I am the student loan crisis at its ugliest: I graduated and found out I have $200,000 in debt

Business Insider ^

[TigerClaws]

Every once in a while, when I’m feeling overwhelmed, I watch college commencement ceremonies on YouTube.

These rituals remind me how perverse our higher-education system is—and of the empty idealism that colleges and universities sell us:

We are here today, donning our ceremonial robes and caps, to recite the traditional vacuous platitudes and wish you well in paying off high-interest student loans for which we are in no way held accountable.

Let us now further romanticize our fair institution by singing the alma mater and conveniently forget that tuition has gone up 1,120 percent since 1978. Good luck out there, kids!

I’m a consumer of those vacuous platitudes and a victim of this system. After finishing my master’s degree in 2008, I found out—as in, I didn’t already know—that I had $200,000 in student debt.

Some well-paying professions might make this amount manageable, but for a bioethicist like me, it’s been crushing. Many things had to go wrong for this to happen—or right, if you’re a school or a lender. Although the hefty amount I owe is unusual, my experience is not: Motivated by an idealistic view of education and career and vulnerable to predatory, disingenuous, or at least negligent institutions, young people and their families too often take on large amounts of student debt.

No matter how much they owe, the consequences of that debt can be outsized. These young people may have to abandon their educations early; pay back far more, after interest, than they took out; manage exceptionally exploitative loan terms; shoulder serious, chronic mental distress; delay important life decisions; and participate less in the economy than they otherwise would.

[beaversmom]

[daniel1212]

But if he works for the government or secular non-profit (no religious: there’s a legal challenge) for 10 years, making 120 continual payments, then the debt is all “forgiven.”