<p>I wonder how the recession will affect this. I also wonder how those graduating with high debt will cope.</p>
<p>"About a third of all students who earned bachelors degrees in 2007-8 graduated with no debt at all, about the same share as in the 2003-4 academic year, according to a policy brief released Tuesday by the College Board.</p>
<p>People think students are drowning in debt, and there is a small proportion of students that borrow an exorbitant amount, but most students graduate with a manageable debt load, said Sandy Baum, an author of the brief.</p>
<p>For bachelors degree recipients who did borrow, the median loan debt was $19,999, up 5 percent from $18,973 four years earlier. The data, the latest available, come from the federal Department of Educations National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, which is conducted every four years.</p>
<p>I am going to have about $50,000 in debt when I finish undergrad, about $40,000 of which is in private student loans. I’d planned to go to graduate school or law school but whether or not I do so will depend on if I manage to obtain any kind of a scholarship or something. My boyfriend will finish undergrad with $40,000 in stafford loans, but that should complete his education at least. His mom makes hardly any money and his dad got laid off and is in his 60’s, so they just didn’t have any money to send him to school and he only qualifies for about half of what he needs in financial aid. I don’t qualify for anything but my education is not a priority to my parents, so they are not contributing to paying for anything.* I have a few friends who are in similar situations, either someone got laid off and they weren’t offered any more financial aid, or not much more, or they don’t qualify for financial aid and don’t have support from their family. I do wonder what is normal, because my parents are under the impression that everyone graduates with mountains of debt because they feel that it is not a parents responsibility to take on college costs whereas I meet a lot of other parents who feel differently.</p>
<p>*Disclaimer: This sentence does not mean that I expect my parents to pay my way. They say they really want to help me and would if they could “afford it,” but we have purchased three big screen TVs, a three week stay in a beachfront condo in Florida, and three new amplifiers in the past 6 months. Some people get really upset with me when I word it that way but it’s genuinely what the situation is, they would help if they felt they had the money but other things take higher priority and they spend their money on that instead.</p>
<p>Not sure there is any “normal.” For folks that go to in-state publics, many graduate with lower debt levels because education is subsidized by the state. For folks who graduate from OOS & privates, debt can be and is all over the map. My friends offered to help their S with his college education but want him to have some “skin in the game.” They will pay the equivalent of what he’d pay for in-state U (where he was accepted but declined for OOS U) for 3 years & the last year is on him via loans or whatever. He struggled freshman year so he’ll be taking a few courses at OOS CC to hopefully boost his grades & lower his costs.</p>
<p>For us, our kids’ ed is a priority tho hubby will be retiring as soon as we finish their undergrad educations. At this time, we do not anticipate they will graduate with any debt. S got significant merit aid to help him & D went to CC for 3 semesters & in-state U summer school to help reduce costs & transfer credits.</p>
<p>Every family has different values and approaches to funding things as well as who is supposed to pay for what. There is no one “right” or “wrong.”</p>
<p>According to a “brief” written for the “College Board”, an organization whose membership includes price-fixing, schools, some who, in addition to fixing prices, make private agreements not to compete for students by, among other things, agreeing not to award merit-based aid, middle class families are incurring, “manageable” debt loads for undergraduate education. I feel better now. I was worried that the College Board would think the debt I will incur would be unmanageable. What would I do then?</p>
<p>Of course, as the Times makes clear, “the brief does not include parents’ borrowing, credit-card debt, informal loans from relatives or friends, or loans for graduate school.” Translation: The report is inaccurate, perhaps wildly so.</p>
<p>So don’t worry everyone, it’s all “manageable.”</p>
<p>HImom: I went to community college for my first two years and bf takes community college courses on his summers, the rest of the time he’s at Eastern Mich which is somewhere from $15,000 to $20,000 a year in state. I go to Michigan, which is more like $25,000 in state. For only $5,000 more a year, and given that their program is MUCH more suited to my needs (I have learning disabilities), it made much more sense to go to Umich even financially. But dear god are we ever going to be in trouble when we graduate and want to get married.</p>