UPDATED: Share Your Story -- Majoring In Debt

*UPDATED*

As of March 10, more than 100 readers have added their stories and photos to our College Debt Project.

Here are some:

Jennifer Dessinger, who is $177,250 in debt.
James Ryan Moreau, who is $120,000 in debt.
Maureen Evans Arthurs, who is $26,000 in debt.
Scott Adams, who is $55,000 in debt.

Add your story.

It used to be that many college students finished school with little or no debt. But according to an ongoing project by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, recent college graduates carry an average debt burden of $23,200.

And as college becomes less and less affordable, that figure continues to rise. The number of student loan accounts in the U.S., said Equifax, which compiles credit data, has peaked at 69 million -- a 29 percent increase from two years ago. In total, students have borrowed $527 billion to go to school.

Students and recent graduates are also saddled with a weighty Catch-22 -- an economic climate that makes it that much more difficult to find work that can pay off loans. So after investing thousands of dollars in their educations, many students are left with massive debt and not much else. HuffPost College found students -- current, graduate, and otherwise -- from around the country who are grappling with their debt. Here are their stories.

How much are you in debt from the cost your education? Are lenders chasing after you or raising your interest rates? Did you benefit from financial aid?

What's Your Student Debt Story?

 

Take a photo like the ones below, click the PARTICIPATE button. Use your name, age and college as a title, and tell us your story. Finally, upload your picture, and tell us where you're from.

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Jason Watson, 23, Law Student, University of South Carolina

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I will owe more than $150,000 by the time I graduate law school. The debt feels crushing to say the least and it leaves me wondering whether the benefit of a legal education will be worth its cost. I'm not sure how I will be able to provide for my wife and son while coping with debt I've amassed in six short years.

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I will owe more than $150,000 by the time I graduate law school. The debt feels crushing to say the least and it leaves me wondering whether the benefit of a legal education will be worth its cost. I'm not sure how I will be able to provide for my wife and son while coping with debt I've amassed in six short years.

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Comments

[untocaesar]

11:45 PM on 04/20/2010

i got a degree in Classics. I had the opportunity to study in a foreign country and took it. Even though my student loans skyrocketed to around 50K. After I graduated i got a job teaching a realized that there was no possible way to pay my monthly loans back and live. What with rent, car payments. clothing feeding myself etc. I am by no means extravagant.

So what did I do? I took a job doing ESL in Asia. And stopped paying my loans. After a few years they gave up. The funny thing is I have met many many people who are doing this now. I feel absolutely no guilt about it.

[jeanneyogini]

08:56 AM on 04/18/2010

Too bad our country spends billions of the military instead of educating its youth.

[chuck prebys]

06:46 PM on 04/14/2010

Got debt?

Join the military.
They believe in higher education.

You could earn a PhD while in the service and not pay a single penny.

[LiberalGod]

10:37 PM on 04/14/2010

dont want to bcome a serial killer to pay off my loans

[Modular-Libertarian]

06:20 PM on 04/19/2010

Join the navy.... they'll make you a cook.... you'll never get shot at and you'll never have to shoot at anyone.

[Senseid]

07:30 AM on 04/16/2010

Didn't your mother ever tell you there's no free lunch?

If you don't "pay" with your life, then perhaps with a lifetime of debilitating injuries or deep psychological problems for a useless war.

[clevernamehere]

02:46 AM on 04/13/2010

The whole college loan racket is starting to seem very exploitative to me.

It is one thing to go into debt for a professional degree like law, medicine or even education. Those are fields where you have some ability to gauge what your degree will earn you.

But 18 (even 17) year old kids are being offered huge loans for education when they don't even know what they will major in. Too often their parents don't have the financial understanding to tell them what taking on a big loan even means. And on top of that, education costs have skyrocketed by around a third in the last 10 years.

I was lucky enough to graduate without significant debt (my small loans was paid off within a few years of graduating), but I was 17 when I started college. How were these companies allowed to offer me huge loans when I wasn't old enough to vote, never mind drink?

[kooosh]

01:33 AM on 04/13/2010

I feel badly for all college students/grads that are drowning in debt. That said, to these people who have over $100k in debt: nobody said you said to go to a private or out of state school. I have less sympathy for their plight.

[eighthchord]

09:44 AM on 04/13/2010

I'm assuming you're referring to undergraduates and not those who will graduate with a professional degree.

[A Guy In Texas]

05:32 PM on 04/12/2010

Boy I guess the phrase "live within your means" has left the curriculum. Most of these people look to be budding politicians the way they just spend money, hoping in the end it will make them more money.

[shastaman]

01:34 PM on 04/12/2010

y kid graduated 2 years ago and has been living at home. her degree is a BS in chemistry. unemployed, she has spent the past two years lookiing for resume building work with some fantasy nonprofit.
Her debt is about 25000, yet she "DOESN'T WANT TO" get a job at the local research university or any other lab intensive opportunities which are easily available!

"I DONT WANT TO " chaps my butt!

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT

[frankdavis]

11:26 AM on 04/13/2010

Just curious...why do you let her live at home with that attitude? I'm sure she's a nice person and you love her, but really...aren't you enabling her "I don't want to" attitude? Like I said, I'm just curious. My friends parents would NEVER let there kids move back after graduation without more of a "plan".

[AJ42]

11:12 AM on 04/12/2010

Even "public" universities are profit driven businesses. They churn out degrees and debt obligations with little regard for actually educating people. Student loans are a barrier to socio-economic mobility. It's not what you earn, it's what you keep. The corporate class can take the cream of the crop (full scholarships) and maintain the allusion of the American dream while ensuring that they still own you. Student loans are a bankruptcy proof debt vehicle, which is (imo) the real reason that tuition keeps increasing in this economic climate.

[kingstupka]

12:40 AM on 04/12/2010

So much of the problem is the idiotic parents who have coddled some of these kids to the point of paralysis. They are way to special to eat ramen noodles for dinner!

[AJ42]

11:16 AM on 04/12/2010

Though I agree with your sentiment, the last things that our health care system and economy need are more people eating ramen noodles.

[farmilyman]

09:37 PM on 04/11/2010

Possible solutions:

- The first mandatory class in college should be about personal finance.
- Go for a degree that pays
- Work for a few years prior to going to college
- Work while in college
- Go to community college for the first couple years
- Go in to the military first
- Take up a trade
- Don't go to an expensive college

[scranton301]

05:14 PM on 04/11/2010

For Gods sake, if you going to go into debt over 20,000 at least get a degree that is worth having. I am sorry but most of these liberal arts degrees and $5.00 won't buy you a cup of coffee. What worries me is that somebody is going to try to forgive these school loans and we are going to eat it. People need to use common sense when borrowing money to go to college.

[WilliamL]

08:30 AM on 04/08/2010

NO sympathies for this bunch.

None.

[Slapmewhenitsover]

03:05 AM on 04/05/2010

I went to school full time, worked a full time job and paid as I went. This is not to say that people are lazy, but I think their expectations are too high.
I also taught at three universities and found that work ethics are extremely low across the board, unless going to a major university where the tuition is usually higher. In these cases, the debt, or at least some of it is understandable.
My son went to medical school at a major university, foregoing one that offered him free tuition if he stayed there for 10 years after finishing. That decision cost him $250,000. Fortunately, he will be able to pay that back because of the profession he entered.
Many of these students are assuming debt burdens far beyond the scope of reality since they will not immediately earn high salaries. Thus, the true problem is unrealistic expectations upon graduation. It is better to tough it out than to expect an easy ride to the end. It just never happens that way.
One final comment: the fact that so many student athletes get free rides and never graduate is absurd in light of the debt these people incur.

[tired of it all]

07:13 PM on 04/04/2010

I think the problem goes deeper than borrowing for college. When I was in college, many of us struggled to pay tuition, books, and living expenses. Today I see local state college kids eating in nice restaurants and having drinks at the bar. We never spent money like that. Kids today don't have a clue about living frugally or bother to educate themselves about how much that dinner really will cost them. Take that $20. dinner and $15 dollars worth of drinks and add the interest they will pay if they are living on student loans, and that little night out really costs in the neighborhood of $166.64 over a 30 year period with the interest being $121.64. And that's only for one evening. Many college kids go out with their friends every week. I am not making up these numbers, you can run the amount on a financial calculator online and see for yourself. Eat at the dorms like we did or cook for yourselves and learn how money really works. The victim mentality doesn't get you anywhere. I know college is expensive, but it can be a lot less expensive if one uses some common sense.

[Andman0121]

09:01 PM on 04/08/2010

Well said

[joybe2006]

04:04 PM on 04/01/2010

i have no sympathy for people with law or medical degrees, they won't struggle nearly as much as those of us who got liberal art degrees! i graduate in 2006 with a degree in international affairs for the past three years been at a job in which i make less than 30,000/yr pre-taxes, i went back for an accounting certificate adding to my debt haven't been able to get a job related to that and now i don't how I'll even make all the payments on my currently salary, this is why people feel like they were better off popping out some kids and getting on welfare you'll get more money that way

[shastaman]

01:41 PM on 04/12/2010

That's B S about popping out kids. You made a mistake, or your personality ( given your crude statement ) affects your emploability