<p>Nikkil, </p>
<p>Hopefully your plans will go well for you. And as a future financial aid director your current condition might give you a better assessment of what the most recent and coming generations will be facing in regards to their educational costs. As faculty I have advised students to be very, very careful in pursuing their education. However, and I hate to say this, under current conditions many would be better off not even entering higher education. </p>
<p>“I did get my Associates degree using Stafford Loans and have to take out loans to cover my books, fees and other education expenses…up to $30K in loans already.” </p>
<p>And that kind of unfortunate situation is exactly why so many, including myself are so very concerned about whole classes of people being priced out of higher education. Or being economically damned after the fact by their choice to participate in higher education. With some of the larger and less ethical loan companies, that 30,000 could easily be doubled via hidden fees, late charges, and penalties and that’s not even considering the effects of deferments. These tricks are an open secret, and recorded in the transcripts of CEO/board meetings that several have posted here, and hence are an admitted tactic of the edudebt people. </p>
<p>Plus on a very basic level, how did we ever allow costs for public education to escalate to the level which 30,000 some dollars can be levied and a Bachelors isn’t even completed yet? Granted some of your educational costs seem to have been covered by your employer, but what about those who do not benefit from such programs?</p>
<p>For whatever its worth, I’m terminal and a prof. But many of my generation consider such a track to be a mistake insofar as most have difficulty paying the exorbitantly high loan fees compared to relatively sparse academic incomes. And in that paradigm god help the adjuncts because the system which uses them certainly will not.</p>
<p>And eventually this problem will ensure a lack of properly qualified profs in higher education. If current trends continue, future students may look at their profs, see their situation, and realize a career in education could be little more than a state of educated indentured bondage.</p>