Ever think about going to a trade school instead of a state university? At some point the market has to correct itself. We can't have kids going to state to get drunk at football games paying 50k a year and expecting to get something in return. The market should be weeding this out but we keep subsidizing this bullshit and kids keep going. In Europe, kids go to a trade school for 12 to 24 months and and learn a "skill" and spend the rest of their life plying that skill. Just as with the housing bubble, some blame has to be put here on the students and the parents. But hey dude, you got a degree right? Hope those basket weaving classes pay off for ya.
Most trades are to do with housing so the housing crash which will happen soon will affect those trades. No matter what you are trained in you will have difficulty.
There is more than one way to look at this matter of student loans. For example one might consider the desirability of having an educated populace. Seen in that light one has to consider the cost to the taxpayer of picking up the tab for defaulted student loans that will never be paid off. The total as of now would be less than $260 billion (assuming a high 50% default rate) or about 1/12 the estimated total cost of the Iraq war. Which of these government sponsored activities, one may ask, would likely return the greater value to U.S. society? One can counter arguments based on the value of an educated populace by pointing out that student learning and its ultimate value to society may not justify the governments investment, because of generally poor student achievement. If this is true, it may be a result of defective implementation stemming from misinterpretation of the intentions of the framers of Johnson's "Great Society." Was it intended that everyone should have the opportunity of higher education, or alternatively, everyone should go to college? Regardless, the interpretation actually implemented was the latter. The result was the end of "tracking" according to a students' demonstrated abilities and interests and the transfer of responsibility for learning from the student --as it was formerly --to the teacher and the school. Do we need to return to the former policy which put more responsibility on students, from junior high on, and less on teachers and schools? The result of the latter approach to education appears to have been clearly better.
here's my real life situation: i went to a private school for one year. they handed me the financial aid package for my sophomore year: no more scholarship, along with a 5k increase in tuition per yer. i transferred to a much more affordable public school. then i changed my address and declared myself independent from my parents, and got a reasonable amount of financial aid. floundered for a year after graduating, then found a decently paying steady job, which i had almost a year. i continued being careful about my expenses, now i have less than 10k in outstanding student loans. i just got accepted to a cuny school for grad school, which is also very affordable, instead of going into massive debt for some fancy private school. i saved (no one else my age does this), so i can continue to make payments on my loans but also pay out of my pocket for grad school. it's very easy being sensible...WHY IS IT ONLY ME DOING THAT?!? there's no student loan crisis, there's a stupidity crisis.
You're not the only one. You're with the majority, but your story does not make for an eye popping headline, as do the anecdotal worst cases. Congratulations by the way for adopting a sensible education plan and not allowing yourself to get saddled with excessive debt. In graduate school you should get some kind of financial support from your major department, tuition remission at the very least. Note that the student loan chart launches itself toward its present peak immediately following the the 2008 market crash, and the beginning of the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression. In retrospect, not surprising,. The situation will improve as the job market improves.
Above average student in high school. Chose to go to a State University in CA with low tuition in 2001. Graduated in 06/07 in Civil Engineering and was able to land a permanent job in the public sector. I guess I was the few lucky ones who realize that the economy is slowing down in 07 and wisely chose the public sector over the private sector. Also I chose a some what technical field that, even though job are tough to come by every where, I feel that opportunities still remain in certain highly technical areas but most of this generation does not counting on doing any highly technical or manual labor intensive so they ended up enrolling in useless fields and some ended up camping at Occupy Fill in City blank instead of working lol. What about all those H1B1 something visas for foreign technical workers, partly because the pays were lower, but mostly because there's shortage in those fields. At my alma mater, a EE (Electrical Engineering) class has a typical demographic of something like 70% Indians 15% other Asians and 15% Caucasian and others lol. Guess which two countries are on the rise in high tech? I guess most feel that college is a chore a chose the easiest route through i.e. Humanity Studies, History, Journalism, English, etc... The next group chose something a little more practical i.e. Finance, Business, MBA, Law Marketing, Sales, General Sciences etc...However, those areas are also saturated and the prospect for jobs is also slim. The next group chose more challenging and practical fields that include Engineering, Programming, Chemistry & Applied Sciences that is in more demand atm. However, major US corporations have decided to outsource some if not a majority of these jobs a long time ago so while the opportunities is still there, things are still doesn't look that great for this group. What's left is almost nothing for the current generation due to piss poor education policies, outsourcing, laziness, greed, and everything else in between. The US is an empty shell at this point and is not at all prepare for the future. I guess you can't maintain a strong country just by talking with all the Business, and English degree lol. We tried but it's not working. Somebody need to do all the required "grunt" work, either physically (labor) or mentally (R&D & programming). It's almost over for us once we refuse to take those jobs. It's nice to recite Shakespeare's or Dickens while still living in your parents home waiting to to get accepted into another Master program or BA of worthlessness as Gerald Celente would say.
I think that many college students think that just because they are in college, they can major in anything and they will become rich beyond their wildest imagination. You have counselors in high school telling everyone that they need to go to college. The world needs plumbers, auto mechanics, HVAC technicians, and ditch diggers too.
I've never met anyone happy in the public sector, since it seems soo mindless and you are afraid to say anything about anybody. freedom is soo limited, and you are conditioned as a complete sheep. usually overweight and zero personality. an education will allow you to hopefully speak with all types of people on all different types of subjects. let's hope it makes you open to all races, cultures, equal rights, etc....and not narrow minded. let's hope it gives you pause before you do something stupid (road rage), and maybe, just maybe, you have kids that are smarter than if you only had a HS degree. the best advice: follow your passion and who cares what anyone else thinks. one life, try to do something you can be proud of.
There was a time when nobody paid back their student loans. The gov didn't send them to collections or anything at all.