<p>katwkittens,</p>
<p>My daughter is interested in med school. In-state med school tuition is one of the HUGE state-by-state differences, and UNC Chapel Hill has very low medical school tuition for in-state residents, and it is quite a good school. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I live in PA.</p>
<p>Friends of ours moved here four years ago from NC. DAd was transferred. Their whole family is from NC and Aunt, Uncles cousins tended to attend NC State or UNC Schools. They're oldest son had his heart set on NC State and that's where he is - and they're paying oos costs! Not only the cost makes a difference but the NC state legislature dictates that only 16 - 18% of students at NC state schools can be oos. Pennsylvania schools have no mandates about in state qualifications.</p>
<p>The whole debt situation among students makes me wonder whether it's wise to be eyeing those 40,000 dollars top-tier schools. 20,000 dollars in debt, the national average for college grads, is pretty outstanding to me, especially since one can't count on landing a 50,000 dollars salary-paying job after graduation. I don't want to be in my late thirties and still be paying a debt I accumulated when I was 18. But, I be should look forward to that since I am part of Generation Debt, right?:(</p>
<p>"Generation Debt" That is funny :LOL:</p>
<p>Well, look at it another way: It's a drop in the bucket compared to any mortgage you get.</p>
<p>Private_Joker, that's something I wonder often when I read this site. Although I had the stats to get into "better" schools and was admitted to several liberal arts schools with scholarship money, I opted to go to a state school. The tuition was lower and I had enough scholarship money that I actually got a refund each semester. I completed my degree 100% debt free. I then obtained two advanced degrees also at public institutions in my state. I was on assistantship for both so again I completed degrees two and three without any debt. Due to this fact, I was able to purchase my first home at 26 and rarely have to worry about money issues. </p>
<p>Many of my friends at my state school shared this with me. Almost all have gone to graduate school and I don't have any friends who are not able to support themselves. They all have good jobs and enjoyed their college experience. </p>
<p>I think the answer to your question lies in your career goals. If you are looking to break into one of these competitive fields in New York City, then the top tier education is probably worth the price. However, if you want to be an accountant, teacher, engineer, etc. in a random U.S. city, then I'm just not convinced that the extra price is worth it. I have friends who are in the process of rising in all of those fields and they all have the same state school education I do. We are all motivated people who work hard and go after what we want, which in the end has made the difference.</p>
<p>I am a Mom of a current Senior and HS GC (with several years of experience). I am always puzzled as to why 18 year old students who usually have no idea of what they want to major in would go in to debt for thousands of dollars per year? My answer is that most 18 year olds are clueless about exactly what that kind of debt means for their future. I understand taking on significant debt for graduate school, ex. law, medical, etc....those professional degrees that are likely to generate significant income.</p>
<p>We personally have told our own 18 year old that we do not want her to take on debt for an undergraduate degree. We have agreed to pay in state tuition and room/board costs. Fortunately she has received some merit scholarships already and will likely receive others (both public and private) however, if that still leaves her with a tuition/room/board bill of $25K+ a year......is that private school education worth the additional $100K out of pocket expenses? For some families I suppose it is, but for most families I have to question the wisdom of students taking on the debt and parents paying out that kind of money for undergraduate work. Just my thoughts as a GC and Mom of Senior.</p>
<p>I do not consider $20,000 debt for education to be excessive. I see plenty of young adults tooling about in autos which exceed $15,000 and these are depreciating assets. A quality education is an appreciating asset which can springboard a person's career for a lifetime.</p>
<p>Obviously, less debt is preferrable. But the important issue is financing that education.</p>
<p>London and Teach, thanks for those words of insight. It's refreshing to know that my concerns over college debt aren't only relevant to myself. CC has a way of making one disillusioned. </p>
<p>For months now, I've been on here, lurking and posting. I read these threads about these great colleges, HYPS and the likes, and I'm inspired. I say to myself, "I wish I could walk the corridors of those Mt. Olympuses." But, in the midst of hearing about the amazing students who attend those schools, common sense dawns on me. I remember that I'm not a budding Titan nor am I rich. Reality tells me that striving for a goal that brings as hefty a consequence as an enormous college debt while not guaranteeing anything in return, for example, job security or even job openings, is a fool's trap. Why pay $40,000 for a Philosopy degree and be unemployed afterwards or "still not knowing what I want to do with my life"? If anything, I'll most likely follow Teach's example, the low-cost route. </p>
<p>Over the summer, I had a chance to talk to one college adminastrator who was also a parent, and advised own daughter to go the low-cost route, not flagship U, though, just schools that offered the most money. The adminastrator really affirmed my feelings that entering the real world is hard enough without a massive debt load.</p>
<p>Private_Joker: Philosophy happens to be the #1 degree admitted to law school. No liberal arts degree is more usless then another, if you have an idea of what you want to do with it.</p>
<p>(I have to defend my major after all ;))</p>
<p>Heck, you could even go to medical school with a Philosophy degree, so long as you met the other requirements (biology, organic chemistry, calculus, etc.) for med school.</p>
<p>I didn't mean to offend anyone, screenname and venado. Actually, when I was writing that sentence, law school, among other professional routes, did come to my mind as an appropriate use for such liberal arts majors, such as philosophy. But, I figured that I didn't have to state that when my post revolved around that most college students faced with uncertainty and coupled with massive debts are put in unnecessary hardships after graduation. If they had a viable plan for what they wanted to do with their lives and it was lucrative, debt was not a problem. But, my post aimed for those, like myself, who did not fall in this category, who maybe would be better off not attending those high-priced colleges?</p>
<p>It's really no surprise that financially naive kids see nothing inherently wrong with amassing huge debt when they are surrounded by a culture of debt, from excessive consumer debt, credit card debt, 120% interest only mortgages, huge expanding deficits at every level of government, an ever widening current account deficit and a pay as you go social security system. All of these deficits are labeled "unsustainable" !!</p>
<p>Pafather-
that was some of the research I also did, was grad school tuition for in-state when we were comparing state systems. How much grad school tuition would be for vet school, med school, law, b-school and other graduate studies, ie joint mba/jd, md/mba, phd/md programs. We checked on availability, tuition and research opportunities. With less than 28 vet schools in the country it helped narrow our search substantially. We cross-referenced that with resident vs. oos acceptance rates and that made our list less than 5. </p>
<p>We also looked at availability of fellowships, research grants and the type of research being done through med schools and comprehensive cancer centers. Another factor had to be the cost of living in the surrounding areas, food, gas, housing, utilities...</p>
<p>So this is where we ended up. As far as UNC-Chapel Hill's med school, DS, the senior, spent this past summer doing research with some of the md/phd's there and thoroughly enjoyed his stay and all the wonderful people he met. Not to be out-done he did research the summer before at duke's cancer center and met equally as wonderful people. Needless to say he has been happy here.</p>
<p>Friends and family thought we were nuts to up and move but so far it has been working out fantastically. No debt and we as a family can afford to do things we previously could not. I did not want to be house poor or college poor anymore.</p>
<p>As far as another poster mentioning the debt being that of a car, please realize that families such as ours have 1 car, 12 years old, with 250,000+ miles and have no plans of getting a new one anytime soon!! Not with our finances, nor with the kiddos goals of grad school and beyond.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I graduated about 19-20k in debt for my college loans, plus I still owe about 5k for my car. Needless to say, with my credit cards and whatnot, my credit rating is well over 700 which I think is very good for a 23 year old.</p>
<p>I owe about $85,000 right now in educational loans. I'm not done with law school.</p>
<p>You can cite policy failures in DC, but that's a little facile - can't blame the entire issue on Washington alone. </p>
<p>A big problem is the huge increases in college tuition - outpacing inflation by a large amount. My education will cost roughly $300,000 when I'm done. That's insane. Adjust for inflation - that's NOTHING like your generation.</p>
<p>I'm really starting to get very, very frustrated with the way that law schools are run. The ABA frowns upon spending more than three years to graduate from a full-time programme; however, is it so inconceivable that a kid might want to take a break, earn a bunch of money for a year, and reduce his debt? Is it inconceivable that the best way to go about law school might be to spread it over five years (not four, but five), at night, and work at the same time, so you can finance your tuition as you go through? But nooo.... they assume that everyone has generous, upper-class parents who foot the bill. Or they assume (incorrectly) that the $50,000/year that the average law graduate makes is enough to pay the $20,000/year in loans that someone would accrue from attending a private law school - do the math - because of taxes, you're better off earning $30k/year from undergrad, without the law school debt. </p>
<p>We're not rebelling yet - but don't expect us to pay for your retirement when we're paying off student loans and huge mortgages. Believe it or not, your generation just might wind up footing the bill -and in quite a painful manner.</p>
<p>I see many young adults on this site carefully considering their total debt load after school, and how it will effect their ability to buy a house, travel, choose jobs, but then I see others who are trying to borrow money for a private school education, and little idea of how they will pay it back.
Luckily Ds interest is science, which pays fairly well even with a BA, her cousin is earning $55,000 in his first job after graduating from a 3rd tier school last spring, she is expecting to intern while she decides whether to go on to grad school or not, but her loans are low enough that she should easily be able to pay them back in 5-6 years.
On the other hand she has several friends who graduated with an English/classics degree ( from other schools) and the only relevance their degree has to their job, is that they speak english while performing it!</p>