I guess you're right, but you do understand that almost everyone thinks that getting a college education is the only way to get a well-paying job? And that increasingly a graduate education is required for a high-paying job? And many people (accurately) view a college education as the one route to the middle class?
Rich kids can take gap years and "find themselves" - everyone else is worried about being left behind. It puts teenagers in a difficult position.
Someone Who Went to College wrote:
I guess you're right, but you do understand that almost everyone thinks that getting a college education is the only way to get a well-paying job? And that increasingly a graduate education is required for a high-paying job? And many people (accurately) view a college education as the one route to the middle class?
Rich kids can take gap years and "find themselves" - everyone else is worried about being left behind. It puts teenagers in a difficult position.
Your post (which I assume represents your thinking) is exactly why people should not go to college immediately after high school.
Bachelors degrees and graduate degrees are not that limiting or important. All employers want is the right mix of related work experience and technical knowledge of the occupation. You should/would know this if you have been out in the "real world" long enough. It's even stated on most job advertisements that I see.
I did not say "find themselves". I said work and figure out what they want to go to college for or if they even still feel the need to go. You don't have to be rich to do that. I don't even know why being rich would have anything to do with that since you'd have a job. So maybe you can explain that one to me?
And what is this difficult situation that teenagers are put in? What does left behind mean? If anything, they'd be ahead of all their college friends financially and experience wise. And even if not, it's just a year.
As much as I wish my 18 yr old self had made some better decisions regarding college, (oh to have taken up my mother's offer to live at home for free and worked for a year or two) ultimately, the decisions have been made. I picked the college, I saw the financial aid package, I signed the dotted line.
I didn't do particularly well in college; I'll do fine, but the big banks and companies aren't exciting flooding my inbox with offers. I have more debt than I would prefer (likely just over what my entire first year salary will be). I think some of the lending practices standard in the student loan industry are damn near criminal.
But again, at the end of the day, I signed the dotted line. It's MY debt, and I'm going to pay it back. I was going to write "every penny" but after 10 years of interest payments, it'll probably be more like "two of every penny."
I wish I didn't have the debt, but I do. Now is the time to roll up my sleeves and pay it off.
I'll offer some unsolicited advice for anyone to which it applies: if you can, stay in your parent's house and work for two years. Tell them you want to save some money for college and ask what they expect out of you in terms of rent. Take one community college course a semester to keep yourself acquainted with "school mode." Take broadly applicable classes- you might not be a math major, but Calc I and II are useful in a lot of fields. You might not want to get your CPA, but an accounting course that helps you manage your money is not merely limited to finance majors. Maybe you want to teach History, but you probably wouldn't regret taking a very basic Comp Sci course. . . you get the picture.
If and when you decide to pursue a bachelor's degree, you'll be far more prepared than you were when you graduated high school. If this advice hits you too late, hey, I screwed up a lot too. I'm perfectly willing to accept that, and accept that I'll be working very hard the next few years to make up for the mistakes I've made.
"Work for a year" - where? The options for an 18-year-old are Jamba Juice or Afghanistan. Or I guess you can be the one in a few billion who starts Microsoft. I don't think I've ever put my pre-college jobs on a professional resume, and I had a ton of terrible pre-college jobs. So for many teenagers, it's either work minimum wage, join the armed forces, or take out student loans. Not to mention that once you're in college, many employers ask you to be an unpaid intern in the summers and before they hire you after you graduate. Plus tuition goes up every year, the job market is challenging almost everywhere, and you can't even declare bankruptcy to get out of student loan debt. It's not easy sledding.
I've seen this a lot on facebook about people who want their student loan debt "forgiven". I've had a few fiery discussions with actual human beings about this also. I just cant fathom the idea that people think this is a viable way to stimulate the economy. In reality it strikes me as incredibly selfish. Most people who have a college education are already set up to make generally high incomes. The only reason they want these debts forgiven is because they want all that disposable income NOW. I'm genuinely ashamed to be part of this "want it now" generation. Yes it's going to be difficult in your first years directly after college but things will get better if you actually work hard. WORK HARD like my father and grandfather did to give me a chance to get a college education things will be fine in a few years. (I worked my way through college paying my own way but my family is the reason I went in the first place) Your life and your happiness is not determined by the economy or the job market or the stock market. YOU are the single largest factor in how successful you will be. Take control, you're not at the mercy of anything but yourself. /rant
I might do that. But I'm assuming you voted for a major party candidate (since everybody but about 4% of voters did). And if you voted for a major party candidate than you support the very thing you say you are against. So it is hard to take you seriously.
Recent Grad wrote:
Student debt is crippling our young people and will be the next big financial crisis. We need to put an end to this so that we can save our economy and help our young people become productive members of society. Sign the petition linked below if you want to help!
http://signon.org/sign/support-the-student-loan.fb5?source=s.fb&r_by=4313961
I do have a problem with this, as these individuals entered into a contract.
At the same time, I don't have a huge problem with it as the money that was loaned to these individuals for their education was created out of nothing, and not actually coming from another source, by reserves created by the Federal Reserve with a few keystrokes. If it came from nothing, is it really a problem if it is forgiven?
why is a getting a job an expectation? why do you expect there to be someone else ready and willing to invest in your ability? why do you expect society and government to do that for you?
if you're smart enough to go to college, then you're smart enough to make your own way. place that bet on yourself. stop waiting for someone else. and puleeze stop whining.
College costs do have to come down. Most kids never take part in athletics so why do are they paying for a $1.5 million coach's salary or why do they have to pay for some big band to come during their Spring Fling weekend? So many schools have weight rooms on campus better than Gold's Gym and they always seem to have all you can eat ice cream bars with dinner or susi on Tuesdays. This might be an exaggeration but you get my drift. When are people going to be smarter about their choices? If you can afford all those fills, thats great, but why are people going to these schools for 50-60k a year and taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans?
That being said, if you made the choice, you need to pay it back.
Hmmm , does not make sense , know that you are going into debt and ask that it not be paid because of a poor economy. One has nothing to do with the other.
The debt you built does not prevent you from working nor hinder the economy.
As anyone that has debt you are accountable for your actions.
Fighting for lower loan rates etc , makes sense yes.
To say that you should have a student loan debt relieved makes you high risk for any type of loan wether it be home or car.
So you borrowed a boat load of money and actually paid MORE to attend a for-profit "university" and now you can't find a job? That's life lesson #1.
Debt can't just disappear. Who gets screwed? The loaners? Going to college is a risk. You're risking that you'll make more than enough to make back the money you spent going to college. If you don't, thats unfortunate but its no ones fault but your own.
you don't get it wrote:
I <3 Tacos wrote:F-OFF freeloader.
The petition wouldn't make someone else pay for the debt. It would absolve it. There's a difference. You aren't going to be left with the bill.
The problem is that we have kids who have no business going to college, going to college.
gc wrote:
I tracked down all the links. Basically, ex-students would have to pay 10% of income over 150% of the poverty level ($16,500 in 2011) for 10 years to be forgiven all outstanding student loans. I would not be in favor of that.
I'd really prefer to see someone turn up the heat on universities to reduce the cost of education.... that's really where the problem lies. There are lots of ways to reduce education costs, but universities have been raising the cost of tuition faster than the inflation rate for at least the past 20 years. Why do universities never get mentioned for RAISING THE COST of tuition in the first place?
Someone Who Went to College wrote:
"Work for a year" - where? The options for an 18-year-old are Jamba Juice or Afghanistan.
First off, that isn't true, but second of all, what's wrong with Jamba Juice? Even if a kid only saves up enough for one semester at a state school, hey, that's 1/8 of a loan not needed. Sure, college costs are increasing- but the rush-rush-rush to get a degree-any degree-at all costs-ASAP- is exactly what I think is wrong with the system.
You make an excellent point about student loans, though- and I agree, dangerous sledding ahead indeed.
Someone Who Went to College wrote:
"Work for a year" - where? The options for an 18-year-old are Jamba Juice or Afghanistan. Or I guess you can be the one in a few billion who starts Microsoft. I don't think I've ever put my pre-college jobs on a professional resume, and I had a ton of terrible pre-college jobs. So for many teenagers, it's either work minimum wage, join the armed forces, or take out student loans. Not to mention that once you're in college, many employers ask you to be an unpaid intern in the summers and before they hire you after you graduate. Plus tuition goes up every year, the job market is challenging almost everywhere, and you can't even declare bankruptcy to get out of student loan debt. It's not easy sledding.
Yes. Work at jamba juice. Be a waiter. Or cut grass. Or babysit. Or work at the hospital. Or construction. There is plenty of work our there and lots of it is NOT minimum wage. What's wrong with minimum wage for an 18 yr old? I don't see your point with that comment?
meh... the loaners are the big banks. The Fed can just print and forgive everybody of their debt, and the branch banks will never "truly" take a hit. And yes, even mortgages.
It will hurt for a while, but the longer we kick the can down the road, the more pain is inflicted.
I worked during college and got a job after college and paid my loans back...
I have a young teacher at my school who thinks like you -someone should pay for her loans...yet she went to Florida over spring break, goes out to eat all of the time, talks about her partying over the weekend, goes to movies almost every week and concerts...yea....I think someone need to pay off her loans...NOT!!
I will try and be polite. Most of you have to be smarter than this.
Students need to stop thinking that they need to get a college degree in order to make money!
So many students go to college without any idea about what the actual purpose is and don't have any goals in life. Then, they graduate and don't get hired and have a huge amount of debt. They will not get ahead. People don't hire people because they have a degree either. There may be jobs that pay more money to people with degrees, but those people have a harder time getting ahead with all the debt.
A degree doesn't guarantee that you will make more money anyway because so many people have them. Think of it this way: instead of going to college, a young person gets an office job, starting in the mailroom, and networks like a fiend ("it's not what you know, it's who you know") and gets a mentor and learns as much *specific* knowledge of an industry. By the time this person is 24, they have no debt and have been making money for 5-6 years. They go for an interview for a nice position. They were recommended by from someone in the industry in addition to having 5-6 years specific experience. Other candidates for the job are college graduates without experience, and have a bunch of debt and sense of entitlement. Who would you hire?
(By the way, I've been reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It's a classic!)
There's nothing "wrong" with working at Jamba Juice when you're 18, I'm sure lots of us had jobs like that. But when you're 18 or 28, going to college is a helluva lot more appealing than working at the mall for minimum wage. People that say otherwise have never worked minimum wage.
The way our culture is set up, college is the ticket to the middle class, and college is incredibly expensive. Hence the loans. Having the government just stroke a check and cover everyone's loans isn't the answer, and schools will never, ever, cut their prices because they don't want to be perceived as the "cheap" school and draw less competitive students. But there should be ways for the government to help people with crushing student loan debt - for example if you work in public service for ten years and pay a certain percentage of your salary every month, your debt is forgiven.