<p>Young people like this are going to find themselves working for their lender for the rest of their lives. The young blogger will probably find that her lender will be happy to rewrite and extend her loan if she can’t handle the uptick in payments for the scheduled $1600-- but her current payment is probably negatively amortized, or at best interest only … and her 20-year-debt will morph into a 30-year or 40-year debt.</p>
<p>The sad thing is that there are hundreds of these threads here and in the Parents forum. We read articles like this from the New York Times, Slate, various college-related magazines, etc. pretty much every year. We can link to them all we like, but there’s always that percentage of the population who see this and think, “That’s never happening to me!”</p>
<p>They always think they are going to earn such a good salary right out of school that the payments on a $200,000 debt will be no problem.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Right, and since they have little to no experience with paying for rent, utilities, food, clothing, cell phones, cable and internet bills, car, gas, insurance, and fed, FICA, state and local taxes, they have no idea of how little money they will have left each month to go towards student loans…and how “old” these monthly payments get after a year or two.</p>
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<p>This.</p>
<p>Which is also, btw, the reason the costs of a college education continue to escalate. It’s a bubble, financed on the backs of kids barely old enough to vote. What I can’t figure out is why the government believes it is ethical to allow people to default on all sorts of debt and not the debt they got themselves into at 18-22 yrs old.</p>
<p>It’s really quite criminal, imho, and encourages unethical lending practices. It’s like loan sharking.</p>
<p>How did she graduate in four years–doesn’t Northeastern take 5 years minimum due to their co-op program?</p>
<p>I can’t help but think many of the replies here a bit insensitive–the woman in the article is the first in her family to attend college, and judging from the amount of loans she received, it’s likely that her family was not high income and was expecting the aalmost always implicitly “promised” FA. I think that for many families, especially those with little or no experience with the American higher education system, the sheer cost of a college degree can be hard to truly understand. Plus, college always say things like “Don’t worry about the cost” or “It’s a strong investment in yourself, so of course it will be worth it” and/or package financial aid in deceptive–or at least unclear–ways. Of course, this doesn’t completely excuse the student/family from doing further research into loans beforehand, but I wouldn’t say it makes her or her family “idiots,” either. I mean, look at all the questions CC gets about FA, including many from non-first generation families.</p>
<p>At Northeastern, a student pays for eight semesters of tuition, whether they take a four or five year program.</p>
<p>Something doesn’t add up here. The link shows that the student borrowed over $160,000. That has increased due to capitalized interest. In the early 1990’s tuition, room and board at Northeastern was around $35,000 to $40,000/year. That tells me that the student did not receive any merit scholarships or need based grants at all. Nor did the family contribute anything towards her expenses. If the family is lower income then Pell grants, state grants and Northeastern’s own need based grants would have been available to cover a portion of the cost. If the family is not lower income, then they should have contributed something to the cost. Her coop earnings should have, at a minimum, covered her living expenses while working on coop semesters so that should not have increased the cost of her degree. </p>
<p>There has to be more to this story than has been presented here.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>*In the early 1990’s tuition, room and board at Northeastern was around $35,000 to $40,000/year. *</p>
<p>She didn’t go to college in the 90s…she went from 2005-2009. (I thought she went to college in early 2000s, but she’s a rather newish grad.)</p>
<p>People borrow up to the “full COA” which is a lot higher than tuition, room and board. Full COA includes personal expenses and travel which can add another $4k each year. </p>
<p>Just because a family isn’t low income, does NOT mean that it can pay anything for college.</p>
<p>Do all NEU students do a co-op?</p>
<p>Oops, sorry, I meant that was the cost in the early 2000’s. I’m not used to referring to our current decade. </p>
<p>90% of Northeastern students do coop, it can be either a four or five year option. I still feel that there has to be more to this story. No merit scholarships, need based grants or family contribution does not seem real.</p>
<p>What were the costs in the last 5 years? (not the early 2000’s)</p>
<p>Do you know what % of students get merit scholarships? I would imagine that there are a lot who don’t get merit scholarships.</p>
<p>As for parent contribution…well, they may not have contributed any/much. Their income may have been higher than Pell, so no aid. Don’t think NEU is that great with need-based aid. </p>
<p>Is it possible she did a semester abroad or something and that added to the costs?</p>
<p>And, again, the loan amounts grew while she was in school.</p>
<p>Ah…found this in the article…</p>
<p>The total was boosted by summer classes, books and miscellaneous expenses, and a year spent studying abroad</p>
<p>So, we all know that summer classes and associated room/board can be expensive. Also, spending a year abroad can also be expensive.</p>
<p>My personal rule of thumb – if anyone was asking – is that if you have to borrow to attend the school in the 1st place, don’t borrow more to join a sorority/fraternity, study abroad, buy a yacht, or endow a chair at your university.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>ha ha!</p>
<p>I’ve always been amazed at kids who are borrowing a decent amount of money to go to college, then go Greek. There was a poster awhile back that had to leave his college because he couldn’t afford it (his low income parents had taken out Plus Loans for his first year, but then couldn’t borrow more) and the kid had been in a frat that year! Crazy!!! Not only did the frat cost money, but the time spent could have been spent working a part time job.</p>
<p>And…for study abroad…I don’t think many kids do the math about that when picking schools.</p>
<p>My oldest DD was considering a study abroad until she realized her scholarship wouldn’t travel with her and she’d have to pay that semester out of pocket. Of course, she’ll graduate with no debt for college…</p>
<p>My kids were a little annoyed to learn that while their scholarship CAN be used for study abroad, the OOS kids get more money since their OOS tuition scholarships are higher. </p>
<p>Oh well. </p>
<p>But, it is nice that an OOS student with $10k per semester for their tuition scholarship can use that $10 for study abroad.</p>
<p>I realize not all schools do that.</p>
<p>The point is, the blogger took on an unreasonable amount of loans for an undergraduate. It doesn’t matter how the loans were directed. My d. studied & traveled abroad while taking student loans – but her loans were limited to Staffords, under $20K total – also with the time abroad, she managed to run up $3000-$4000 on her credit card, which I certainly did not think was a good idea… but still, she was graduating with maybe $22K in debt. (I’d note that her financial aid fully supported the study abroad – so she didn’t have to borrow more to pay for that – but as long as she was abroad she decided to do some extra traveling, which is where the credit card came in).</p>
<p>The bottom line: no matter what the purpose of a loan, there is an overall limit to how much debt an individual can tolerate. You don’t just keep borrowing and borrowing with no limit. </p>
<p>It’s relatively easy math. Way back when my first kid started college, I decided that I was willing, if necessary, to borrow up to $40K to help pay for his school. So that meant that in year #1, I could borrow $10K – that was the maximum of my borrowing budget. </p>
<p>It seems to me that somewhere along the line, students need some debt counseling before they borrow – they need to have someone help them draw up a plan that includes a budgeted amount for borrowing. I guess I have to put most of the blame on the lenders, since they have the full financial information on the prospective borrowers. They really should have had a cap on the total they would be willing to lend – no matter what pie in the sky ideas the student had, the lenders knew when she was crossing the threshold as to maximum debt that could reasonably be managed.</p>
<p>I think we should clarify that not all frats are big ticket items. My S is in a frat (loves it) and his expenses have been extremely modest. I do think a student needs to choose carefully – a fraternity can be expensive and can soak up time. It can also be a much needed circle of friends and upperclassmen who can offer advice and support – particularly to a student who is first in the family to be a college student. Depends on the frat and depends on the student. </p>
<p>The frat question is small potatoes compared to the loan issue. Schools/banks make it entirely too easy to sign up for big loans. S2’s school sent us paperwork that would have covered his entire first year expenses (with loans) – all we would have had to do was initial and sign. Very, very frightening. And I think it is lower income parents/students who are most likely to live for the moment and postpone thinking about “down the road.” When you live paycheck to paycheck, there gets to be a habit of living for the moment.</p>
<p>Did she not get ANY financial aid? And assuming she didn’t, weren’t here parents capable of paying at least SOME of her college (based on the college’s judgment of their financial situation)?</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>True that not all frats require a lot of money for dues…but nearly all of them require a decent amount of time. For a student that needs money, that time could have been spent working.</p>
<p>It doesn’t seem that this girl worked at all while she was in school…either that or she spent her entire income on non-academic-related things.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if her parents refused to fill out FAFSA and/or CSS Profile?</p>