I Owe $130,000 in Student Loans

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[Sub-Driver]

I Owe $130,000 in Student Loans

Jennifer Sammartino has a great education and a mountain of student loan debt By Gemma DiCasimirro and Alexis Leonard | Thursday, Feb 9, 2012 | Updated 5:43 PM EST

When Jennifer Sammartino needed help paying for college, she, like many students, took out federal and private loans. Now she’s faced with over $130,000 in student loan debt.

After Sammartino graduated from La Salle University with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. she had no luck getting a job. She then made the decision to go back to school, hoping that a Master’s degree would bring in more job opportunities.

But graduate school also meant more loans.

Unable to get approved by herself, Sammartino’s parents co-signed for the majority of her loans. Now they could be in serious financial trouble too.

If Sammartino defaults on her loans, her parents could lose their home.

Sammartino, now with her Master’s degree is still unable to find a job in her field. She works as a case manager for special needs children, but her salary isn't enough to pay back all the money she owes for her education.

The debt seems overwhelming to Sammartino. “I would like to be able to pay my student loans, and we know that we have to pay them back,” she says, “But we don’t know where to start.”

[TheOldLady]

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[MarkL]

Actually, I admire electricians and plumbers. Very useful trades.

As do I. They often do very hard work and very long hours. They charge a lot, but when you need one, it's worth it...

I did have a run-in once with a client who decided after the fact that my company was billing too high an hourly rate for a computer networking job. He actually stated to me, "$100 an hour!?! I only pay my plumber $75 an hour!" My response was simple: "The next time you have a problem with your network, call you plumber."

Mark

[aruanan]

After Sammartino graduated from La Salle University with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. she had no luck getting a job. She then made the decision to go back to school, hoping that a Master’s degree would bring in more job opportunities.

First, she was a chick, so it pretty much figured she'd go for an undergraduate degree in psychology. Second, she didn't wise up during her undergraduate years and change her major to something marketable before it was too late. Third, once she saw that there were no employment opportunities, instead of going for a doctoral degree in one of the hard sciences where she would have had her entire education paid for, including a stipend to live on while she was getting it, she dug herself into her hole even deeper. Of course, her math and science skills and college background in these subjects probably sucked and she wouldn't have done too well on the GRE. She could have gotten an MBA for a fraction of that price but, instead, wanted to borrow money on something completely squishy.

[aruanan]

Second, Jennifer must not have taken a single economics class for her degree. If she did, she’d have gone to a less expensive school, and been more judicious about using loans.

I knew a guy at the University of Chicago who was going for an undergraduate degree in Spanish!!!!!!!!!! I hope he had really rich parents.

[kcvl]

I would be ashamed to admit it...

I wonder if she was worrying about paying back the loans while she was SPENDING THE MONEY that she BORROWED (& promised to payback)?!

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/130k-in-student-loan-debt/1d21gpdt7

Her parents look like a couple of hippy liberals too...

I wonder why she didn't study something that was in DEMAND by employers? Because she didn't want to?! Boo Freaking Whoo...I have been working since I was 17 yrs. old and NEVER took out a ‘student loan’ because I was expected to pay for my school while I was going. GO FIGURE!

While she was sipping lattes and discusing world peace with superior intellectuals I was busting my *ss working.

[FreedomPoster]

I agree she made many mistakes. But I also think that you should be able to discharge student loans in a bankruptcy.

In the system we have now, many young people are essentially becoming debt slaves to the government, since the gov’t now issues student loans. Private loans have been pushed aside in this space.

Long term, this is a really ugly thing, if you take the time to think through it for a few minutes.

Cut out the debt bondage of non-dischargeability, get the gov’t out of the business, and watch the higher education bubble deflate. This would be A Good Thing. You wouldn’t have private lenders putting 6-figure loans on a college degree in Psychology, therefore we wouldn’t be wasting societal resources on such a silly thing. Or at least not as many of them. People like Jennifer would find more productive things to do with their lives. This, again, would be A Good Thing.

So while I agree that Jennifer made several costly mistakes, we as a society and government have set up a system that encourages costly mistakes, and this is a MUCH bigger mistake that we must rectify.

[FreedomPoster]

That’s a keeper right there. So true.

[EDINVA]

I suspect being a case manager for special needs kids isn’t a big buck job. In fact, it might come closer to using her degree than many jobs out there, because of all the psych testing/needs of special ed kids.

[philled]

$130,000.00 for an “education” that obviously required no coursework in basic math or economics.

[xsmommy]

LMAO!

[BobL]

“She’s not that smart or talented. People can make fun of electricians and plumbers but they can’t keep up.”

As a person who’s laid drain pipes, I completely agree. Dealing with 45 degree turns and trying to still maintain the proper slope is actually very taxing on one’s brain. I could barely do it and it is WAY over the head of that bird-brain.

[from occupied ga]

But I also think that you should be able to discharge student loans in a bankruptcy

I disagree. If you incur debt you should not be able to just duck out of it. If there are no consequences to mistakes, then there isn't any learning from the mistakes.

[FreedomPoster]

So we should just return to Debtor’s Prisons?

[justlurking]

He immediately switched from "Liberal Arts" to "Computer Engineering Technology" and is considering a further switch to "Electrical Engineering".

A good idea, especially if he focuses his EE degree on digital system design, i.e. computers.

Those jobs haven't been off-shored (yet). The fabrication is going off-shore, but the people that design the computer chips are still in demand in the US.

[justlurking]

Go to Penn State. Live at home. Work part-time. Really, the problem isn't all that difficult unless they stopped teaching basic arithmetic in Pennsylvania schools.

With a little bit of planning, you can really cut the cost of a college education if you live in a reasonably-sized metropolitan area:

• Go to the community college in your city for 2 years, and live at home.
• Pick the university your freshman year, so you know your target.
• In community college, take all the core classes required for a 4-year degree, like English, history, etc. Plan ahead and only take the classes that will transfer to the university.
• Work your butt off and ace those classes in community college. Your community college grades will largely determine your admission to the university: your SAT scores and high school GPA will not be considered as relevant.
• Earn your associates degree, and THEN transfer to the university your junior year. You'll only have to worry about room and board for 2 years, instead of 4.

If you are fortunate, you'll have a 4-year university in your hometown. You can still live at home. And some of them have a joint program with local community colleges for a 4-year degree program, where you are guaranteed that credits you earn at the community college will transfer. In my area, they even have joint campuses.

This may be difficult for some technical degrees, in which you start taking the "weed-out" classes your freshman year (those classes that are designed to eliminate people that won't be able to make the cut). The class schedule and prerequisite chain don't allow you to cram all the specialized classes in 2 years. But, with a bit of planning, you can spend the first year in community college.

[justlurking]

But I also think that you should be able to discharge student loans in a bankruptcy.

There are two reasons you can't discharge a student loan in bankruptcy:

• Most student loans are guaranteed by the federal government. If the bank doesn't get paid, you and I (taxpayers) get to make up the difference.

• If the loan isn't guaranteed by the feds, the bank would have never loaned money to a student at a reasonable interest rate, if they could just discharge it in a bankruptcy.

It wasn't that long ago that you COULD discharge student loans in bankruptcy. Congress changed the law in 1998.

The reason? Too many people were scamming the system. They would run up their student loans, graduate, then declare bankruptcy. They'd take a hit on their credit for 7 years, but wipe the slate clean and start their career with no debt. And you and I picked up the tab.

[fanfan]

“I would like to be able to pay my student loans, and we know that we have to pay them back,” she says, “But we don’t know where to start.”

A second job would be a start.

[justlurking]

First, she was a chick, so it pretty much figured she'd go for an undergraduate degree in psychology.

I apologize in advance for the sexist comment, but when I was in college, most of the women at my school were actually studying for their MRS degree. Psychology, or art history, was just what the university put on the diploma.

Before anyone gets upset, I'll note that there were also women in the engineering school with me, and they worked as hard as the rest of us. But, they were in the minority.

[jwalsh07]

And all the lefty professors working 10 hours a week for six figure salaries went De-de-de-de-dedede-de-de-de-de....

[from occupied ga]

are you really that ignorant? Do you think that debtors prisons or dumping your debt on the lender and getting off scott free are the only two options? Or are you postulating a false dichotomy because you think that's a clever way to argue?

Either way you're wrong. Ever heard of a repayment plan? Every time some deadbeat declares bankruptcy, that debt is passed back to the lender who is then out the money. I'm sure you wouldn't like somebody who owed you a substantial sum to just skip out and not have to pay. But equally bad, unpaid debts are passed on to the rest of the economy as lost assets. If some jackass stiffs you for $130,000 student loan, then that money is gone for good. lost to you and lost to the overall economy.