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People Who Don't Know What They're Talking About

I’ve seen a couple of new articles lately followed by comments about student loans. Specifically, about how a college degree generally doesn’t earn you more money and how as a result, most people can’t pay back their loans. Most of the comments I’m seeing are pretty negative toward people who can’t pay back their loans. They are:
-Don’t spend money you don’t have. If you don’t have money for college, don’t go to college.
-Students knew that they were borrowing, should have anticipated having to pay back the loans, and should therefore not be whining about paying back money they owe.

This kind of attitude makes me crazy. These comments must come from people who either A. didn’t go to school and resent those who did, or B. had their parents pay for school and have no idea the reality of student loans.

First of all, throughout high school, most students are drilled by their teachers and parents that if they go to college, they’ll get a good job and make money. If they don’t go to college, they’ll never get anywhere in life. This is brainwashed into kids so severely that many feel like they don’t have a choice about the matter, and if they ever want to be anything more than the assistant-manager at the local grocery store, they have to go to college. I know that when I was a senior in high school, I felt that way. I was made to feel like only losers don’t go to school.

What kind of a choice does that offer kids? If their parents can’t afford to help them with school, then they think they have to take out loans. No one ever tells a high school student, “Well, if you don’t have the money, don’t go to college.”

Second, college students are not given a realistic picture of student loans. They are told by their high school counselors, their financial aid counselors, and society in general that student loans A. earn their worth because of the degree they allow you to achieve, and B. are easy to pay back because the low interest rate makes for low payments that can be paid over the long term.

This is serious bull. These are flat out lies that are used to dupe students into borrowing money that they will struggle a lot to pay back, if they are even able to. When I got out of college, I realized that a degree does not earn you a better job. You don’t make more money, either. In fact, you net less money because you have to take pay your student loans every month, unlike the guy with 10 hours at the community college in the cubicle next to you who is earning the same. I also realized that the affordability of student loan payments is a terrible falsehood. For every $10,000 I borrowed, I had to pay about $100 a month. That’s a lot of money. I had no idea that the payments would be hundreds of dollars a month. Not a single counselor or administrator nor anyone told me this. They even gave me a stupid little chart that erroneously tricked me into believing that it would be $150-200 a month. That was such a lie.

So, you go to school because you’re told you have to, only to find out that your degree is nothing more than an expensive piece of paper. You borrow tens of thousands of dollars because of falsehoods told to you and you find out that you pay more toward your student loans every month than you do your rent.

That is, if you can afford a home after you pay your student loans.

Then, you hear about ignorant people judging student loan debtors. Misinformedly talking about how they knew what they were getting into. I guess that just shows how stupid and judgmental people can be.

I guess the whole point of this was to say, have some sympathy for people with student loan debt. They were pressured and lied to, and now they’re trying to claw their way out of the hole their school dug for them and threw them into.

posted by Jen @ 2/27/2006 08:14:00 AM