Question about student loan debt

[Orrex]

How much money, overall, do you think is tied up in student loans in America?

I have no idea whatsoever, but if my own case is any indicator, the aggregate sum must be somewhere around a gigazillion dollars.

Anyone have a more informed speculation?

[bryant69]

1. I believe there are regular GAO reports on the subject

Maybe you should do some research on them.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Orrex]

3. Ah, yes. The "Google is your friend" response

See, the thing about a response like that is that it overlooks the possibility that the original question was intented to spark a discussion, rather than to elicit a one-liner non-answer.

But thanks for your helpful suggestion regardless.

[Squatch]

5. Just ignore it and it will go away.

[bryant69]

8. If you are talking about me, I'm not going anywhere.

[Orrex]

10. Well, we can dream, can't we?

Now, where's that Ignore button?


Hmm...

[MLFerrell]

2. I owe Uncle Sam about $50k.

And I know that I'm not the only one.

Keep in mind that I attended only in-state schools for both my undergrad AND grad work.

I can't imagine how much debt I'd have if I had gone somewhere out of state...

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. I know folks who finish grad school with 60K to 200K plus

[jojo54]

4. My daughter's part is $25K.

Wells Fargo keeps jacking up the interest rate, and she's to the point where she can't afford the payments (now at $360/mth). So, she contacted a debt relief company, I checked them out to make sure they're legit and after paying interest only for 3 years, she's getting the balance knocked down to $14K.

Yeah, it'll be a knock on her credit for 8 months, but she's willing to take that risk rather than have the knock on her credit for another 7 years.

[Orrex]

7. When all is said and done

I will wind up with interest totalling more than 200% the original principal of the loans.

What most disgusts me is that student loans are every bit as predatory as credit cards, but the debt can't readily be discharged, and it's a rare hapless 18-year-old who puts $20,000 on a credit card in one transaction.

[newportdadde]

6. Enough to over inflate what college should actually cost.

[Orrex]

9. That's for damn sure

And it also creates a criminally false distortion of the actual value of a college education.

There should be a law requiring incoming freshman to be informed that certain degrees are flatly unlikely to be worth the dollar amount of the tuition required to earn them.

[HereSince1628]

11. It's gotta be big, I'd bet its reported in Chronicle of Higher Education

somewhere. They regularly do pieces on the cost of education.

[Orrex]

12. Hmm.

Do you suppose it's possible that it's the second biggest source of debt after home mortgages?

[HereSince1628]

13. I'd say it's probably the #1 debt in people under 30 years of age

As most students go to state schools many of which have less costs, students may only be in as deep as the price of a new Lexus.

[Igel]

14. Here's one estimate.

Good to third quarter 2003. $336 billion, but in includes principle and interest owed (not, I think, interest yet to become due ...).

Don't know what kinds of sutdent debt is involved--just federally guaranteed, or if there are state loans, or even private student loans. Also don't know how much is accrued interest (it may say, but I'm not going to look).

Most distressing is the increase of over $100 billion in just under 4 years.

Oops. Forgot link. I's a pdf. http://www.nasfaa.org/Annualpubs/Journal/Vol36N1/StudentBorrowinginAmerica.PDF

[Orrex]

15. Wow--that's horrifying. Thanks!

In the grand scheme, I guess my loans are just a drop in the bucket. But to hear them tell it, I'm single-handedly bankrupting the student loan industry.

Thanks for the link!

[sandnsea]

18. What about the sold defaults

Which are worth 3 times as much as the original loan by the time they add the collection fees to the interest.

[BonnieJW]

16. My kids took out student loans,

but my husband and I had to supplement with Parent Plus loans. These loans are up to 9% interest. Before we did this, we told our kids that we would take out these loans and pay on them until they got out of school and got good jobs; then the loans would be their to pay since we would have to really speed up saving for retirement. One daughter is doing fine and paying everything off. The other daughter hit a stumbling block and had to give the payments back to us. We have decided to get as much cash as we can and just pay it off rather than continue to pay the 9% interest. It's really putting a dent into our savings plan.

[undeterred]

19. Actually its a Brazillion.

That's a number so big nobody knows.

[Katherine Brengle]

22. lmao

I had almost forgotten that joke. An oldie but a goodie.

[MadHound]

20. Large enough that it is distorting the upcoming generations' work and buying habits

Numerous articles have been written about how fewer and fewer college grads are going into public service or other lower wage sectors simply because with all their debt they can't afford them. Numerous other articles about how college grads are putting off buying their first home for long periods of time due to the fact that they can't pay what is essentially two mortage payments.

It is utterly horrifying what higher education has become, a money making corporate machine all the way around. Many renowned departments are now merely becoming academic R&D arms of various corporations. College athletics is nothing but business, chewing up and spitting out people every single year. Meanwhile the price for tuition continues to skyrocket all out of proportion to the rate of inflation and the financial sector loves nothing better than this, now having a huge specialized area to hook people in while their young to receive their lifetime load of debt.

What the real kicker is now they are making people return back to college again and again for more and different education. Thought you had the bull by the horn back in the eighties when you got one of those cool early computer science degrees? Whoops, sorry, your job is now down in India, you need to go back to school. While you're in school getting that degree in graphic arts, well guess what, virtually every graphic arts job is now in India, better change your major and spend some more time in school. Oh, and if you want to become a teacher, you've got to go out and get more and higher education, quick now. A BS won't do, now it's mandated that you have a Masters, and even sometimes that won't do, especially if you're one of those teachers with a lifetime teaching certificate.

College has become, in many ways less about academia and more about being a money making racket. What's worse is that the product that they're turning out seems to be worse and worse every year.

[Katherine Brengle]

23. Took the words right out of my mouth.

College is becoming the biggest racket in world history. These places are no longer the hallowed halls of higher learning and purpose that they used to be. They're corporate training grounds and mechanisms to force millions of kids into debt that will take them years, if not decades, to pay off. Forcing them, in turn, to live the rest of their lives on credit in order to have a decent standard of living.

It's an apocalyptic scam.

[Katherine Brengle]

21. I really don't know, but I have about $8,000.00 outstanding at the moment, and from

what I gather anecdotally, that's a low-end amount of debt for a 4-year college student.

So it's bad.

I have one friend with over $70K, just for a BA.

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. 8K is very low. U are lucky.