http://finance.yahoo.com/college-ed...udents-are-buried-in-debt?mod=edu-collegeprep Like many middle-class families, Cortney Munna and her mother began the college selection process with a grim determination. They would do whatever they could to get Cortney into the best possible college, and they maintained a blind faith that the investment would be worth it. Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle. For much of the time since her 2005 graduation, she's been enrolled in night school, which allows her to defer loan payments... ------------------------------------------- Please read the entire article and comment. My thoughts- Besides the usual lack of personal responsibility from almost everyone who gets in financial trouble, this part of the article really bothered me- "She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It's the highest salary she's earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies." Ummm, why go to NYU and take out $100,000 worth of loans for some "major" where you know you have no earnings potential to repay the loans?
The writer hates colleges and banks so much, he makes you wait until the end of the article to figure out WTF is wrong. 100 large for a four year Genius that she is, she has a plan. Keep digging: But the author blames Big College and Big Bank. Could you imagine the fuss he'd raise if some college and some bank together told some minority "Dude (or Dudette in this case), we're not loaning you 100 large so you can get your degree in religious and women's studies, even if it is interdisciplinary"? Boy would the fur fly if that happened. Now that we've seen this chick claim she was taken advantage of, clearly she needs governmental supervision for all her major activities. If she's too stupid to figure out her loan, then she's also unqualified to figure out where to live, what job to take and whether she should buy a house. And let's get her tubes tied. Don't want her passing on the moron genes and she's just too stooopid to be allowed near kids, let alone be allowed to raise `em.
A year or two ago there was a similar thread in this forum about some dolt who borrowed something like 160k for a masters in music. If only he had gotten his PhD, then people could call him Dr. $(#*up.
I got an MBA from a top 25 school. I use 5 or 10% of this knowledge in my daily work. I'll bet others would say the same thing. College is not worth the price. It only certifies that you've jumped through the right hoops. How many trillions of man hours and trillions of dollars have been wasted in education? Do the educators really care? No.
this is why they need to underwrite student loans with the same rigor as other types of loans (not withstanding mortgages issued during 2004-2007). if you major in something useless like women's studies or anthropology, your interest rate should be higher and the loan should be limited to a % of your expected earnings at starbucks, which is where you'll likely be working. your GPA should also determine your interest rate.
the college education industry employs over a million people. student grants and loans (which are paid for by taxes of course) is just welfare for people in this field.
of course they care. it is their livelihood. short hours, lifetime tenure and a new crop of freshman girls every year to harvest.
I agree 100% with this: "the college education industry employs over a million people. student grants and loans (which are paid for by taxes of course) is just welfare for people in this field." The only difference is I would say the education RACKET employs over a million people... Unfortunately, this is now true for the vast majority of what the government does: Their primary purpose is to create government employees/corporate welfare employees.
Thank God we still live in a country where it is possible to control your own destiny. Where we don't have the gov't telling you what to major in. Where we are free to contract our own debts as adults. Good for her. She studied something she was really interested in. We can sit here and say Oh what an aweful financial decision, and it obviously was and she realizes that now, but who are we to tell her what she can and can't do with her life?