Capitol Hill Blue Forums Life and Moral Issues Education College debt

With due respect, unless one looks at the possibilities for help, looking at a lower cost school should come after checking out what might be better choices... with substantial scholarships... not always based on need, but inclusive.

I would strongly recommend using Niche, to check out the alternate scholarships/loans and to look to independent scholarship grantors, available by searching, and replying. ie... Stamp Foundation.
There are many dozens of scholarship programs, offered by organizations and businesses...many of which go begging for lack of effort to learn what might be available.

While most scholarships do require a reasonably good record, there are many businesses that will support students interested in their discipline and "Smart" scholarships may be offered for those interested in the military. Smart Scholarships.

It started, no offense, but researching financial aid is pretty much a given. This is not a new problem. My mother had scholarship for full tuition at what I think was a public college. That was great, but her family still didn't have money for books and/or room and board, so she didn't go there.

The point being, wise students will check the programs and quality of schools, then the financial costs and aid, and then decide what they need or can manage as debt. Private schools as a whole are more expensive than public; they may be worth it or may not. Less wise students may not be so careful.

I love the liberal arts, but taking on $60,000 of debt to study art history at an elite college may not be wise.

I'm trying to find some related article bug my wifi is terrible. Here's one:

Good reasons to borrow

I may be underestimating students who take out large loans. I'll keep looking.

Why students take on loans they can't pay

Man, there are loan companies out there THROWING money at students.

No debt is good debt. Some debt is necessary. I believe strongly in universal healthcare. I don't think it should pay for elective cosmetic surgery. Prestigious universities are a fine thing. But they are for the rich and the gifted.

I had a dentist who had a Harvard degree hanging on the wall.

He was one of the rich ones. That paper don't mean diddlysquat if you can't back it up in the workplace.

Pot and coffee, my thoughts are kind of jagged, but the little socialist on my left shoulder is saying something about that Ivy League degree being a firm division between the bougies and the proles.

But yeah, uh..college debt should be pretty much interest free. We should declare a debt jubilee to any and all student loans who have paid the principle+1% or some such. There. Problem solved, now let's get it done.

Great idea Greger, I'm sure the Republicans and #MoscowMitch will get right on that.

Here's an interesting article telling students what mistakes to avoid with student loans.
Advice to students

My local NPR is playing an episode of "Planet Money" talking about this issue. Should be available on podcast or on their website. If I can find it I'll come back and add a link.

The current episode is not online yet but they have several items on paying for college, Paying for college

I think there is a place for Liberal Arts, but mostly that's not a good investment for working families who have to be self-sufficient upon graduation. It's perfectly fine if you have a trust fund paying for everything. Everybody needs some sort of career. Even people with old family money. Most young people have been told all their lives they can be anything they put their mind to. Taking on hundreds of thousands in debt to attend an expensive college seems reasonable to them. I think they need an economics class in high school as a reality check, before they make that momentous a decision. Innumeracy runs rampant in the American population.

if you plan to teach art history at an elite college it's the best way to get where you're going...

Or maybe not. You do realize, I'm sure, how seldom those positions come open?

Just because I see all of this with my kids... I'd like to note one thing. In almost all of the posts here, the discussion centers on what the potential college student should look for when deciding on the right school, and the best financial decision. While I understand this, and in fact did investigation work myself, today, the debt levels call for much more work.

If you were in position to invest $500K in the stock market, would you let your kid make the decision? Point being, that the parent has a vested interest in what will happen to their children after college. ie. debt level as well as the kind of work they will choose.

I'd refer you back here, to what daughter in law Annie did. How much time she spent, and the results of that effort. It was a matter of working together with a 16 or 17 year old to dig in to a myriad of choices, fraught with confusion, and not always at the top of what lending institutions offer.

So... while we're looking at students, the fact that Annie and Steve were able to safely retire @ age 60, is, I believe, because of how she handled the financing of the childrens' education cost. in addition, in four more years, they will have added four "doctors" to the economy.

How it happened.