<p>So right now the big issue in America as well have heard is the student debt crisis. Now are ALL of the people who attended private school on loans of $100,000 really struggling to pay off debt. What I am really asking, are people who earned degress that really lead to jobs like accounting, engineering, nursing, and computers having hard time paying off massive debt, or is it more of the people who went to private schools and earned less-promising degrees like liberal arts ones, such as Anthropology or French, are the ones struggling?</p>
<p>That much debt is too much regardless of the profession.</p>
<p>A newish engineer making around $60k per year isn’t earning enough to make those payments. </p>
<p>To make payments on $100k of student loan debt, the income would need to be much, much higher…well over $100k of income.</p>
<p>Your loan payments shouldn’t be more than 10% of your income. That’s because so much of your income will be going for taxes (fed, FICA, state, etc), health insurance, rent, food, utilities, car, gas, car insurance, cell phone, cable, etc, etc, etc…</p>
<p>I don’t think you are going to find too many students at the top 25 or so colleges with that kind of debt. You are going to see it more at the lower ranked colleges and private non- accredited schools. Theses colleges and schools allow anyone to enter their programs. The poorest ranked colleges often have the poorest graduation rates. So I say most of the debt is to people who didn’t even finish college. The for profit schools are putting many into deep debt without any marketable skill too.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>There are people with big debt at top schools. There are kids from NYU with big debt. There are kids who don’t qualify for FA at the top schools that take on big debt. </p>
<p>There are also kids attending OOS publics who take on big debt.</p>
<p>An easy way to run up big debt is by not graduating within 4 years. Taking on an additional year’s worth of debt while existing loans are accruing interest racks up a lot of needless debt.</p>
<p>It’s not hard for someone to rack up $100k in debt, even at an instate public. A family that doesn’t qualify for Pell grants, may not get any free aid, even with a modest EFC. If the family can’t contribute much/anything, then the student might borrow $25k for each of his 4 years and have $100k in debt. </p>
<p>A total of $50k in debt is too much. $100k of debt can ruin your adult life throughout your 20s and into your 30s.</p>
<p>My kids have the possibility of being those students. Many kids we know are. It is NOT due to the private colleges – our state directional COA is over $20,000/yr and raising at an average rate of 7-9%/year. </p>
<p>Nursing jobs are scarce in our area. Teaching jobs are impossible. Going out of region is difficult without some “set-up” money to get living space. Not to mention, some families are just concerned about sending Jr off.</p>
<p>Our issue – current income bracket is drastically higher than a few years ago. No savings due to debt racked up in the years DH was under employed. </p>
<p>We are left with the choice:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>We continue on to pay off current debt, take loans as co-signers in kids name and pay-off as much as possible.</p></li>
<li><p>Have 1 parent cease working and be qualified for higher institutional grants at private schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Pray for merit.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>For kid 1, class of 2013, we are opting for #3 with hopes for NMF. For kid 2, class of 2018, we are hoping to be in a better financial position and that our state schools have leveled off on tuition hikes.</p>
<p>Longhaul, don’t just pray for merit, actively LOOK FOR IT. Any student with strong scores can get merit somewhere. That was the lesson from that Texas Mom thread. </p>
<p>A student doesn’t have to be NMF to get big merit. </p>
<p>NO student should have to take on that kind of debt. It can ruin their life. At a minimum, a student could start at a CC, and then transfer, which would cut the debt in half. </p>
<p>Another alternative is to commute to the local directional. Seriously, the mindset that a student has to “go away” is driving up the need to take on more debt. Most of the time, a student need not “go away” to college…at least not for the first 2 years.</p>
<p>momofthreegreatgirls,
Google NYU and debt. Read the recent posts about kids who have been offered no FA at BU and they still wish they could go (which probably means some are.) I know plenty of families who borrow $$$ to send their kids to top schools. Now, on their incomes, they an afford to pay it back, barring a disaster, and they do borrow.</p>
<p>Longhaul, another alternative is an inexpensive CC for 2 years. It’s not “ideal,” but it greatly reduces the need to borrow. </p>
<p>Students who are in massive debt are those who want what they want regardless of the affordability; those who take too long, racking up debt for a long period of time; and those who “need” to borrow more than it actually costs.</p>
<p>There are all sorts of people who have these loans. Recently I started reading all these stories on the internet and it is terrifying.</p>
<p>Some made extremely stupid decisions by borrowing too much. But then there are some that had a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances that ballooned their debt.
Most of these people got BA or MA from various schools - some ivy league and some from the schools I’ve never heard of. I have not seen too many stories from people with engineering degrees - but there are some who do have engineering degrees.</p>
<p>A very dear friend of mine has a daughter in this situation. She did go to a state school, not private, but she went OOS and borrowed every bit of what it cost. She had a great 4 years, went abroad , lived on campus and spent the college years as though she and the family could afford them. Now it’s time to pay the piper, and it has been ruinous.</p>
<p>Question: are the kids borrowing more than the Staffords or is it the parents? Even if parents are "only"cosigners, it just seems to me that it isn’t solely “student debt.” I imagine we’ll keep paying on the Plus loans while the kids struggle to make Stafford payments.</p>
<p>There are a lot of parents in trouble too. My friend who works in a major university has told me that one of coworkers is in massive debt over her children’s undergrad and dental/grad/professional schools. And she really knew better but could not bear to say “no”. It is difficult to say when one has great kids and have gone down this path. Education is a good thing, so it’s really hard to put cost constraints on it when that is what your children want. I struggle too.</p>
<p>The cosigned loans are a double whammy because both kids and parents are on the hook for them. Some friends we know have a daughter who was declined for a mortgage due to $60K of those loans she had taken. Parents are paying the bulk of them, but the amounts show up on credit files for both. Talk about a double whammy!</p>
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<p>Gosh, how many times have we seen that here? And the thread goes on for pages, and everybody jumps in and offers good advice, and alternative schools, and links for low instate tuition or guaranteed merit aid . . . and in the end, the OP wants what she wants, and it all falls on deaf ears.</p>
<p>A very dear friend of mine has a daughter in this situation. She did go to a state school, not private, but she went OOS and borrowed every bit of what it cost. She had a great 4 years, went abroad , lived on campus and spent the college years as though she and the family could afford them. Now it’s time to pay the piper, and it has been ruinous.</p>
<p>See, kids hear about living in dorms, being away from parents, doing what they want to do, studying abroad…it all sounds so wonderful. No wonder kids think loans are the answer. They do “want what they want when they want it.” 4 years of excitement goes by fast. 10+ years of strangling debt can crawl by.</p>
<p>But then on cc we get into roaring discussions about whether or not it’s worth it to go to Georgetown (for example) vs a less expensive, less prestigious school, and half the posters insist one must go to the school with the most prestige, or you might as well die (exaggerating). Is the tide turning?</p>
<p>Oh redpoint, the tide turned about four years ago - at least for the parents! There are almost no long-term parent participants here who would say that X is worth $Y more if debt is involved. That big ugly financial collapse in the summer of 2008 changed a lot of people’s tunes.</p>
<p>I expect that many of the young people (and their parents) who are now strangulated with debt got headed down that pathway before the summer of 2008.</p>
<p>I know a young woman who just graduated from a private LAC, and between Stafford and private loans, she probably borrowed around $120K. She could have commuted from home, but that didn’t appeal to her. Currently, she’s looking for work with her psychology bachelor’s degree. Her boyfriend is in a similar situation, although he did find a job. I am wondering how long these kids will be happy living at home with mom and dad.</p>
<p>Actually, it took a while for the reality to set in with some CC parents- remember the long, angry threads about how it’s all the colleges’ fault, the highly paid profs (as if) and all that expensive false advertising to mislead little Johnny? Or how hard it is to live on 250k and pay for college, whle maintaining a lifestyle (neighborhoods, cars, perks) those families had earned? It seems as if it was a long denial period.</p>