pension benefits are added in for all earners and for college degree earners loan costs. Also, the income gap is accrued over the working years of the two groups, so an extra 10-15k a year is not that big a deal especially when most of the income gap is accrued by the college degree earners in their later years.</p>
<p>I always tell my children going to college is about opportunities and not earnings.</p>
<p>Happymom, you make an excellent point about how middle class people have traditionally gone to college. </p>
<p>I teach at a community college where we have many, many bright capable kids who start with us and transfer to our “public ivy” down the road. When I read some of the posts coming out of the kids on CC, it amazes me how many consider the local state U or community college while living at home as “beneath” them. A good amount of this debt can be traced to status needs. Why would you go to NYU and get 80K in debt when you could attend school in the state system? I think 2born’s use of “vanity choice” is an example of this.</p>
<p>The for-profit college industry has ruined the finances of many of my community college students who fell for the zero to bachelors in 2 years marketing. Some of these for-profits are parasites preying on the most vulnerable student population.</p>
<p>I have stated more than once on this forum that quality community colleges are the best value on the board right now. In fact, if I were doing it all over again with my D’s, I would definitely give them the option of a CC for 2 years while living at home, then to an in-state U. that takes transfer credits. Heck, I might have thrown a reliable used car in there & still have been money ahead.</p>
<p>The debt crisis is real. However, you look at some people taking out $50K of debt to get an art history, philosophy or theater degree from a mediocre college, and you just want to shake some sense into them.</p>
<p>happymomof1–where did your parents and grandparents live when they were in college? How many hours/week did they work? I looked at the U of Maryland, tuition is $8600/year. That works out to be less than $200/week in earnings to pay for tuition and mandatory fees-which works out to be about 20 hours/week at a $10/hour job. Why couldn’t your DD work her way through college at that cost? My Dad paid for his own college too. He lived at home, worked as many hours as he could get in the summers and then about 20 hours/week in college. He made $1.00/hour, maybe, back then.</p>
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<p>For 10%, yes.</p>
<p><a href=“http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/business/assets_c/2012/03/Fed_Graph_Data-thumb-405x337-82713-82715.php[/url]”>http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/business/assets_c/2012/03/Fed_Graph_Data-thumb-405x337-82713-82715.php</a></p>
<p>It doesn’t look like a huge problem for the other 90% though. Unless they are unemployed.</p>
<p>BC – without detail that chart is meaningless. Does it include PLUS loans? Private?</p>
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<p>This was all covered in the other thread. I didn’t want to have to drag the rest of the links over here but I’ll go dig it up again.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1308677-share-student-loan-debtors-united-states-debt-amount.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1308677-share-student-loan-debtors-united-states-debt-amount.html</a></p>
<p>BCEagle91 – I pretty much borrowed every penny for tuition, books, room and board for 4 years at state U as my parents informed me they would have $0 to contribute when the applications arrived. Had no financial knowledge and did not have scholarships etc. Just went with a leap of faith and of course interest rates were crazy then. I was very nervous about the debt but persevered and knew I had responsibility to pay it back which I did in full.</p>