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Debating debt: How Big a Burden are Student Loans? »
Posted by: Ousama 2 years, 12 months agoHow big a burden is the average loan for college graduates who take loans, which is about $15,000 to $20,000? The net present value of the earnings of typical graduates of four-year colleges over their lifetimes after discounting future earnings and subtracting out tuition and other costs has been shown to be over $300,000 more than what high schoo
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Comments: 17
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ck
Dec. 9, 2006, 12:18 p.m.I just started paying my student loans from grad school last month. Not fun. I really wish we had a better, government funded education system that extended throughout the entire education machine. We all end up individually carrying the burden of education costs; why not share that burden?
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geographer47
Dec. 9, 2006, 1:42 p.m.I'm with C.K. Having graduated back when scholarships and grants were more plentiful, I know our government could do more. While I agree that the net benefits of a college education over high school training justify the investment, I have to ask: Do you remember the Life Cycyle Hypothesis, Ousama? For those who don't recognize the term, it states that people borrow early in their life cycles when their earnings are low and their expenses are high and later in life, when their earnings peak, they are able to save. If the country benefits from an educated public (there are positive externalities to education), shouldn't society share more of the costs of education rather than placing them all on young individuals when they have the least ability to pay?
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newsquew
Dec. 9, 2006, 3:42 p.m.Student loans are a huge part of the reason College tuition is so high. The $ supply is expanded in the same way Govt deficit spending or Govt bonding issues cause costs to rise. With the $ supply increased, salaries & benefits from teachers to administrators have sky-rocketed.
When all the borrowed $ is chasing a remaining can of tuna on the grocery store shelf, the price is going up. It's the same with availability of seats in higher education.
Wait a few more years as enrolments drop due to lessening demographic pressures from the baby boomers' babies. There will be more seats (cans of tuna) available @ reduced prices.
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Harbeas
Dec. 9, 2006, 2:45 p.m.Why does our free education stop at high school. If we want to lead the world with brilliant statesmen, scientists, engineers, teachers and the like we have to make sure everyone who wants to go to college can. Without the burden of paying back huge loans which straps them financially for many years.
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LordyLordy
Dec. 9, 2006, 6:51 p.m.I repaid my government student loan years ago, but they weren't charging the compounded interest rates they are now. One of the problems with the student loans is that they grant them for study in fields that when the student graduates there are quite literally no jobs. My daughter thought she was being a good student, borrowed student loans, then graduated with a BS Degree, Magna Cum Laude no less, all A's, but when she wanted to continue with her Masters was told the loans stop at a BA or BS Degree. She has since discovered that without a MS or MA Degree, she cannot get a very high paying job, worse yet, it isn't much above minimum wage. Yet she is marketable, has skills and grades I wished I had. Now we're scrambling, trying to find her student loans, and even a decent job.
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LordyLordy
Dec. 9, 2006, 6:53 p.m.I received my college degrees the hard way. When I was in the military they would pay for 2/3 of your tuition, and you had to pick up the other 1/2 plus your books, but it was all night school. They would not allow you to take classes during the day. During the day you were on duty, available to be shot at and deployed. Fortunately for me I had CO's that understood my desire to get a degree. They kept my orders cycling back and forth among them until I got my Bachelors, and then patted me on the back and said well done...now you're no longer an enlisted person but going to OCS. There was a payback and it wasn't just dollars. It was a hard row to hoe as they say.
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ningyo
Dec. 9, 2006, 7:26 p.m.its all just socialist whining--you pay your money and you take your choice--its still a free country contrary to what the loony left would say..i see people making bad choices all the time with debt--taking out big loans to graduate with a bs in sociology or psychologY??..bad choice..and we're supposed to pay for that??no thanks..you go in knowing these jobs pay very poorly..thats YOUR choice..and why stop at college..maybe the govt should buy you your first house..and your starter car..why not..you need a way to get to your entry level job..where do we stop wth the govt handouts and redistribution of wealth..maybe we should mandate different minimum wages for different levels of education--7.00 for a hs diploma..20.00 for a associates degree..40 for a ba 55 for a bs..its all socialism in one strain or another which has never worked anywhere anytime
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Teech
Dec. 9, 2006, 8:46 p.m.I worked my way through college by holding down three jobs while taking a full load. I did not get straight A's, but didn't take out any loans, either. Lots of my friends borrowed......one half for tuition, one half for booze, sex, and dope. Nobody complains when they get the loan, they just bitch when they have to pay it back. If you don't want to pay it back, don't borrow it in the first place!
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Lynn724
Dec. 10, 2006, 8:16 a.m.I am graduating next week and am dreading starting to pay back student loans. I have been a single mom raising 2 children for 9 years, plus have had grandchildren living in my home that I had to pay for yet I could not get grants of more than $200/semester. Someone else I know who only had 1 child at home (a teenager) was able to get full grants for her entire thing. When they decided she was making enough money to cut back her grants, she cut back her part time job so she could get grants. Her income was not much lower than mine so I'm not sure how they determine who gets the free money and which of us poor schmucks have to pay. Our government needs to stop giving free educations and money and health care to every Tom, Dick and Harry who walks onto our soil from somewhere else. THere are many of us here who need some help, I'm one of them. I have no idea where my student loan money is going to come from. Mayb eI should speak another language and they will forgive me my debt?
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newsquew
Dec. 10, 2006, 3:21 p.m.I would think that you, as a college educated person, would have known how to aquire the facts, data & information that enabled your friend to get her grants. I can also appreciate your anger with education & healthcare funds serving non-citizens but, "speaking another language" is no forgiveness of your debt.
Didn't you understand the terms of the agreement when you willing took the $? You made individual decisions & now you must find a way to fulfill & complete them.
I do feel for your stated situation; we all have our burdens to bear.
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samosley
Dec. 10, 2006, 10:58 a.m.My loan is due as well. Thought I'd take a couple classes at a local community college which delays the payments of the loans.
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LordyLordy
Dec. 10, 2006, 9:11 p.m.Yeah, I know, paying back those loans really sucks, but think about it another way. You invested in your future. I'd be willing to bet it will pay off in the long run, say 10-20 years. You might not have to say, "will there be fries with that Madam?"
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