Jennifer made several very costly mistakes.
First, she pursued, and obtained a degree in psychology. Did she ever investigate what she could do with that degree? Obviously not.
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.
And, to compound the issue, she went back for a very expensive Master’s degree, that had the same apparent value as her UG degree.
Guess what Jen? That’s how life works, you make mistakes you pay. The bigger the mistake, the more you pay. Shut up, quit crying, pay your loans.
BTW, I do think college is hugely overpriced, but you can get a UG degree in something useful, from a decent school, using a community college for around $20k.
“BTW, I do think college is hugely overpriced, but you can get a UG degree in something useful, from a decent school, using a community college for around $20k.”
Which is exactly what I did. Funny thing. Everytime the bank made a payout to the school, I somehow received a check in my name for around $900.00. I took that check and applied it to my loan, so I was making payments and reducing the debt while in school. Paid off my loan in 4 years. Now I have a phoney baloney business degree, a job, a house, kids, car and no debt, other than my home. Go figure.
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.