The current value of my childhood home is probably less than amount of money I have borrowed in student loans. The fact that I am $100,000 in debt is so humiliating that I almost did not write this, and I feel like the size of my debt spiraled out of control before I realized how dramatic it was. Originally I chose to come to Tulane University because it was far from home, prestigious enough, and offered me a better financial aid package than my first choice (though not quite as good as my local state school, UNLV, which would have basically paid me to go there.) Freshman year went as planned, and between my scholarship, Stafford loan, and savings, my parents and I paid everything without trouble. Then the university raised tuition, and my mother took out a Sallie Mae Parent PLUS loan to help me pay it.
We have needed to take out alternative loans every year since. My junior year I studied abroad at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, which is an experience I wouldn't have traded for anything, but is also what really got me into trouble. I was still paying Tulane tuition (which had been raised again, of course) and had the high cost of living in the U.K. on top of that. The ironic thing is that if I had paid what regular international students pay for tuition at Durham, it would have been cheaper than my Tulane tuition. Now for my senior year, the cost of attending Tulane has increased by $10,000, to $50,000 a year. Has my scholarship increased accordingly? Nope. My parents also split up the summer before I went abroad, and I no longer receive financial support from my father. The only increase I received in financial aid was a Perkins loan -- yes, another loan, just what I needed.
People ask me why I didn't just transfer to a cheaper school, why I studied abroad, and why I have taken on this massive debt to stay at a school that I have come to hate because of the apathetic administrative bureaucracy, particularly the financial aid office. I have met professors and friends at Tulane and Durham who changed my life and they are worth it. I also didn't want to suffer the shame of facing all my friends at home after being so proud that I was going someplace better than UNLV, and I didn't want to have given Tulane all that money and then not end up with a Tulane diploma. I'm not stupid, but I'm still not sure what I've gotten myself into and all those zeros are overwhelming. Hopefully if my mom keeps working her second job and I keep driving my jalopy Toyota around for the rest of my life, we can pay it off before I'm 80.
Sec. Arne Duncan: Move Our Money From Banks to Students
The system is broken I think. You shouldn't have to go into debt for the rest of your life to be able to go to the college of your choice.
Anyway, it's the real world now...mom shouldn't be paying off YOUR debts. It's time to step up and let her have her own life for a change!
I feel badly for Sara. Sure, she made some expensive choices - but no one who hasn't purposefully killed or maimed another person should have to spend the entire rest of her life paying for a few miscalculations she made as a teenager. That's just crazy.
Especially in this economy, students should be able to discard their debt in bankruptcy, just like anyone else. Then she would have to suffer for a decade, but not 'till she's ready to retire, for not being able to see into the future when there would be no decent-paying jobs for college graduates who worked hard and did what they used to tell us we were supposed to do.
I am up in the air between the highest ranked school I have been admitted to so far (#19USC) or a lower ranked school that has offered me pretty much a full ride (#30 Alabama).
I definitely think that you took a calculated risk...one I might be willing to take for law school but that I definitely was willing to take for undergrad. Good Luck!
I'm glad I read about your experience, I have been admitted to Tulane Law with a scholarship but it's not a full ride and it's not ranked high enough to chance an increase of 30 grand over my three years.
I borrowed so I wouldn't have to work while earning my bachelor's. I graduated from a state university in 1995. I'm down to about $5,000, and it's the money I ever borrowed. I then paid for my master's degree out of my own pocket, one night class at a time.
Many have blamed Ms. Tobin for making a poor value judgment. Today, for those who plan or want to achieve opportunities beyond what a high school or trade school education portends, that judgment is tougher. Unfortunately, education is no longer priced on the fundamentals, but by the mass of demand, features similar to economic bubbles.
As demand isn't likely to abate, there needs to be something done to recognize that the underlying fundamentals of education attained by graduates do not justify the prices. The only thing driving the price of college tuition is the need by each and every buyer of education (i.e. a degree) to out do just enough of the other buyers to sufficiently stand out in the job market.
Quality has not increased, but surging demand has given the academic industry ample room to profit handsomely. The socially promoted perception that a degree is training for a job, or that a person without a degree is less qualified for a job than one without, has positioned colleges and universities to extort billions of dollars from the American public.
Perhaps after health care, we can address the unique economic niche which higher education occupies and how it has abused that position.
-RLee
http://therleepost.blogspot.com
The UC head also said during a New York Times interview that the "shine is off" education and adds that his inflated salary doesn't compare to President Barack Obama's because he doesn't get the same perks:
"Will you throw in Air Force One and the White House?"
- Mark Yudof
source :
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Mark-Yudofs-Case-Against-Himself-62673782.html
http://cloudminder.blogspot.com/
--some folks aren't hurting at all...
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You say you're $100,000 in debt, but also that your poor mom is working a second job to pay it off.
Also, if that's how you envision your future--your mom working a second job and you driving a jalopy until you're 80--then what good was that "prestigious" degree? Wasn't part of the purpose of it to get a job with decent pay? Aren't you intending to pay off your student loans with income from the high-paying job this degree was going to make possible?