Posted on 10/26/2011 8:29:47 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Two-thirds of all college students now graduate with debt, and owe an average of $24,000, as student loans are quickly becoming the only way many Americans can afford a college education.
As a result, thousands of young people -- who are also facing high unemployment -- are forced to tackle mountains of debt immediately after graduating, and many are uncertain about their futures.
Shannon Johnson, who has been a lawyer at a small, family-owned firm in North Dakota for two years, said she owes more than $150,000 from her undergraduate degree and law school.
"Because of my choice to attend college and law school, I live every day paycheck to paycheck and am forced to rely on credit cards to get by," she said. "I don't feel like I will ever be able to get to a better place, buy a home or start a family."
Others are wondering if going to college was worth the cost.
"I cannot find a well paying job," said Robin Snyder of Perkasie, Pa. "I equate it to the housing market crash -- I now owe more on my education than it's worth."
The total U.S. student loan debt is quickly approaching the $1 trillion mark, and last year it surpassed credit cards as the highest debt that Americans carry. That is in part because the cost of education has skyrocketed in the past 30 years, up 900 percent since 1978.
Shockingly, one of the biggest jumps in college costs came in the last decade. According to CollegeBoard, tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities increased 5.6 percent each year beyond the rate of general inflation.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Just pointing out that a lot students treat college as a 4 year party and borrow the $$ for it. And that there is a different (and much better) way if they work hard.
But that is a different point than what you brought up.
Bot myself a job...really. And it was cheap, actually.
I will be going for some "Therapy" this afternoon..... : )
You are correct. With each turn in an individual’s career path, they gain intellectual value (learning by the seat of their pants with actual “hands on” experience) and ensure their value to current or potential employers or the ability to produce income through their own efforts.
I've had 3 or 4 minor careers. A couple of the minor's are very good. Ha!!
Hey, FRiend, some young people are whining, but a lot of others aren’t; you just don’t hear from them because they’re too busy working.
My daughter just graduated in May. Had a job lined up since February, then the job fell through in mid-August. She started sending out resumes and was sitting at her desk in a new job by mid-September. She doesn’t whine; she’s a conservative.
Her boyfriend, same thing: works his hindquarters off.
They’re not asking anyone to pay off their college loans. Millions don’t. Not everybody who goes to college gets a degree in basket-weaving. Some people actually get useful job skills as well as a knowledge of Western civilization.
“getting a degree in Boulder in Wilderness Therapy”
Best laugh I’ve had all day He probably can’t add w/o a calculator or count back change.
I wonder if they offer Urban Therapy too.Just curious.
All told that adds up to 141.9 billion which leaves about 86% of outstanding loans hanging in the breeze. It's a start, but not that much of one. I most assuredly think Barky's plan of "loan forgiveness" should never see the light of day.
If you were dumb enough to sign up for $150,000 worth of loans, you get to figure out how to pay it back. Welcome to reality.
Regards,
GtG
From Wikipedia: Wilderness therapy is a subset of adventure-based therapy. It is the use of wilderness expeditions for the purpose of therapeutic intervention. There are a range of different types of wilderness therapy programs, with a range of models and approaches. Some grow out of a survival approach and some out of an Outward Bound approach. Their aim is guiding participants toward self-reliance and self-respect.The pioneers in the field of wilderness therapy were Larry D. Olsen and Ezekiel C. Sanchez at Brigham Young University; Nelson Chase, Steven Bacon, and others at the Colorado Outward Bound School; Rocky Kimball at Santa Fe Mountain Center and many others.
There is much more gobbliegook than that on the site. Sounds like they are aiming for corporations to pay for their metrosexual office workers to have a team-building exercise. "Uoooh, Sven. Is that real deer do-do? That is so groooos. When do we get to hold hands around the fire and sing "We are the World?"
I also know of a degree at my alma mater that one of my daughter's friends is getting called "Event Planning." I told her that it sounded like something that you spent a weekend at a Holiday Inn conference center to learn how to do.
Shame on the colleges and universities for this travesty. The Feds need to get out of the way and let the natural course of events take hold. The large expensive schools should be shunned, community colleges promoted. Kids don't need to go where they want, or where their friend is going, or because the place is a party school. They should go where they can afford to pay the bill. And what is wrong with working on or off campus to defray some of the expenses. And, how much of these loans went to the cost of these ridiculous “spring and fall breaks.”
OK, I let the cat out of the bag as being from an ancient generation where there were no such breaks. And no such thing as a college loan program.
Government distorts every market it sticks it’s stupid little hands in. From healthcare to housing to education. Bubble making morons.
Event planning? Weddings,funerals,Bar/Bat Mitzvahs,sit-ins,terrorist attacks,marathons,and birthdays are all events. Pretty funny.
Thanks for the info on Wilderness Therapy. I hope all the grads get lots self-reliance and self-respect.It my day we got it by staying out of trouble,getting an education or trade,and supporting ourselves. Seemed much simpler then.
Why all the criticism of people’s talents and interests? If people want to major in art history... well, that’s one thing universities are for, and it’s strictly their business... AS LONG AS THEY DON’T EXPECT ME TO PAY FOR IT.
Without a communications major, you wouldn’t be able to field your beloved USC Trojans or Oklahoma Sooners. Talent is talent, on or off the field.
The point is, even surgeons are on shaky ground financially when they graduate a quarter million dollars in the hole. Nobody should be borrowing that much money to go to college. Nobody. Not doctors, not engineers, not art history majors.
While tuition may have increased dramatically, someone has to use some common sense here. My daughter went to a very expensive private college and wanted to live in a dorm on campus but the cost did not justify the expense so I told her if she wanted to attend that particular school she would have to find a way to do it on a budget, and she did, through scholarships, working part-time, student loans, and of course my assistance. I could have told her sure lets get a student loan and not worry about it and she would have rung up over $100K in debt. I was not going to let that happen. And IMHO the degree has everything to do with it. If you go into big debt for a degree in woman’s study,history,literature, etc so you can be a school teacher then you deserve it.
There are probably a couple of million people who did the same thing as you. We can't let this stand. It is conservatives who needs to make our voices heard. We have no voice in Washington. The republicans are totally letting him circumvent congress in doing this. We have no representation.
I graduated 2006 and by 2009 paid off all my outstanding debts. The bank was pissed I paid them off faster that they think they could raise my interest rates.
In hindsight, probably the reason why i prolonged it was because my liaison officer was hot and I kept bugging her to go out with me.
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