US student loans

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Swedishchef

Swedishchef

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Jan 17, 2010
3,275
Inuvik, Northwest Territories
We are so excited, our daughter is graduating from a very good university with no debt, not too shabby!(free tuition)
 
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She must have had s.ome nice scholarships! That is also something that is different between Canada and the US. You guys have quite a few more scholarships..Canada doesn't even have real sports scholarships!
 
I got accepted to the top engineering school in the country. I would have graduated with over $100K in debt. Ended up going to a state school...got 150% of my tuition covered with academic scholarships and graduated with money in the bank. Probably made close to the same money a couple years after graduating.

I graduated 9 years ago and a lot of my friends are still paying on loans.
 
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Yeah high priced big name schools aren't necessarily required. Tell your kid to do like me and do two years at a community college and finish off at a state four year school. They could end up working as an unpaid moderator on a wood burner's forum.
 
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BrotherBart said:
Yeah high priced big name schools aren't necessarily required. Tell your kid to do like me and do two years at a community college and finish off at a state four year school. They could end up working as an unpaid moderator on a wood burner's forum.
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Poor Union? Or the Boss Man doesn't want to pay a living wage?;)

Gary
 
Unlike lukem, MIT rejected me ;)

Ended up at RPI instead, tuition was about 12k, add books and board it was pushing 18, this was the mid 90s Its probably well over 20k now and the ivy league might be 50 :(

Still have a couple years left on the loan, I paid it off on the long plan to use cash for other things like the house.
 
My daughter's tuition, books, and board was 54k last year, again we are very grateful for the free tuition!
 
jharkin said:
Unlike lukem, MIT rejected me ;)

Ended up at RPI instead, tuition was about 12k, add books and board it was pushing 18, this was the mid 90s Its probably well over 20k now and the ivy league might be 50 :(

Still have a couple years left on the loan, I paid it off on the long plan to use cash for other things like the house.
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I went to a decent University back in 1998. I only applied to one: the one in my hometown. I had good grades (all 90s) but wanted to save money. Tuition was $3750. Today it is $7000. In Canada, an average year of University will run you around $15000.

I have friends who thought their student loans were like bursaries: the day the deposits were made, the bars were FULL and people were buying laptops, clothing, etc. Then 6 months later, poof, it is gone. One person I know in particular changed programs after 3 years (so did 7 years total) and is now paying $800 a month for a total of 10 years to pay back his degree that landed him a job in translation at $18/hr. You can spend $5000 easily in seconds but it takes months if not years to pay back....

Andrew
 
Colgate.
 
Jack Straw said:
Colgate.
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My youngest niece graduated from Colgate about 10 years ago. The costs for the other two nieces (Dartmouth and Haverford) were about the same (over the top high). I tried to talk them into coming out to my stomping grounds ( University of Michigan) which is a great bargain for in-state students but, to be fair to them, is not a great bargain if you're out-of-state. In my day, students in the Detroit area could work the summer in one of the car factories or suppliers and make enough to pay tuition and keep body and soul together for the rest of the year. I know that says a lot about the fortunes of the domestic car companies as well as the steep increases in tuition at state universities. But, my point is that it used to be possible to leave school without a mountain of debt.

Now, here's a great bargain, still. My good buddy's daughter is finishing up at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She's living at home but I think she's only paying $2,000 per semester in tuition most of which she's able to make in the summer waiting tables. When she gets her first full-time job she won't have to think about how she's going to have to pay back those gigantic college loans.
 
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Swedishchef said:
I went to a decent University back in 1998. I only applied to one: the one in my hometown. I had good grades (all 90s) but wanted to save money. Tuition was $3750. Today it is $7000. In Canada, an average year of University will run you around $15000.

I have friends who thought their student loans were like bursaries: the day the deposits were made, the bars were FULL and people were buying laptops, clothing, etc. Then 6 months later, poof, it is gone. One person I know in particular changed programs after 3 years (so did 7 years total) and is now paying $800 a month for a total of 10 years to pay back his degree that landed him a job in translation at $18/hr. You can spend $5000 easily in seconds but it takes months if not years to pay back....

Andrew
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That's odd. My loans where disbursed directly to the bursars office, in ever personally held a dollar of it.
 
Small private liberal arts college in New Hampshire . . . loans, many grants and maxxed out the work study hours. It helped that while I thought my family was middle class -- it turns out we were lower, middle class so I qualified for many grants and student loans. As I said though . . . I also worked the maximum number of work study hours that I could get . . . which meant coming back early on some vacations, working weekends and evenings.

I am happy to say though I paid off the loans years and years ago . . . and never had to take or borrow a dollar from my parents for my education.
 
I think if you graduate from an Ivy League school, you're pretty much set for life. Just my opinion.
 
A wise CEO once told me college was over-rated when we were discussing regrets (i never finished, my mom was hit by a drunk driver and I quit college my sophmore year to take care of her)

He believed that in corporate america and other technical fields as well, "real world" experience is worth way more than a college degree. A college degree only proves you can sit in a lecture and pass a test.

I had to stop and think about it as many of my peers have degrees in everything BUT what they do for a living, truth to it I guess.

He then told me he was the CEO of a fortune 500 company and dropped out of college, he never finished either.

Just food for thought.....
 
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Hearth Mistress said:
A wise CEO once told me college was over-rated when we were discussing regrets (i never finished, my mom was hit by a drunk driver and I quit college my sophmore year to take care of her)

He believed that in corporate america and other technical fields as well, "real world" experience is worth way more than a college degree. A college degree only proves you can sit in a lecture and pass a test.

I had to stop and think about it as many of my peers have degrees in everything BUT what they do for a living, truth to it I guess.

He then told me he was the CEO of a fortune 500 company and dropped out of college, he never finished either.

Just food for thought.....
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You are right it is possible to do well without it but...It is hard to do. Even in today’s military even enlisted are expected to have a college degree to attain the higher ranks. I have never regretted finishing my degree and even said I would never attempt a masters but here I am about to finish that to. I will say that the financial help from the military helped tremendously through my journey. I could not imagine graduating with such high debt.
 
Hearth Mistress said:
A wise CEO once told me college was over-rated when we were discussing regrets (i never finished, my mom was hit by a drunk driver and I quit college my sophmore year to take care of her)

He believed that in corporate america and other technical fields as well, "real world" experience is worth way more than a college degree. A college degree only proves you can sit in a lecture and pass a test.

I had to stop and think about it as many of my peers have degrees in everything BUT what they do for a living, truth to it I guess.

He then told me he was the CEO of a fortune 500 company and dropped out of college, he never finished either.

Just food for thought.....
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I can totally appreciate and agree with your perspective. However as Arngnick stated, it isn't easy these days. It is not necessarily the content of the degree that is important as much as it is the "what you had to do in order to get the degree". Time management, team work, prioritizing, etc (depending on your field of work).

I paid my own way eventhough my father could have paid for me. His decision. My mother had passed away when I was 9 and I didn't see any insurance money, not even for post-secondary education. EIther way, big loans early in life stink!

Andrew
 
My own personal experience . . . at least around here and with family and friends . . . a college degree is often what gets your foot in the door or gets you noticed . . . which is why it seems as though I know many folks who are not working the field of study . . . after all . . . I should be a journalist and not a firefighter -- but what landed me this job in no small part was when the folks who hired me realized that a guy with a degree in journalism might be an asset when it comes to the whole public relations deal.

That said . . . a college degree is by no means the only way to be well off financially. A drive to succeed, a risk-taking attitude, etc. have helped many a person succeed financially in life . . . and the flip side of the coin is that there are many folks who are unemployed with college degrees. In the end . . . a large part of one's financial success comes down to the individual and not the paper.

As for Brand X or what have you . . . except in some certain cases and jobs . . . I suspect it is the degree that matters more than where it came from . . . unless it is from some unaccredited school in East Timbuktu that no one has heard of and the person is hoping to build jet engines, do surgery, etc.
 
Heard an interview with this guy that wrote a book about graduating debt free that made a lot of sense: http://www.amazon.com/The-Debt-Free-Graduate-Survive-College/dp/1564144720

The availability of loans drives UP the demand for college, so what do ya think that does to tuition? It's somewhat ironic that access to loans is what will bury a lot of new grads that choose expensive schools.
 
When I worked for a grocery chain in Texas I was at one of our stores one day. A young man working part time asked me if graduating from the local fairly unknown state college would hurt his chances of getting a job with the company after he graduated with an accounting degree. I told him he needed to ask the CEO, the Finance Director and the Accounting Manager who had all graduated from the same school.
 
Student loan debt is the current bubble, and it's larger than the real estate bubble was at peak. Actually it's larger than the Australian economy. No problem, right?
 
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