Grad Student Secretly Lived in a Van to Escape Loan Debt

[Iggy aka IG]

Interesting.  Would you?  Could you?

School Loan Escape

[Deleted]

I came out of grad school with about 40k in loans. I am ok with that and prefer it to having to live the way he did. But I am a fan of my creature comforts. I also was lucky to come out of undergrad debt free except for some credit cards...

[Tennesseer]

Good for the young man. Very industrial and creative.

Iggy-minor suggestion. You might want to think about replacing the word 'escape' in the thread title to 'avoid'. I thought the thread was about some kid who was living in a van to avoid having a permanent address where the government could go after him for unpaid student loans.

[midjd]

All I can think of is that Chris Farley sketch...

I do think this guy should be commended, though. It could have just as easily been a sob story about an unemployed English/History major who had $35K in loans and was bitching that he'd never earn enough to pay them back. This guy definitely made lemonade from lemons.

It would be kind of fun for a week or two, if you're into camping, but not having a bathroom/shower (except at the gym) would get old pretty quickly. I'm not sure I could do it for two years. (Actually, I'm sure I couldn't do it for two years. )

[Gardening Grandma]

I was impressed.   I liked his attitude about not going to his parents for a handout.

[Deleted]

Wow great story. If I were hiring he would be the type that I would want to employ.

[Iggy aka IG]

Jun 11, 2013 17:46:50 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Good for the young man. Very industrial and creative.

Iggy-minor suggestion. You might want to think about replacing the word 'escape' in the thread title to 'avoid'. I thought the thread was about some kid who was living in a van to avoid having a permanent address where the government could go after him for unpaid student loans.

I thought the same thing, however, the original article uses the word 'escape' therefore I did as well.

[cktc]

You know I want to be impressed, but then I keep coming back to the fact that you can rent a room for <$300 and there are a lot of other ways that people get by without student loans. School can be time consuming, but so many people manage in other ways. To assume this was his best option just doesn't ring true. Seems more about making headlines which I guess since he wants to write is on point, but for most people some stable work history will get them further.

[busymom]

Living in a van wouldn't be any worse than some of the cheap apartments around here.  (About the same amount of room, too.) 

[mmhmm]

Sounds like an interesting guy.  He managed to make it through, and had enough material for a book when he had completed his mission.  Not bad, I'd say.