College loans. Are they worth it?

For me, students loans were worth it. I grew up borderline poverty, (5 siblings and less than 40k family income), so my parents didn't/couldn't cover a dime of my education. And although I was a good student in high school, my grades weren't high enough to warrant a scholarship (not to mention I'm a white male, which didn't help either). So...I had to take out student loans and graduated with almost $30k of student loan debt. It was worth it though, because I got a decent job out of college and was able to pay off the loans in less than 2 years (which was not easy -- I was definitely the "cheap guy" who nobody wanted to hang out with).

Without the student loans, there's now way I could have gone to college. And without college, my guess is that I would probably be working a dead-end retail job at very little pay, or worse, be unemployed. So yes, in my case, student loans were worth it.

Chase08 wrote:

I just ran across a story about a woman that had 200k in debt after getting her bachelors in sociology. I was just wondering is this normal? For you Grad students out there do you believe the indebtedness is worth it?(excluding medical students)I would appreciate the input. Thanks.

That is an INSANE amount to go into debt for a BS in Sociology.

You shouldn't go into debt anywhere NEAR that for college short of perhaps a physician or a lawyer, or some other profession that will net you BIG income in the not-too-distant future. A BS in Sociology though? No freakin' way. That is NOT normal, and NOT a good idea.

as stated already all depends on the degree:

in my opinion you shouldn't be above the number i have posted for each degree.

Teaching Degree - not more than 40,000 in debt.

Psychology Degree - not more than 1 dollar in debt

Law Degree - 120,000

Engineering Degree - 75,000

Sociology Degree - not more than a dollar

Business - 30,000

Accounting/Finance - 60,000

Those are just my guesses

Okay, if we are being serious, general rule of thumb I read from an expert is your debt shouldn't exceed your first year annual salary.

Obviously anyone can see that 200K for sociology degree is crazy unless you are a trust fund baby and parents will be repaying all or significant part of the debt.

not a runner anymore wrote:

And I have several friends who are doctors. Not kidding--they awaken at least by 6 p.m. and are still doing rounds and/or surgery sometimes past 10 p.m. Don't underestimate the power of LONG hours at these supposedly awesome careers (law, medicine) to ruin your health, life and happiness--at least until you escape, which some manage and others do not.

This depends on speciality for sure, but even with that it is VERY rare you'll see an attending working anywhere close to those hours. Interns may get a couple weeks a year with hours like that if they do surgery, but its not everyone. Sounds like you are equating residents to normal life of a doctor. I know family practice residents that go in at 8 every morning and leave by 6 everyday, never working over 60 hours and normally about 50. I know ER docs that do 3x12 hour shifts a week. I know Internal Medicine doctors that do 7x12 hours one week and have the whole next week off. Surgery would be closer to 60, which is a lot but far from what you are alluding to.

I did not have much debt in my 3 degrees (1 bachelors, 2 masters) thru jobs, assistantships, etc.

What gets me is the people (often women it seems) choose to go to some private college and rack up debt and major in something with very limited career options (women's studies?). Now before the economy crashed, they could find a decent job and have a shot at repaying, but you are rolling the dice. I sense that they feel entitled to have a job despite having a degree for which there is no career path outside of academia--and that requires a PhD.

After you get that first job, where you went to school drops in importance (other than maybe a contact made through school).