Posted on 04/24/2012 10:56:41 PM PDT by Altariel
Student loans are one of life’s biggest financial entanglements, yet they are sorely misunderstood. Many students couldn’t tell you if they have private or public loans. All they know is that they owe, owe, owe.
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But not everyone will be effected by the increase. “Only undergraduate loans will go from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. Graduate loans stay at 6.8 percent,” says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org. “There is a lot of confusion about student loans. I read in the paper where someone with $8,000 in student loans is saying that they won’t be able to afford the loans when they double. Only new loans will be 6.8 percent. Old loans will not change. And some students don’t realize that they will not feel the impact of the increase today, but when they graduate and start paying.”
However, when it comes to student loans, there’s little reason to celebrate. Students have long had the luxury of having a six month grace period right after graduation when the government paid their interest. Come 2013 and 2014, that perk disappears in one of many cost saving measures.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
As someone in college who has a hefty amount of both public and private loans, I really don’t know what is so “misunderstood.” I knew I had to take loans to go to school, I chose the school I wanted to go to, I know how interest rates work and I know I’ll have to pay it all back.
Just some stupid questions: Why does everyone have to go to college? Why not go to a trade or vocational school that teaches practical things?
Unless you are taking hard science or math related courses, the crap being taught in college is pretty much useless (unless you want to be an academic).
Forget any degree that ends in “studies” — totally worthless. Likewise social studies and liberal arts are pretty worthless too. Going hundreds of thousands into debt is totally stupid. Fifty percent of graduating college seniors CANNOT find jobs.
The reason why students are pressed to go to college is a hold over from the Great Depression. College grad were less likely to be unemployed when jobs for average guys were hard to find or nonexistent. This is no longer the case. This is 2012 and not 1932.
Good idea.
Add to that how about cutting out a bunch of those social engineering/Liberal indoctrination courses so that you can once again complete a four year degree in four years.
I didn’t pay a dime for my degree. But I’m guessing many of today’s kids don’t want to enlist or go to OCS/the service academies/ROTC. My brother-in-law (little sister’s husband) had his degree paid for and was the honor graduate of his ROTC program, so he was a regular, not a reservist, from the get-go. He’s now a retired colonel with a high-paying defense contractor gig.
Many appreticeships and such are free as the wind. As for the Great Depression, my late father (USMC 1943-65) always said that the only people who had money back then were salesmen.
I think a better question is why do we have to use public funds to shore up the loans just so the schools can continue to raise prices? Why should liberal academia not have to cut costs like the rest of America?
It is my understanding that colleges pay no taxes on their endowments. If this it true, then colleges should be required to use their endowment funds for loans. The portion of the endowment that is not used for loans should then be taxed at 15%.
“Just some stupid questions: Why does everyone have to go to college? Why not go to a trade or vocational school that teaches practical things?”
Begin liberal/liberal parent rationale:
Because my child/I am special and too intelligent/special/royalty to spend my life in some meaningless job. That’s for commoners. THOSE people are here for people like me/my child to lead.
End Lib BS.
Seriously, talk to a few libs if you can stomach it. They really have no problem admitting this. They only give birth to ‘indigo kids’ so meaningless jobs, AKA anything less than 6 figures net, is beneath them. Thats the mentality that a lifetime of being told they were ‘special’ leads to.
Personally, I’d be shocked if they didn’t become a bunch of delusional, entitlement cases.
Probably because a lot of middle-class parents see trade/vocational schools as something "low class".
My wife and I both attended vocational school. I went through a 10-month electronics program after my Marine Corps service (VEAP took care of most of that tab) and my wife went to a programming school where she learned how to program COBOL in a 9-month program. This was in the early 1980s. Since then it's been mostly six figure income for both of us and we've never been out of work - except those few years my wife voluntarily left the work force when the kids were little. Never had college loans hanging over our heads and we were able to purchase a fairly substantial home when we were still young.
I won't go as far to say that college is a waste of time and money but it really isn't necessary either unless you are pursuing a truly specialized career such as medicine, law or engineering.
As a hiring manager at my current company, our top performers are as likely to be high school grads as college grads. In fact, many college grads wash out of my industry. It truly seems that many of them come into the workforce thinking they shouldn't have to work as hard because they have a college degree.
The government gives the money away for nothing...takes over all the student loans and charges more interest than you pay for a car or a home.
It's just another "kitty".
In 2012, young people had better learn a practical skill usually found in a vocational school. Those folks will find work when would be CEOs are starving.
...”Why should liberal academia not have to cut costs like the rest of America?”...
Because they are bank rolled through student loans from the government. It is the biggest scam. Liberal academia is not about educating..It is about garnering political power for the elites and setting up a Lord/Serf state.
I count myself lucky...my company had a tuition refund program. It took me ten years but I got my degree at night. But that was twenty years ago, when the cash per year allotment actually covered more than one course. Now you need a Bachelor’s degree just to get hired.
WHile trade schools don’t take as long as a four year degree program, they are equally expensive in their per semester tuition costs.
Amen to that.
Most sales jobs do not require any degrees even today
You are probably the exception.
The majority of people I know, who have loans, don’t know the terms of their loans, don’t know how many they have, don’t know if they are public or private....some don’t know if they are eligible for consolidation, or if they even are consolidated or not.
They stay in this state of denial - they don’t want to know.
Which makes it a perfect campaign issue for Obama - watch out, those evil one percenters are going to double your rates!....and some 55 year old hippie with a pony tail and outstanding loans thinks he will be affected.
So would the incomes of Lefty academics.
Win-win.
I have a friend who’s daughter just went to one year of a private music school for voice at the tune of $49,000 a year. She received a grant of $25,000, leaving a balance for my friend to pay of $24,000. She has no way of getting a loan or paying it. Her home is in foreclosure, the cars are being repossessed and the husband wants to bail and just live with his brothers and do nothing.
She asked if she could contact one of my wealthy friends for the money. I said absolutely not. She then asked me for the money, not a loan, just give her the money, my answer was no.
Now the daughter has been accepted to a music school out of state for $52,000 a year. I don’t know how that happened since she is a horrible singer and is flunking out of the high school, but again she has come to me wanting me to ‘invest in her daughter’s future’.
My answer is again no, and I feel horrible that I have to avoid her now since I refuse to pay for her family’s foolishness.
i’ve ranted about this before. another scam is degree requirements in some schools just to teach. i would rather have a non degree graphic designer with 5 years experience teach me adobe illustrator than a BFA or MFA who doesn’t have the experience. in graphics most of the requirements for a BFA or MFA are there because mant graduates who can’t make it as artists have to have a backup which is teaching. so they make up an unnecessary teacher requirement so artists can make money. that is not to say a BFA or MFA is worthless just too many jobs have degree requirements that aren’t really necessary to do the job.
my school tried to get me to go for a BA. i already had one from the ‘70s in a totally unrelated field and really never used but it still shows up on a resume word search as having a degree. i had the time and told them if they would pay for the whole thing i would do it.
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