Faces Of The Student Debt Crisis In America

[Cheese Sandwich]

[daleanime]

1. ......

how can anyone think that this is not a major problem?

[yeoman6987]

2. I feel for them

Some of those majors were not very employable. Actually almost every major was not very good except for the law but not sure what he is doing. I completely blame the high school guidance counselor a for saying it is ok to major in some of these majors like communications, fine arts, business and others. The schools need to do a better job at talking to students about majors. I think it might be a good idea to have college free but a panel picks what majors the students can take. That is the only way it will work and students have a job when done.

[Cheese Sandwich]

3. I hear a lot that the purpose of education should be to make money

I get that point but I'm torn on that because studying the humanities is also very important.

We need people to study Russian literature and medieval French poetry. Without experts to carry on these traditions a lot of valuable cultural knowledge will be lost.

The time was not long ago when any bachelors degree would give people a good shot at making it to the middle class. Even people with degrees in history and art were hired in companies on the basis of critical thinking skills and being able to write reports. Those days are gone.

But overall I think you are correct to point to guidance counselors, but I would extend it to blame the whole system that misleads people into thinking that an education will lead to a job.

[yeoman6987]

4. The whole education system in colleges need overhaul

Start with the incredible dorms with Quartz countertops and indoor swimming pools with top notch dining facilities. Go back to bunk ends and charge 200 dollars a semester for room and board instead of 8 grand a semester to sleep on goose covered comforters. Then revamp the curricula so that some of the humanities are taught to all students to keep them alive but not needed as a major unless the need comes back. There is a ton of things that need to be looked at to make college at least affordable.

[Cheese Sandwich]

6. The dorms I've seen had 4 per bedroom on bunks, overcrowded, roach infested, no air conditioning

Luxurious student services were not the major expense.

In my opinion the money is being wasted on salaries for top administrators and big contracts for politically connected construction companies and other contractors. They are constantly tearing down and replacing perfectly decent buildings.

I have a hunch money is also wasted when they privatize university services like parking and facilities management, which seems to be a major trend.

[yeoman6987]

8. I agree with you on all counts

There are some colleges that are bad with dorms but that is not the norm anymore.

[magical thyme]

11. law is employable? really?

http://abovethelaw.com/2015/05/we-would-be-better-off-if-30-law-schools-closed/
We Would Be Better Off If 30 Law Schools Closed
. M7 estimates that if the 30 law schools with the highest unemployment rates were excluded from the statistics, then the law school Class of 2014 would have an unemployment rate of 17% (way down from 29%). Moreover, the aggregate student loan burden would be reduced by an estimated $500 million (click to enlarge image):


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/business/dealbook/burdened-with-debt-law-school-graduates-struggle-in-job-market.html?_r=0
Burdened With Debt, Law School Graduates Struggle in Job Market

About 20 percent of law graduates from 2010 are working at jobs that do not require a law license, according to a new study, and only 40 percent are working in law firms, compared with 60 percent from the class a decade earlier. To pay the bills, the 2010 graduates have taken on a variety of jobs, some that do not require admission to the bar; others have struck out on their own with solo practices. Most of the graduates have substantial student debt.

Even as law school enrollment was peaking in 2010 — reaching 52,488, according to American Bar Association figures — those graduating were not receiving job offers from firms where they were interning. And offers to some students were rescinded.


http://abovethelaw.com/2015/05/we-would-be-better-off-if-30-law-schools-closed/
We Would Be Better Off If 30 Law Schools Closed
. M7 estimates that if the 30 law schools with the highest unemployment rates were excluded from the statistics, then the law school Class of 2014 would have an unemployment rate of 17% (way down from 29%). Moreover, the aggregate student loan burden would be reduced by an estimated $500 million (click to enlarge image):

[yeoman6987]

13. Better then sociology

At least you can draft wills as a lawyer for extra cash.

[magical thyme]

14. at least nobody suckers sociology students into 6-figure student loans with promises of 7-figure

incomes.

My point being that it doesn't matter what you go to school for now, except maybe car mechanic (which seems should be good employment since fewer and fewer people can afford to replace older and frailer cars), the prospects are not good.

See my post below about allied health care and the lying lies that are told by government statistics, state universities, and HR personnel.

[midnight]

5. kick.

[JDPriestly]

7. The Bankruptcy Revision of I believe 2005 made it even harder to discharge

student debt.

Here's what student debt can mean.

Delaying marriage.

Maybe not marrying at all.

Not being able to qualify to buy a house.

Not being able to do for your children what they need f you have them. (Maybe an abortion if you just can't see how you can take care of a child on your wages with that student loan payment and rent to pay every month, especially because you'd really like to be able to live without a roommate even if you just have a one-room apartment.)

And then there is the risk that you take at such a young age.

You start college at maybe 18. I was barely 17. You know what you like, but you don't know much about the world. Or the job market. Or what the job you think you want will take. Not so much in terms of academic ability or work but in terms of personality.

So you graduate. You have a good resume. Your grades are good, and you look for a job. But the job market in your field is lousy. Or you are a woman and they aren't looking for a woman. Or you are Black or Hispanic and --- well they aren't looking for you either. They know just what they want and they can find it.

Or you get a job. It pays lousy and doesn't require your knowledge or your skills and again the pay doesn't really justify the amount of money you borrowed to get your degree (assuming you finished).

Oh, and that is the worst of all, whether you finish school or not, you still owe your student loans. And the jobs you can get without a degree may pay less than what you could have gotten with one. Not everyone finishes school, and it isn't always bad students or lazy kids who can't finish. Death of a parent, an accident, an illness, just being confused and young, a marriage, a child, -- and then you have an even harder time paying back -- THAT LOAN.

And so your life the part of your life that is supposed to be full of hope and hard work and progress and building for the future and children and a house -- it's really tough because there are those student loans. Your credit rating is shot. And you need a graduate degree so you sign up for more loans.

And that is the way many, many of our brightest and best are starting their lives these days.

Oh, well. There is always the military -- assuming you survive without a serious injury or PTSD.

What it's like to be poor and young in the 21st century.

Bernie Sanders wants every qualified student to be able to go to a state college without chalking up all that student loan debt. Society, our country, should invest in our best and brightest and send them on their way without all that debt. We can do that. A small tax on stock market and other exchange trades, and we can do that.

[Cheese Sandwich]

9. Very well said

Thank you JDPriestly, very well said.

I wonder what is each of the Democratic candidates position on this issue of restoring regular bankruptcy protections to student loans.

I hope the question comes up at some point.

[JDPriestly]

10. The government loans never could be discharged but at least a lot if

not all of the private ones could be. Now none of them or at least in most cases none of them can be discharged in bankruptcy. You can get extensions, maybe even put them on some sort of hiatus, but it is difficult to qualify for that. And you pay back your loans out of your Social Security if you haven't paid them back by the time you retire.

Education at least at a state school or city or state two-year or technical training school should be viewed as valuable to society as a whole and not just some sort of purchase, even more binding than a credit card charge, for the rest of your life until you have paid it off.

[magical thyme]

12. in 07-08 I went back to school to get a degree in Med Lab Tech

Before I made the commitment I did some research:
Government statistics said 14% annual growth for the long term.
The State University claimed 100% employment for its program graduates.
The head of the biochem dept. said she was contacted by Mass General, who asked her to increase the slots of MLTs because they preferred them.
My nearest hospital HR rep inflated the starting salary to me and, separately, a co-worker by 25%.

I estimated my what my loan payments would be, and rounded up. My estimate was dead-on. I expected that 3 days/week would support me. A 4th day/week would pay the loan with some left over. I worked my ass off and graduated summa cum laude.

At our graduation "celebration," half the class couldn't even get interviews after applying all over the US. For those of us who did get offers, they were strictly part time/per diem (2 days or rather nights/week) for all except 1 full time offer. One student got a summer job as a phlebotomist (half the pay of an MLT, with minimal training requirements).

I was one of the lucky ones who got an offer. At 75% of what I'd been led to believe.

The head of the program told us to "hang in there" because the numbers in 5 years would be "great." Of course, if you don't use the degree for 5 years, forget it.

I feel the pain of those students every day. Literally. When my first loan payments came due, I knew I was done. I came very close to checking out -- literally was lining up homes for my pets -- until somebody from another board linked me to the income-based repayment program. The way things stand now, the loans will grow until I'm 83 and then be forgiven. Unless I am disabled, I will owe taxes on the loans that will be beyond enormous.

Assuming that no future administration undoes the income based program, if I live to see that day, that is when I will likely check out.

In the meantime, that program keeps me afloat, and that is all. I feel their pain, along with a heaping dose of anger and bitterness, every day.

[Cheese Sandwich]

15. This kind of story is extremely common.

This is the biggest type of story out there. Hey I did everything right, everything by the rules, and still got hurt. The job market can change a lot over the course of 4 or 5 or 6 years that it takes people to finish a degree. So if somebody thought the job market was great for graphic design for example, they can graduate a few years later with a lot of debt and the jobs just aren't there in the same numbers that they used to be.

And thanks for sharing.

Yes the IBR is helping a lot of people. If it wasn't for that I would be totally screwed. Of course it only works for federal loans so if somebody has a loan from a private bank, not under a federal program, IBR does't help.

Your story also shows the ridiculous situation of millions of people who are on IBR watching their loan balances grow to huge amounts because the interest keeps capitalizing. It's just crazy. And being taxed on that loan forgiveness amount is the height of cruelty. It can stick a tax bill of 10's of thousands of dollars on someone that is below poverty.

There just has to be debt relief.