<p>dear parents in this forum who went to college themselves, </p>
<p>whats it like immediately coming out of college in debt? </p>
<p>it looks like i'm going to end up at UCLA and have EFC 0 but am only going to receive slight over 20k a year in gift aid, meaning i'll be receiving about 9k in loans, totally to about 36k dollars of debt after 4 years. </p>
<p>is this a manageable amount?
will it be tough to manage this debt directly out of college?
any other comments on the situation?</p>
<p>Assuming that you’re in a field with good job and salary prospects when you graduate that amount of loan is manageable. For example, if you’re in an engineering/science field then starting salaries of 60,000+ are possible. With reasonable financial planning you can pay off the loan in 5-8 years, and perhaps sooner.</p>
<p>Also you may want to think on how to best spend your summers – possibly focusing on internships that pay a reasonable amount. These will help you in your job search after graduation, and can also allow you to reduce the amount you need to borrow by several thousand dollars. Other options include part time work during the school year. UCLA faculty are active researchers, and in some fields lab assistants are occasionally required.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your acceptance to UCLA! It’s an exceptional university in a wonderful location.</p>
<p>Can you earn some money during the school year and during the summer? Perhaps not during your first quarter, but even after that you can do a lot to help reduce the loans you need by covering more of your expenses. Some other expenses that UCLA budgets can also be managed with some effort – ask professors if there is any problem using the last edition of a textbook rather than the newest – the old edition can often be purchased for 15-25% the cost of a new one, and most of the changes tend to be minor. Did you get federal work-study? If not, you might ask if you can get some; there are usually a significant number of jobs posted for students who are eligible for work-study.</p>
<p>Congratulations on getting into UCLA – that’s a wonderful achievement. While some kids attend who have lavish budgets, you’ll find that there are a lot of UCLA students who are living on tight budgets. </p>
<p>Do you need the University’s health insurance, or do you already have health insurance that will cover you well? That’s a big cost at UCLA. You probably need to (and should) live in the dorms freshman year, but for sophomore year and beyond look at off-campus options including Co-op housing, which is much, much cheaper. That alone could chop $3K-$4K a year off your cost of attending UCLA. Four people sharing a two bedroom apartment in Mar Vista or West LA south of Santa Monica could also be significantly less expensive – again, after your freshman year.</p>
<p>Have a great time in Westwood!</p>
<p>It’s managable assuming you have a decent paying job upon graduation (I’m talking starting pay). I think you don’t need to start paying back until about 6 months or so after you graduate. I agree with the others regarding an on-campus job and paid internships. With those you could possibly have it paid off before you graduate depending on your other expenses! Another consideration is any additional amount you may add to it for grad school if you decide to go on to it.</p>
<p>My opinion is to choose a college that you can attend without having to do loans if possible.</p>
<p>$36,000 is a huge amount of debt. And while it might be manageable if you have an engineering or science degree, you don’t have to go to UCLA to become employed as an engineer/scientist.</p>
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<p>I’ve talked to people who owed more than that with English degrees, and said it was manageable… I think it all depends on what you do/your luck.</p>
<p>The payment on 36k for 10 years at 6.8% (current stafford rate) would be $414.00 per month. If you are fiscally responsible and can keep yourself from taking on huge mortgage debt or car loan, and if you don’t carry credit card or other consumer debt, this is likely an affordable payment. Unfortunately, many kids are graduating today owing 100k or more.</p>
<p>And you’re suggesting that $36,000 is reasonable because he might have good luck and might be able to pay it back? And then if he has bad luck or graduates during a recession?</p>
<p>This train of thought played a huge part of the housing crisis! My mortgage on my big house is unaffordable. But with luck, I’ll get a huge raise and then can actually afford the payment.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t after you’ve settled and landed a good job. The problem is that a big student loan payment makes it difficult to wait for a great job, and forces you to take whatever job you can to pay the bills. It might be reasonable by some standards, but I graduated without debt and enjoyed the extra freedom I had since I didn’t have to worry about student loans.</p>
<p>And you’re suggesting every scientist and engineer gets a great job that pays well? </p>
<p>Let’s be reasonable- it’s all luck of income. The difference between the house and the college is that you have an income when you buy the house. You can determine what payments you can CURRENTLY afford (and you can foolishly ignore them.) </p>
<p>When entering college, you can only look at your debt and totally guesstimate whether or not you can afford it. A science or engineering entry level job may make a slighty higher amount of money than an entry level teaching job, and yet the english teacher became an english teacher anyways. The idea that any one field is necessarily going to make your loans less or more affordable by a wide-sweeping amount on an average entry level job is absurd to me, and even somewhat pointless to bring up. If someone who majors in English wanted to be an engineer, they’d go to engineering school. </p>
<p>The average student loan debt is somewhere around $20k, and that includes humanities majors. Some may manage well, and some may not. Steady income, affordable living, thrift of budgeting, etc can all contribute. Just because someone didn’t major in math doesn’t mean they won’t be able to get coupons or balance a checkbook, and the same goes for chemistry/biology/etc. </p>
<p>And don’t forget the almost necessary Master’s degrees for very high-level jobs in science or engineering, or the Med school students. (Or I suppose the lawyers!) If 36k is only manageable if you want to major in biochem, but in two years you apply for Med school…well, that’s a debt I’d hate to pay, even with the Doctor’s salary.</p>
<p>I don’t think that the OP needs to graduate with $36K in debt after four years at UCLA. Except for freshman year – where the OP has to live in the dorms with a meal plan unless the OP is living with family off-campus (and the dorms are highly, highly recommended for first year students, and strongly associated with student academic success that first year), the UCLA budget for students living off-campus in the second through fourth years is actually reasonably generous, and with the kinds of economies I mentioned upthread, the actual costs should be several thousand dollars a year less. With $3K a year in earnings, there’s a further reduction in the amount that needs to be borrowed. If the part-time job in the soph-senior years is in a food service establishment, working a three or four hour shift may also make the worker eligible for a free or really cheap meal. UCLA is a school where it is possible and practical to be on a tight budget, and the OP will find that lots of students are in similar situations. I earned the money to go to UCLA years ago, back in the dark ages when fees were trivial and I got no financial aid. Fees are much, much higher now, but the OP has a generous set of grants that fully cover all of the fees and some of the living expenses, so OP just needs to cover the rest of the living expenses, which puts us about even. I ate a lot of Ramen, chicken noodle soup, and eggs; lived in a ratty apartment, and took the bus, and I know that I spent thousands a year less on living expenses than UCLA estimated way back when. It takes work, but it is entirely doable. (And yes, there were moments when I looked at the kids driving the really nice cars to park in the really expensive parking lots or at their fancy apartments with underground parking. That’s life. It didn’t diminish the value of my education, and I suspect that I could argue that working for it actually made me even more employable after graduation.)</p>
<p>I didn’t say anything about which major he should or shouldn’t do. I mentioned that she should look at a less expensive college/university that he might be able to get a full ride scholarship for rather than UCLA.</p>
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That adds up to $29K/year. Do you think it’ll cost you that much to attend UCLA? That’s high - I think it’s lower.</p>
<p>I’ve talked to people who owed more than [$36k] with English degrees, and said it was manageable… I think it all depends on what you do/your luck.</p>
<p>Maybe…but that may not be typical. How much do you think the avg new grad with an English degree earns? I don’t think they typically find making greater than $400 a month payments manageable…unless they live at home for free. I wouldn’t be surprised if a good many new English grads are only making salaries in the $30k range.</p>
<p>Naturally it depends on one’s first job, and when that first job comes, and one’s preferences for lifestyle, etc. etc. etc.
So there are many variables and it is hard for us to say what is right for you.
However, I have always heard that a general rule of thumb is that the total debt should be equal or less than the first yr’s -realistic- salary. The key there being realistic. Not a dream or a wish, but a real practical honest appraisal given the market prospects today.</p>
<p>can’t edit my first post but, they say the price is about 29k a year on the site, and offered me about 2.5k in work study the rest in stafford loans i think, </p>
<p>I actually qualify for multiple local scholarships from my town, so at best I’ll be able to cut off about 10-15k from the total debt, making it more reasonable i think. </p>
<p>& I have not been admitted to a school I can go to without loans… so that’s not an option @ whoever said go where I can afford without any loans at all, my family income is very low and I make no money myself :(</p>
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<p>Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if a good many new grads are unemployed or making less than $10/hour. Just go down to Starbucks and start asking about their friends.
Until the economy turns around, I woud hesitate to graduate with ANY debt.</p>
<p>^^ But it’s very hard to say what the economy will be like in 4 years from now so I don’t think one can time this. </p>
<p>Of course graduating with no debt would be great but not everyone can manage it - especially when the student doesn’t have parents willing or able to pay for it. One can often reduce the debt by going to a CC for a couple of years then transferring while commuting the entire time and many other variations but $32K of debt, while nothing to sneeze at, is still not an unmanageable amount for such an important investment in one’s life. One can mitigate it by not splurging on a new car, living a little more modestly, reducing the debt whil in college with on-campus jobs and paid internships (common for engineering, not so common for some other majors), etc. It’s a matter of priority. If the person wants to prioritize an education at UCLA over buying a brand new Mustang when they graduate, then I think it’s fine.</p>
<p>If you have the option of moving home/in with family for a year or two after graduation, you could save quite a bit to pay down your loan. It’s not ideal for you or your family, but it can make a huge difference. Imagine if you pay down your loan by $10,000 or $20,000 by living frugally and saving.</p>
<p>Yup, $29,700 is the cost quoted by UCLA for residing on campus, $27,400 for off campus. The cheapest way to go 4 years at a UC is to live at home and commute. It doesn’t give you the “college experience,” but it could save you a bucket load of $$. Those kids who live within driving distance of a UC (we live within two!) do have an option that many do not.</p>
<p>One other thing to remember: UC fees have gone up, sometimes mid-year, because of the budget crunch. 15% increase or $1300 a year for the upcoming year. It would be irresponsible not to factor in a yearly increase–I would argue in the 15% range–and plan for it. The difference may be $9K for freshman year, $10,500 sophomore year, etc. That could add another $6K onto the total loan amount, depending on whether financial aid goes up to cover the gap.</p>
<p>Do you have a cheaper option? If you got into UCLA, did you also get a nice package to attend elsewhere? I would give it some serious thought, if you did. $40K+ in loans is a lot of money… whether or not you plan to enter a field that is known for high pay right out of college would affect my advice as to if the debt load would be crushing.</p>
<p>From my experience, I would be very hesitant to take out that much in loans. My husband and I both got masters’ degrees in engineering, and not even five years later we’d both been laid off and were standing in an unemployment line! You just cannot predict what’s going to happen after you graduate. It IS hard to say what the economy will be like in four years, so why gamble on it? It’s hard enough saving money to buy a house without the added debt from school.</p>