Student loan debt will be a major issue in the coming years

I believe that student loan debt is going to become a major issue in the coming years.

A very large number of students are getting tens of thousands (or even more) in debt in the form of student loans. The belief that college (specifically the earning of a bachelors degree) is for everyone that so many seem to hold is going to backfire on a large number of these people who should have been focusing on technical schools or learning a trade. The fact is many students in college have no place being there these days. These are the ones who even in a good economy would not be able to pay off the debt.

As for the other type of student who does belong in college.... We will not see real job growth for at least 5-10 years. Many of these students are expecting a job that will allow them to pay off the massive student loan debt they have built up. In many cases that job won't exist. When they are not able to pay the debt down it will snow ball over time to the point they can not control it.

Because student loan debts can not be discharged in bankruptcy (and can also be collected from social security benefits and tax refunds) we are creating a generation of young people who will be tied down by down for many many many years of their life.

I hope that people start to realize this soon, but sadly I suspect many won't and will fall in this trap. College these days is largely a money making industry.

Just for example purposes....

Our city community college costs about $150-$250 per class TOTAL (before books) for anyone living in the city limit. Outside the city limit it hits around $500 a class. A significant skills set to perform a skilled blue collar job can be gained in 1-2 years.

Our local (PUBLIC) University? Direct from the University web page:

"Tuition & Fees (Based on 15 semester credit hours per fall and spring semesters) Budget Category Estimated Cost
Tuition and Fees: $8,532
Room and Board: $7,886
Total: $16,418 "

$16K for ONE FREAKING SEMESTER. Is that a joke? It goes on to say "Additional fees, such as laboratory fees, course fees, parking, and so on, are not included on the schedule of charges. " Parking costs about $800. FOR BEING ABLE TO PARK ON CAMPUS. THAT SEMSETER.

So - assuming none of the extra fees noted - a person is going in to debt $131,000 for a bachelors degree! What a freaking joke. All these people leaving school with $100K+ in student loan debt to end up at a job paying $10/hour are going to be screwed.

For the ones who do NOT live on campus they are going in to debt almost $70,000. But wait! We forgot about the "fees" each class come with. If you were to actually add in the non-mentioned "fees" each class incurs they too are leaving with almost $100,000 in student loan debt.

It is a money making scam. And yes the above is the in-state cost. You don't want to know the out of state....

More than people think, and people go into debt to for those schools as well.

Our city community college costs about $150-$250 per class TOTAL (before books) for anyone living in the city limit. A significant skills set to perform a skilled blue collar job can be gained in 1-2 years.

Our local (PUBLIC) University? Direct from the University web page:

"Resident Tuition & Fees (Based on 15 semester credit hours per fall and spring semesters) Budget Category Estimated Cost
Tuition and Fees: $8,532
Room and Board: $7,886
Total: $16,418 "

$16K for ONE FREAKING SEMESTER. Is that a joke? It goes on to say "Additional fees, such as laboratory fees, course fees, parking, and so on, are not included on the schedule of charges. " Parking costs about $800. FOR BEING ABLE TO PARK ON CAMPUS. THAT SEMSETER.

So - assuming none of the extra fees noted - a person is going in to debt $131,000 for a bachelors degree! What a freaking joke. All these people leaving school with $100K in student loan debt to end up at a job paying $10/hour are going to be screwed.

For the ones who do NOT live on campus they are going in to debt almost $70,000. If you were to actually add in the non-mentioned "fees" each class incurs they too are leaving with almost $100,000 in student loan debt.

It is a money making scam.

Got his AA in graphic arts in the big bay area dot com boom. He used his degree primarily as an adjunct of his own buisness (silkscreening). He found out later when he tried to use it to get a job that it was virually useless. The school went under following some lawsuits and graphics jobs are on their way over to china and india with everything else.

The 12,000 education has become a 30,000 bill that we will probably never be able to pay off. It is why we we are unliekly to ever get married in a legal sense.

...will mitigate, if not solve, the problem. The less you make, the longer the effective term of your note. If twenty-five years out, you've not paid it off, the feds make the bank whole, and eat the balance.

Calculator here

When a student defaults on student loan debt the feds PAY THE LENDER OFF right away. There is no 25 year wait. BUT the student is still on the hook for it! It is the perfect scam for the likes of Sallie Mae. If you are a loan shark student loans are the place to be.

Money that could be going towards pushing up demand for products and services (which is a driving force for job creation and higher wages) is now being funneled into the banks in the financial services sector. Given what has been happening over the last several decades as far as deregulation goes in the financial services sector, I would rather make tuition at universities subsidized by taxpayer dollars.

There is less risk of damage to the whole economy if we did this compared to trusting what the banks say.

UNLESS we changed from the "everyone gets in" policy.... AND we got rid of bogus degrees.

AND we cut college costs to reasonable levels.

I believe that college isn't for everybody. On the other hand, it's good to pick up a trade if college isn't for you. I've never met an electrician or an AC repairman or an auto mechanic who was short on cash, but I think the Great Recession is having a toll on them as well.

how much telecom experience did I have before? ZERO. 5 weeks of company training and 2000 pages read of training material.... enough to do the job. A year later (according to what the company says) enough experience and on the job training to do the job pretty good.

Current income: $50,000
Income (per the union agreement) in 3 years: About $80,000

BEFORE overtime. That is not including the 10-20 hours a week of overtime we average.

Years of college obtained before getting the job? About half a year... obtained when I was a young person many many years ago. In a completely different subject area.

Nothing wrong with learning a trade and ditching the purchase of $100,000 bachelors degree in hopes of landing a white collar job.

See, your example is a good reason why the service sector should face unionization.

:thumbsup:

to what folks spend today.

College Administrators make way too much money. ;)

After 10 years of paying on the debt in good standing and having worked for another certain number of years within social work for community, government will forgive the debt. :D

....it caps your payment at a percentage of AGI, and adjusts the term accordingly. If you're still paying 25 years out, the Feds pay the balance.

So you can be a parochial kindergarden teacher, or a poet, or a butterfly rancher, instead of a bond lawyer or cosmetic surgeon. :-)

and kindergarden teachers never had to go in to debt $100K to be great at what they do. Most great poets never had much college (as we know it today) education at all.

Its called income based repayment. That's on top of all the deferments and forbearances that come with student loans.

Grandchild is working on a MBA and has a learning disability. Her big problem is not being able to organize anything without help. She has trouble organizing her laundry. Even if they foster her through I am afraid she is never going to get a job. The price for this is $19,000. Colleges should be pickier.

If you have a public university who is bleeding state funding year after year due to "budget cuts", then the school often compensates for that by simply bringing in more students who will make up for the loss in state revenue with tuition dollars.

Seriously. My retirement looks more and more like homelessness and standing at traffic lights with a sign. I'll have worked my entire career-- the professional part, at least, 25+ years-- and not paid off more than about half my student loans. It's absolutely crazy. I don't have any idea what I'm going to do when that day comes.

...there may be a way to have the balance erased. Federal loans only, though.

No thanks. Only a fool would take that deal. 50 years old to finally be free of debt you incurred in your teens-early 20's? I don't THINK SO.

your lender collecting your social security payments.

What a great little scam the american people have fallen for.

Can They Take My Entire Monthly Check?

No. There are two important limits:

The first $9,000 or $750/month of benefits are safe.
No matter how much money you get, the government will not take more than 15% of your benefit.
Examples:

Example 1: You receive a monthly Social Security benefit payment of $850. The amount that is offset is the lesser of $127.50 (15% of $850) or $100 (the amount by which $850 exceeds $750). In this example, $100 would be offset.

Example 2: You receive a monthly Social Security benefit of $1,250. The amount that is offset is the lesser of $187.50 (15% of $1,250) or $500 (the amount by which $1,250 exceeds $750). In this example, the offset amount is $187.50 (assuming the debt is $187.50 or more).

Example 3: You receive $700 each month from Social Security. This is less than $750 and therefore nothing will be taken.

Can Any Creditor Go After These Benefits?

No. Only federal agencies can use this program to collect debts owed to these agencies. This includes student loan debt, food stamp overpayments, and other money owed to the government. Private creditors such as credit card companies cannot use this program.

http://www.consumerlaw.org/initiatives/seniors_initiative/ss_benefits.shtml

i probably would have dropped out of college a lot sooner if credit cards had been around for students like they are now.

and I owe 50,000 in student loans. I still haven't been able to find a job, and I always get people asking why I don't go back to school until the economy gets better. Yeah, because I want to tack on another 20,000 in debt!!! I've had to file for a deferment and so now the interest is just piling up... I told my husband I would have been better off working those 4 years instead of getting an education...

that we can't get jobs/earn living wages because we don't have college. Once you get college the next excuse they give you is that you don't have ENOUGH college and need to "back". Repeat cycle.

When in fact the actual reason is the fact they are playing people for fools.

at one time the core courses in my community college were taught by professors with doctoral degrees. they were in the class room every session and were in their office at the stated times. the students who went on to a 4 year state university had a graduate rate around 95%.

we signed for student loans for our son--8,000 dollars. it`s going to come out of his inheritance.

to get screwed, but half as screwed as everyone else.

You are still 50K in debt just for two years at our local University as an example. Then you (like MANY college grads are going to experience) will end up at a job making $10/hour while your 50K that you can't pay grows and grows and grows thanks to all the interest and fees.

I just heard about this, and this organization is lobbing congress for the same money that is being lobbied by the banks. So they are competing right now..... It would be so awesome if congress gave the banks next delivery of money to college students..... And while we contemplate that difficult choice congress will be asked to make, keep in mind that Rep. Grayson wants to have the GOA look at the books of the one trillion dollars of tax payer money the banks already lobbied for and were given with no strings attached.

not to transfer those high costs onto taxpayers.

To do this, we need to increase the supply and/or decrease the demand of education. I think both will happen over the coming years as the internet revolutionizes higher learning and more HS graduates decide to forgo college in the face of diminishing job opportunities and increased awareness that the expense isn't always justified.

There's a whole generation (or two) out there who are going to be completely squeezed by this situation, and we're going to be a major block of voters in a few years. Of course, we already are, but nobody ever pays attention to the problems of young people because we don't have an organization like the AARP to lobby for us.

...if you graduate from a GA high school with a 3.0 or have a 3.0 after paying for your first year.

You even get a $300 per semester for books.

Room and board is your own responsibility though.

Everyone come to GA and fill out universities. ;)

My company has a factory in Georgia. This is very tempting. My daughters do very well in school, and I will be looking at today $7K/yr in tuition with little hope of support except through federal tax credits (which would apply for Room and Board anyway). Average indebtedness coming out of one of our state schools is pushing $30K.

To get any sort of merit based aid to our public universities you have to have at least a 3.6 and a 30 on the ACT, and even then merit aid is not guaranteed and is getting more competitive every year.

UGA for the all around big school, big football experience. The Medical School in Augusta for medicine.

Plus, the Hope scholarship also pays toward private schools in GA. Its not the whole tuition, but if your kids want to go to Emory or Mercer, the partial tuition may be enough to help.

Weigh your options. I don't know where you live now, but living in the South is not for everyone.

But I welcome any DU member to GA.

It came down to Georgia Tech and Purdue, but I selected Purdue because my family moved from Mississippi to Illinois after High School graduation. I have been a Midwesterner ever since (except for the five years in Tennessee). I married a local girl in Iowa, and we live in her hometown.

Georgia has great schools, and I could see my daughters going to either Georgia Tech or Georgia. They are both thinking medical school right now and being able to avoid tuition at the undergraduate level would be a great start.

She went to UGA.

Its really great if you can live at home and go to a local college or university (possible free room and board), but with a part-time job and/or parent/family aid, one can get by with almost no debt. Of course roommates and ramen noodles are still required.