Reply #57: Mainly what I was thinking about with that statement

[MadHound]

Is that perhaps rather than going after an advanced degree right after achieving a bachelors, people should take some time out, work some, put that brand new spanking piece of parchment to use and start saving some money before they go plunging into a master, or doctorate, and incur much more debt.

In fact it used to be fairly common that one got a bachelors in your early twenties, masters in your early-mid thirties, and a doctorate in your early-mid forties. The only major exceptions to this were law and medicine.

Now, I see many more people becoming professional students for ten years or more in order to get their complete run of degrees out of the way before they hit the work force. That's all fine and well, but you wind up with this huge load of debt hanging over your head, and that will influence your future financial decisions for years. Have to put off that new car, or buying a house, or saving for retirement, or. . . And some folks take a look at their choices, go without these things, or stop paying off the student loan, and they go hmmmm.

Living in a college town, I've seen this happen many times. Just blow off the loan, figure hey, the school or government can eat it, I've got my life to get on with.

Or then there is the other sort of undergrad that I see, the one who absolutely, positively refuses to work. They float their entire education on loans, and walk out with the bachelors and a spanking new $30,000 debt hanging over their head. Gee, don't you think that they could have worked just a bit, earn even a paltry $5000/yr doing some rinky-dink job rather than floating it all on loans?:shrug: