tskeeter
Junior Associate
Joined: Mar 20, 2011 19:37:45 GMT -5
Posts: 6,831
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Post by tskeeter on Jun 5, 2015 16:59:35 GMT -5
Don't know that your friend's degree was that expensive. It might have been the lifestyle she funded with student loans that was expensive. Could be like the article that I was reading earlier today about another teacher. Ran up $43K in student loans. Many years after graduation (like more than 20 years), and after years of payments, the loan balance is now $60K. Why after years of payments is the loan balance nearly 50% higher than the original loans? Might have something to do the the 12 years of deferrals this woman obtained because she was a single parent. So, if we look at the whole picture, she ran up over $40K of student loans in order to qualify for a job that, when she started, probably paid $12K a year. Then she deferred the loan payments for more than a decade. And apparently did not adjust her income or lifestyle to accomodate paying her debts. Now she fusses because her $500 a month student loan payments are so high that her can't afford to buy the new car she needs and that the age of her loans prevents them from being forgiven under programs available for more recent loans. So, how many poor financial decisions can you see here? Do you think she made any other poor financial decisions in her life? Since when does repeatedly making poor financial decisions make you a victim of student loan lenders and the university that provided your education? And why does the fact that you made a bunch of bad decisions mean that your loans should be forgiven? Yeah, Lesley University is very expensive, so I believe that's what my friend's degree cost her. They probably did not use her loans for any other purpose, she worked through it until she student taught at the end. But I know that article you describe is the experience many people have that leads them to have crippling student debt. Yes, most of them do seem to follow that similar theme, don't they.
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formerroomate99
Junior Associate
Joined: Sept 12, 2011 13:33:12 GMT -5
Posts: 7,381
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Post by formerroomate99 on Jun 7, 2015 19:33:15 GMT -5
I have to wonder what the interest rates were when the 'one year's salary' rule was set. The interest rate has a pretty huge affect on how much you can borrow and still pay back in a reasonable time frame.
The way things are going now, with college tuition exploding and college degrees being worth less, we're going to eventually reach the point where the only people who have a lot of help from their parents can graduate school in a timely manner without having crippling debt.
There are ways around it, to some extent. Community college is still a good value in most places. And you can take a class for free on one of those MOOCs and then test out of it using the CLEP test. And if you actually pay attention in high school, you can graduate with some college credits.
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cael
Junior Associate
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 9:12:36 GMT -5
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Post by cael on Jun 8, 2015 9:43:47 GMT -5
@tbird, it was in early education. That's great you get some tuition reimbursement from your work - if our union contract is signed soon I may be eligible for some too! Not that much, but even a grand per semester pays for half of one class. I've kind of decided it's ok for this to take a while for me, because the slower I go the more likely I am to be able to pay out of pocket for my classes. I was hoping 3 years total but if if takes me longer so be it.
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cael
Junior Associate
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 9:12:36 GMT -5
Posts: 5,745
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Post by cael on Jun 8, 2015 13:20:53 GMT -5
I don't think I've ever heard of costs being structured that way, that's pretty good. I couldn't quit work and do school FT but still, good incentive for people to go FT.
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Deleted
Joined: Sept 27, 2024 17:47:46 GMT -5
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2015 15:03:42 GMT -5
I don't think I've ever heard of costs being structured that way, that's pretty good. I couldn't quit work and do school FT but still, good incentive for people to go FT. That's how our universities are strutured too - cheaper per credit to go FT than PT. Rukh did not quit work to go do her PhD FT - she's a work-a-holic or masochistic or something. She works FT (including having to be on client schedules & travel) plus PhD FT plus taking on additional outside projects!!! She might be a machine
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t-dog
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 17, 2011 13:46:06 GMT -5
Posts: 2,016
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Post by t-dog on Jun 8, 2015 15:20:53 GMT -5
tskeeter - I am a native New Yorker (although I grew up in CA from age 5 on so learned to drive in CA) and I have lived in the snowy mid west as well.
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