What's your student loan situation

[Liberal_in_LA]

Poll question: What's your student loan situation

This thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4308056&mesg_id=4308056 regarding "student loan fugitives
made me wonder what is the DU situation regarding student loans

[MountainLaurel]

1. A little of several of those

I paid off my undergrad loans but am still paying on my graduate school loans. However, the payment is not particularly onerous. Mr. Laurel has some loans he is still paying back, which had gone into default accidentally (long story). He's also a law student, so he will be taking out additional loans for tuition and to assist with living expenses.

[Blue Belle]

2. Have student loans...

but I am still in school so I haven't started paying on them. I don't look forward to it.

[geeyourharesmells]

3. None of the above!!! You didn't include a category for those who have deferred their loans

They may not be "crushing," but if you are unemployed, even $75 a month is not do-able. I owe $19,000, which comes out to $200 a month. I have deferred some of them.

[SmokingJacket]

4. I deferred my for a few years...

and then began paying. It was a burden, but not a hellish one. I think it took ten years. I vividly remember paying the last of it off. WOW. That was a good day.

[SheilaT]

5. Never had student loans, but

then I'm old enough that public universities were actually affordable. I was trying to explain to my 21 year old son recently that back in my day a summer job easily let you earn the money for tuition, fees, and books, and probably even part of room and board. He simply could not believe me, because he's come of age in a time when even the cheapest public four year universities and colleges typically cost at least $7,000 per year, often more, and there are no legal summer jobs that pay that much.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. G.I. Bill, swing shift job, and food stamps.

But, community college cost me $2.50 a semester for a full load. State University cost $167.00 a quarter.

Books were another matter.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. I'm SIIIIIIXty one yeahs old ..... and I KICK

(Sorry .... I hadda write that. Long story ..............)

I went to a very expensive school in New Haven, CT.

The GI Bill paid my way such that the school got my monthly check and there was money left over which they refunded to me. That refund took care of my pocket money for the month. I only had to work summers while in school.

[readmoreoften]

8. Not only that, I was illegally forced into a private loan when I was eligible for a govt loan.

My university was prosecuted for such loans, but their restitution was only to put a few million dollars in a bank account set aside for students that no one ever saw. I was forced to take an ARM loan for the semester or basically drop out of school. I was given no counseling and told that the terms were similar to a Stafford. I now owe more on that single semester loan per month, which can't be consolidated, than my payment for three graduate degrees put together.

[Iggo]

9. No longer in default.

But I'm paying through the nose for ducking them for 8 or 9 years or however long that was.

[mdmc]

22. yup

[Eurobabe]

10. You forgot to add category: If I had to do it all over again

Knowing what I know now about the debt, I would/would not do it.

I paid alot of money for a post graduate degree that really didn't do much for me, other than make employers say "you're overqualified for this position." Although it gave me much satisfaction, I don't know if I would repeat, at least not in the subject I chose. Hard to say. :shrug:

[Sparkly]

11. I remember my loan was something like 9% interest...

That was grad school, though -- not so much money with an assistantship. And I was extremely lucky with undergrad school.

[high density]

12. Mine will be paid off next year

after 6 years of paying them down aggressively. It will be like a pay increase when I can stop giving that money to Sallie Mae every month.

[mike_c]

13. pretty crushing-- I pay nearly as much for student loans as I pay for housing...

...each month. I borrowed $75K for ten years of college/grad school at public institutions in Virginia and Georgia. My current monthly payment is about $700. It was over $1000 for several years until I changed my repayment schedule in order to get a more affordable plan. Problem is, it'll take longer to pay the loans off than I will work, i.e. there's about 25 years left to pay and I'll retire in half that. I'll have spent my entire career trying to pay off the cost of my education-- actually, I'll have spent my entire career siphoning off salary to further enrich the greedy bastards who profit by getting their hooks into people who are smart, but poor in America.

Now I'm a professor at a state university. Higher ed should be FREE to all.

[RB TexLa]

14. My grandparents provided the funding for my education, and I am very thankful to them for it.

[moondust]

15. Had one. Wouldn't do it again.

Left school during the Reagan depression. No jobs and that was before massive outsourcing/offshoring. The schooling it paid for ended up being *largely* a waste of time.

[Iggo]

16. I would never do it again....

...and I wish I hadn't in the first place. I was debt free until age 35 when I quit dope and decided to go to school. Now I'm paying 300 bucks a month until my early 50's...and for nothing. So no, I wouldn't do it again.

[Tracer]

17. My daughter has one ...

... and she's been paying it off very agressively.

In fact, sooo agressively, that Sallie Mae has REDUCED her percentage rate to 2%!

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[juno jones]

19. My husband has one

Crushing, deferred, not in default. Started at $15,000, now over $30,000 with the usorious interest. He's never been able to get a job with the degree because the tech school he went to went out of buisness very publicly soon after he graduated. So he has skills but no one wants them.

On the other hand, I am mad with joy that I dropped out before I had to consider taking loans to continue college. I probably make as much as a baker/cook as many people do after the loan companies take their chunk. It sucks I never got my BFA or MFA, but that and a couple of dollars will get you a cup of coffee as they say. I can make art without a piece of paper.

[Thothmes]

20. Son paid his off within 5 years after graduation

Went to work for Northrup Grumman at Newport News. He works in HM & E design engineering.

[vaberella]

21. I have a student loan in default. I'm in fear of what it will do to me when I graduate. n/t

[LeftyMom]

23. None yet, can't promise it'll stay that way until graduation.

I thought for sure I'd be able to get at least my BA with no loans, but the job market's in the toilet, and that's a big problem when you've got limited availability and half of a degree. Still, as long as I stay in-state, I should be okay. CA public unis are quite cheap compared to most.

[bigwillq]

24. I have student loans

I pay off the monthly amount. Still have a long way to go.

[PufPuf23]

25. I had three sets of student loans

paid off each time and then returned to university again: BS, MBA, and a never completed PhD.
However, the student loan balance was never over $12,000 and had savings, scholarships, cashed out Fed retirement (a mistake in hindsight), and concurent employment. I never started university until 21 and have a completed degrees from the 1970s and 1980s. Also went to State Universities (rather than private) with residency (UC Berkeley BS and MBA) and fee waivers (Oregon State incomplete PhD). Living and academic costs were relatively far less than now. My Father went to 8th grade. Education did more to improve the quality of my life than anything else.

[Myrina]

26. Crushing debt, in default ... kiddo starting college next yr ...

... not like with my current situation they'll do anything but laugh if i try to co-sign for her, but ...