<p>From the article—“But in the meantime, millions of former students are suffering the consequences of mistakes that weren’t entirely their fault.”</p>
<p>Ahhhh…it’s not my fault I borrowed so much money to go to a school I couldn’t afford in the first place. Sound familiar? It’s not my fault I borrowed so much money to buy a house I couldn’t afford in the first place. It’s not my fault I borrowed so much money to buy that car I couldn’t afford in the first place.</p>
<p>With enough whining, the government will get involved and offer handouts. Where has personal accountability gone? You can see the current thinking in this country in several posts here–“haves and have nots” “elitists” and the “obvious solution.” Free college paid for by MORE TAXES. Unbelievable.</p>
<p>If that is your situation as a parent, more people might wonder how your kid is suffering the consequences of your mistakes, since, whatever level of income you make, you will be able to afford less than the expected amount for your kid’s college due to your own debt service consuming a large chunk of your income.</p>
<p>My nieces and nephews who come from a low-income family are mostly having an easier time paying for college than my middle-class children. My children were awarded merit scholarships, thank goodness, which helps. But their cousins qualify for pure grant aid also. </p>
<p>UCB–that’s not my situation at all. That’s the unfortunate situation of so many these days who claim their ridiculous amounts of borrowing were not their fault. It’s the bank’s fault, or the school’s fault, or the car dealer’s fault. If you borrow too much money, it’s YOUR FAULT. Stop blaming others, and stop asking for handouts to fix your mistakes. Drives me batty.</p>
<p>Low income families can better afford colleges in two ranges - colleges that meet need which are highly competitive for entry, and community colleges which are much less expensive so a Pell Grant and a Direct Loan can cover things. In most other situations a middle class family is much better off.</p>
<p>^ And that’s not even accounting for other advantages middle-class kids had before college that would better prepare them for merit scholarships and those better schools which provide the better aid. </p>
<p>Like…romani has pointed out, this topic comes up over and over again. Perhaps, these topic were all different with little similarities. But from what I remember, they were quite similar. Additionally, they all most likely had a six page spread of a recurring, cyclic combativeness. </p>
<p>Hopefully, that’s helpful enough for you, MomoWillChild. ; </p>
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Branching off of this, it is almost awe-worthy seeing the amount of opportunities these low-income students continue to have once they get INTO college. </p>
<p>Recently, I was speaking with my study abroad program advisor and she was sharing with me a new program that I would be interested. Only after chatting, we both realized I wouldn’t be eligible because I didn’t have a need-based grant. It’s great that these opportunities are available for them, but it leaves out opportunities for those kids who have a “large enough” income. Like, man, I would LOVE to go to this country for free, but apparently, because my mom makes this amount, I have means to get to that country on my own.</p>
<p>Bcos the author is her own data source – she is late in her payments, so she assumes others are as well. Where is the data/proof?</p>
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<p>Then she goes on to blame the college for her debt. (“The college made me do it.”)</p>
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<p>BA in English from Marist College, but nothing indicates whether she had any undergrad debt.</p>
<p>Question for the Times editors: shouldn’t opinion pieces at least possess critical thinking based on some facts? For example, where are the numbers about the middle class to support the headline? Since it is the LA Times, how about some numbers from the costs of the middle class to attend a UC campus? (Hint: pretty good deal for those under $80k income. Yes, it aint’ tony Marist…).</p>
<p>So, let me give you a counter-anecdote: D1 had an internship last summer in a developing world city, fully paid for by her university but without any salary. She had another internship opportunity in the US that was very well-paid. Because D1 is fortunate enough to come from a family with a “large enough” income (namely, “large enough” that she could afford to spend a summer not earning money), she got to take the unique opportunity, which would be unaffordable for a low-income student. </p>
<p>I’m not really getting what you’re giving, Slithey. I’m not suggesting that these opportunities be taken away from low-income students, but there should be some for the students that aren’t “low-income”, but aren’t “well off”. What if your daughter didn’t come from a family that was low-income, but could not afford to have her not work that summer? </p>
<p>My kid’s university offers a similar overseas program in the summer, but part of the endowment for it covers the expected student contribution from summer earnings for anyone whose FA package includes one. </p>
<p>I’m not sure I’m pithy, but I’ll tell you what I don’t like about it. The author states, “A big part of the problem, of course, is that college is just too expensive.” I disagree with her premise. Perhaps the college she wanted to go to was too expensive, but college, for a stable middle class family, does not need to be expensive. And it certainly doesn’t mean oppressive student loans. </p>
<p>When people start treating college like smart consumers, the student loan crisis will disappear. I have seen people on these boards saying that college tuition comes from past, current, and future earnings. Future. Yikes. Not mine. And not my kids’. Some people might disagree with that, and that’s fine. I understand there are other points of view. But that still doesn’t give folks a license for stupid. Just like, sometimes, for some folks, it makes good sense to finance 75 percent (or less) of a Toyota Corolla, but if you need to finance 25 % or more of a Lexis LS 600, you probably ought to rethink your purchase.</p>
<p>It is true that students from middle class families eating $40,000 to $59,000 a year, do have higher loans than students from families making more or less.</p>
<p>Perhaps we should raise the cutoff to $50,000 for state and federal programs?</p>
<p>As we fall into that category without overtime, that would be fine with me, but as it is, there are ways to make it manageable even for students who don’t qualify for much merit aid.</p>
<p>At the state level, more taxes need to be allocated to higher ed, indeed education altogether, instead of short sighted programs like giving big companies billion dollar tax write offs.</p>
<p>Depends on the school one attends. If the student attends an instate public vs. a private that gaps (like the authors college, Marist, or NYU).</p>
<p>I put $60k into the UC financial aid calculator, and it came up with $19k in grant aid on a COA of $32k. Standard federal loans+work study. $40k income earns $23k in grant aid. $90k income – way above middle class – still receives $10k in grant aid. Thus, COA is $22k.</p>
<p>All had same loan amounts.</p>
<p>fwiw: the author’s college had lower average test scores than our public HS. Perhaps she should’ve attended her instate public and she wouldn’t be facing loan collectors.</p>
<p>Excellent analysis, Niquii77. Indeed, eventually the government will “forgive” a lot of these loans for the underprivileged, lower income, and we in the middle and upper middle will be forgiven nothing and be stuck subsidizing even more government spending. I am totally sick of it.</p>
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