<p>what is a reasonable debt anyways??</p>
<p>Do you mean for student loans?</p>
<p>Some say a guideline should be…no more than the amount that you’ll earn your first year, but I think the number should be half that.</p>
<p>Wasn’t there another thread like this a while back about a college graduate that took out a lot of loans and now had a baby, but no way to pay the loans back?</p>
<p>I bet that happens often…the cost of daycare, etc, could certainly get in the way of paying for student loans. it’s not unusual for a woman to have a baby within 10 years about graduation.</p>
<p>I found the thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/757904-college-loan-nightmare-pa.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/757904-college-loan-nightmare-pa.html</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How would you determine that? Assuming that you link your major with a job, how can you be sure that you’ll get a good job, especially if you happen to graduate during an economic recession? How can you foresee layoffs or unexpected expenses (medical bills, etc). I agree with what you’re saying but sometimes stuff happens and it’s hard to tell people that they should both pursue an education in college or at a trade school to improve their earning power when the cost so dramatically outstrips inflation. It made sense when state schools were affordable but nowadays governments cut education first before anything else.</p>
<p>^She’s not saying that should be a law (I don’t think), she’s saying so people know how much is reasonable for them to borrow. </p>
<p>And even if you lived in the dorms and had a meal plan borrowing everything for Michigan Engineering (instate), and paying nothing back until after you graduate, you would probably at the end of 4 years only be about 1.5-2x your first years salary in debt, which may be a lot, but is certainly repayable.</p>
<p>By the way, the person in that link bluealien posted is even more ridiculous than the person in this thread.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What does one have to do with the other? Bill Clinton didn’t have enough “sense” to keep his slacks on, but he did a pretty good job as president.</p>
<p>I have no sympathy for stupidity in the news article.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/757904-college-loan-nightmare-pa.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/757904-college-loan-nightmare-pa.html</a></p>
<p>The story in the link is awful. And, it’s almost elderly abuse to have asked granny to co-sign these loans. </p>
<p>Who borrows that much money for an undergrad degree (especially for that school and degree)?</p>
<p>“I love how millions of people across America are screaming that this whole system needs to be reformed and Congress needs to take action. Whatever happened to capitalism? These are the same people who whine about Obama being a Socialist. I don’t mean to make this into a political thread, but it just annoys me to see the hypocrisy here. These people should have done their research and realized that they couldn’t afford these loans. Oh well. You win some you lose some. People are stupid and need a kick in the ass sometimes.”</p>
<p>1+</p>
<p>The average income of family practitioners is $159K. After taxes, the doctor in the article would be taking home $8,900 per month. She should be able to pay back the loan at $1K or even $2K per month fairly easily.</p>
<p>She may (or may not) be a good doctor, but she apparently has a reading or math disability, or both. </p>
<p>Given the utter mess she got herself (and her father!) into, she ought to be signing up to work in one of the underserved areas that pays down a good deal of the student loans, and she should be using the bulk of her salary (above really minimal living expenses) to pay back her father and pay down the part of the loans that the forgiveness program won’t pay. </p>
<p>In romance novels there’s a phrase TSTL, “too stupid to live,” for a heroine who repeatedly does the stupid and wrong thing that would be obvious to any rational person. This doctor qualifies.</p>
<p>Yea, I read this too (The Wall Street Journal). I was initially shocked, but it does seem quite legitimate. I mean it does take eightish years of studying to become a doctor, and it can pretty expensive. (Undergrad at a good school is costly … sometimes even $40-50,000 a year…But, i definately think it’s A LOT (555,000)</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it make sense to do undergrad really cheap so that you can save most of your borrowing from when you really need it (medical school)? Maybe this doctor took the kind of crappy advice we peddle here on CC to heart…</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s the obvious solution. Don’t spend 40-50k/year on your undergrad. I was under the impression that medical school admissions do not value undergrad prestige very highly. MCAT + GPA + extra curriculars + interview being the primary determinants for admission.</p>
<p>You could probably even do the first two years in community college and switch over to a state U (in Virginia, at least, this is an extremely realistic plan) to reduce your debt. I’m not saying that we don’t have a problem with student loan debts, but cases like these aren’t representative of the problem since there’s no foolproof way to keep someone from screwing up their lives if they make so many errors in judgment.</p>
<p>"Wouldn’t it make sense to do undergrad really cheap so that you can save most of your borrowing from when you really need it (medical school)? Maybe this doctor took the kind of crappy advice we peddle here on CC to heart… "</p>
<p>I don’t see where it said anything in the article about borrowing anything as an undergraduate. Our state medical school estimates (for an in state student) is 53k a year or > 200k for 4 years. The doctor in the article could easily have racked up the 250k in medical school and more with deferred payments because of the ridiculously low salary for residents.</p>
<p>^^^ </p>
<p>I agree that you can rack up more than $200k in med school alone. </p>
<p>Your in-state med school is pricey! That’s not much less than the privates. What state is that?</p>
<p>I’ve just looked at state universities in states near us and there isn’t that much of a difference. Tuition by itself is one thing, but including room, board, fees, equipment for first year students, required insurance etc and etc, they’re all 40k+</p>
<p>We hold certain professions in great esteem and do not disguise our delight when our children gravitate toward them. In America today women cannot find OB/GYNs and rare is the MD who embraces family medicine. Bright kids who might have been MDs or engineers now head to Wall Street and investment banking so they can make a million before they hit 25. Who wants to deal with malpractice insurance, frivolous law suits, patients who dont pay their bills or insurance companies who tie a doctors hands with hundreds of protocols and restrictions put in place not by doctors, but by accountants and lawyers whose primary concern is not societies health, but rather a healthy bottom line. We need to reform healthcare NOW. Healthcare should not be a for profit business because the health of the patient will always take a back seat to profit. This womens willingness to take on great personal debt and pursue a field of medicine that is the least profitable is to be admired. Granted she borrowed more than most, but far more people will be helped by her over the decades than her undergrad classmate who is now packaging derivatives and authoring the evil fine print that so many of us dont bother to read, or, if we do read it, fail to understand it because THAT is the intent of cooperation that designed it. Wheres the outrage?</p>