<p>Hopefully this fall I will be attending Houston Baptist University but the only thing stopping me is the money. Between scholarships, grants and a loan it comes out to </p>
<p>4500 grant
6000 scholarship
3500 loan
4000 work? whats an average for working and going to school?
????? parents are willing to pay for some?</p>
<p>What I have right now comes out to about 18000. And the tuition plus room and board come out to about 24000. That means I will probably have to get another loan if not more. </p>
<p>So I was wondering what would be a realistic amount of how much debt would be okay for me to end up with at the end of the 4 years? thanks</p>
<p>We are only allowing our son to have a max of 20K in debt for all 4 yrs
We think this will be managable after graduation and the loans will help him feel a personal investment in his education (he also pays for all his living expenses and books from his summer earnings). </p>
<p>He have not made him do work study as he is a 2 sport athlete and his days are very full with sports and studying</p>
<p>His school just eliminated loans (although students can still take out Staffords if they wish-he will do that)
All told he will have about 16K in debt after 4 yrs</p>
<p>I'll have about 120K debt after graduation if I don't think of something... =( But IMHO the max amount of debt should be relative to how good your college is. That way it's easier to pay back.</p>
<p>blue_Box...
Perhaps, but the elite schools themselves are beginning to view the situation differently. In a struggling economy a blue ticket education is not necessarily as comforting or secure as it once was. And the elites have been under pressure because enough of their alumni now know of and may have personally experienced this new parameter. To the extent that some of the elites are looking into ways to ensure their less privileged students don't have to borrow the high amounts or anything at all. And its interesting that the elite schools have taken this seminal step towards egalitarian education whilst many of the state schools are still ignoring the problem.<br>
And keep in mind the amount you graduate with, won't stay stable. Because of the longstanding manner in which the SL situation has not been properly regulated the real money is in bundling, resale, and enhancing the fees of these loans. And when that happens the borrower has little say in the matter and even fewer protections. So even if someone gets the nice job, and pays the bills, the borrowed amounts on a SL still have a nasty habit of escalating well beyond what's expected. And that's above and beyond such problems as our current spate of general inflation, fuel and etc. And beyond the reality that many are now taking jobs well below the station which their education supposedly brought them.
So perhaps its no longer a condition set by how much debt relative to how good the school is...that equation has fractured...it'll be more a condition of how good the economy is going to be...and its obvious the old boom days are busted.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'll have about 120K debt after graduation if I don't think of something... =( But IMHO the max amount of debt should be relative to how good your college is. That way it's easier to pay back.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I imagine it should be more based upon the salary you expect for your career than anything else. I mean, if I was a Literature major at Harvard, I'd still be expecting to make less money than an electrical engineer coming out of Penn State.</p>
<p>And if that expectation is based on viable, multiple sources. If a student bases their future income expectations on what's said within some academic programs, or only the opinions of the advisers at a given institution there is an inevitable credibility shift in regards to career assessments. This is not a reference to outright deceit or ethical lapses but more a matter of context.
Academics do tend to believe that the rewards for their given fields are often lucrative-if it only relates to their own experiences. Even if this is something they no longer believe its often very difficult to speak directly about such a controversial issue within the academic subculture-academia by its nature often rewards the more deferential opinion. And in many cases, what they may give as an assessment of career potential is premised on what the attributes were in their field when they obtained their posting.
These are not necessarily ethical lapses, but do clearly reflect human behavior...we see what we are around, or what elements we chose to conceive from what we don't directly experience.
As a result its often an unintentional effect, but the career assessments coming from within academia do tend to be much rosier than the actual conditions. As such a personal assessments of education costs and career potential should be done with as much supplemental information as possible. These are obvious precautions but many students do not do them...often because they have been beguiled by the shiny university catalog...
And sometimes those of us who write the shiny catalogs, or star in them might not be the best to ask for a opinion...after all being part of it all has its own tendency to blind with a little glitter...</p>
<p>Well the starting salaries for HYPSM is more than others, right? And typically education loans must be paid in the first 5-7 years. (That was my logic... proved wrong...)
RacinReaver, I got your point about the majors, but let's talk about the same major in both colleges.</p>
<p>My goal for my children is 0. Zilch. Nothing. I have a feeling that daughter will probably have some, though, because art schools seem to have less generous aid than LACs. Practically speaking, I won't agree to any more than 10K total over four years for her, but again, I'm very conservative. </p>
<p>Son has a no-loan package at his LAC, so he's covered.</p>
<p>There's nothing wrong with taking out 40k + in loans, as long as you don't think paying them back will be too much of a burden on you after graduation. Don't forget, if you want to go to grad school, you can defer them.</p>
<p>I would rather take on a slight debt (25K MAX.. anything above that is insane) to go to an undergrad school where I really like and want to go than taking almost no debt and going to a school I wouldn't really like or enjoy :/</p>
<p>I transferred back home to avoid 50K of debt. Instead I'll graduate with less than 20K. I want to do grad school immediately and am slightly older (thus reducing my earning potential) so debt was a major concern.</p>
<p>As for you, it's up to you. Right now you're looking at nearly 15K per year in self-help (work, savings, loans). As a business major, you have a little more flexibility than most because of paid internships, starting salary and deferring grad school.</p>
<p>Slight debt is a relative condition, which depends greatly on who's holding the note-to assume a safe number when dealing some lenders is very dangerous economically, psychologically and likely ecumenically (the closest situation we have to the old concept of usury is with the more malicious SL companies) Accordingly speaking of reasonable amounts is tricky especially given the bundling, supplemental fees and the various other tricks granted to the edudebt industry. Even a reasonable appearing 25,000 can quickly become a problem. </p>
<p>Much better to do as TrinSF suggests, go for the zero option. And very wise with art schools particularly because of the time in takes artists (and others in the humanities) to reach financial stability.</p>