Student Loans! 8D

[Minibit]

I am officially several thousand dollars in debt to the government of Canada!

...

I honestly can't tell if I'm ecstatic or terrified

 

[LunaValentine]

WELCOME TO THE CLUB MY FRIEND! MAY WE GET JOBS AND PAY OFF THE DEBT! Luckily my parents are helping and my bills wouldn't be too bad (about 600 total) though part of mine is to the US government but the rest (most of it) goes to my own bank T_T

 

[Jorick]

I've got some student debts too. Luckily (sorta), I make little enough money that I was able to do an income based repayment plan that said I don't actually need to pay anything with my current income, and if I keep with this plan (adjusting as needed for income increases) for some number of years, 20 I think, they'll forgive whatever debt I have left. Gonna end up paying off only a fraction of my debts because I'm too poor to afford real payments. It's an amusing but bittersweet situation.

 

[King]

HELLO AMERICANS BRITISH PERSON HERE - Do you have to pay your money up front? O_O WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH AMERICAN UNIS?

In britain you pay £9,000 each year you study at uni. I'm considering hopping over the pond and studying, but the student loans worry me :B

 

[Grif ♥]

Welcome to the willingly-hampering-your-economic-future club!

 

[Jorick]

HELLO AMERICANS BRITISH PERSON HERE - Do you have to pay your money up front? O_O WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH AMERICAN UNIS?

In britain you pay £9,000 each year you study at uni. I'm considering hopping over the pond and studying, but the student loans worry me :B

It's a pay per term thing, not like paying the whole sum from the start. The numbers might seem ridiculous because of how high tuition is. Roughly $3,350 average yearly cost of tuition and such for a two-year college, about $9,100 per year for a public four-year college with the state resident price reductions, about $23,000 for out of state residents attending public four-year colleges, and upwards of $30,000 per year for private universities. That doesn't include anything like paying for room and board, by the way.

 

[Windsong]

Hey! My wife's doing this thing too! $30,000 for all of her six coming years!

HOO-FUCKING-RAY!

She's doing APU.

 

[MurderDeathKill]

Luckily, I'm doing community college, so my grants cover everything so far. Gonna have to get some loans for when I shoot for that bachelor's, tho. ._.

 

[Halo]

Gonna be around £60000 ($93000) in debt by the time I finish my degree. Admittedly I'll have a Master's out of it, not just a Bachelor's, but still... ugh. Fuck living on the breadline for four years just to still be in fucking mountains of debt.

 

[Space Cowboy]

Now it's time for a car lease, and a home mortgage!

WELCOME TO ADULTHOOD!

/punches in the gut

 

[Dipper]

When I finish my degree some years from now, the realization of what I just did is going to hit me like a thousand raging soccer moms flying at high speed to the face.

In other words, it's going to be horrible. But the success will be oh-so delicious.

 

[Touch of Insanity]

So far I've stayed out of debt, mainly because of a scholarship I won. But this year I'm pretty sure I'm finally going to slip into the group of broke students. That reality hit my the other day and I must say, it's freakin ass scary D: But went three years without using a loan so that's helped!

 

[Hecatoncheires]

I'm Scottish, and did both muh degree and muh Masters at Scottish universities. Which means those nice chaps over at Holyrood covered basically all the costs for me.

*poses before a Saltire flag as bagpipes play in the background*

Don't worry though I still have a shit-ton of debt from living expenses and other things

 

[Gonzo]

I haven't really calculated how much debt I'll inevitably be in, but considering that I'll be attending medical school after college, it'll be up there.

 

[Alan]

I did the "community college" thing for a couple years after high school, so I had no real debt to speak of. I did pay most everything out of pocket, though.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

This is the part where I would be thankful that I have inheritance to cover my school fees.
Except that inheritance was gained via losing a Grandparent. :/
So in that sense I am still thankful but at the same time it feels like blood money.

Regardless though, I find it ridiculous that education, something most people outright require these days to get into the Jobs that propel are society forward puts people in debt.
I mean, what backwards thinking is that?

"Oh yea, we need highly educated and skilled people to run our country, but we'll do everything we can to make you suffer for trying to be educated and skilled. Incentive? What is this 'Incentive' you speak of?".

I get that education, especially post-secondary is expensive to fund/maintain, but you'd imagine that's something the Government would have an active interest is covering as to make sure their people are actually properly educated, rather than being scared off from it because of the debt.

 

[Kagayours]

This is the part where I would be thankful that I have inheritance to cover my school fees.
Except that inheritance was gained via losing a Grandparent. :/
So in that sense I am still thankful but at the same time it feels like blood money.

Regardless though, I find it ridiculous that education, something most people outright require these days to get into the Jobs that propel are society forward puts people in debt.
I mean, what backwards thinking is that?

"Oh yea, we need highly educated and skilled people to run our country, but we'll do everything we can to make you suffer for trying to be educated and skilled. Incentive? What is this 'Incentive' you speak of?".

I get that education, especially post-secondary is expensive to fund/maintain, but you'd imagine that's something the Government would have an active interest is covering as to make sure their people are actually properly educated, rather than being scared off from it because of the debt.

Worst part is, the debt doesn't seem to scare people off as much as you'd think it would.

Seems to me that just about everyone who takes out student loans is just like "yeeaaaah I know that this is gonna fuck me in the ass later but oh well I still need to go to college soooo".

Not to mention, a lot of the loans that people take out are federal loans.

Which means that, in paying them back, you're giving the government money.

And given how many students they have forking over all that cash... bluh.

It just makes the whole thing feel much more like a business than it should. :/

Edit: I should clarify that my comment was based on how things seem to be in the US. I don't know much about what it's like elsewhere.

 

[Summer Rain]

So far I've stayed out of debt, mainly because of a scholarship I won. But this year I'm pretty sure I'm finally going to slip into the group of broke students. That reality hit my the other day and I must say, it's freakin ass scary D: But went three years without using a loan so that's helped!

I'm the same way. Essentially my first four years at University here in Canada were covered by a full scholarship. But then I decided that I hated what I did in my first year, and switched, meaning I have to pay out of pocket for the final year. Not to mention where I go for my CPA (Accounting designation) I'll be paying for that, too. Thank God my parents set aside money for my sister and I, though I'll be all run out by the end of my Business degree. The moment I have kids, I'm creating an education fund for them. It really pains me to see what people go through to finance an education, only to come up short when getting a job.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Worst part is, the debt doesn't seem to scare people off as much as you'd think it would.

Seems to me that just about everyone who takes out student loans is just like "yeeaaaah I know that this is gonna fuck me in the ass later but oh well I still need to go to college soooo".

Well we are in a world if we're told that such education is required for a decent future.
It's basically an economic expense people have been raised/conditioned to simply except.

Which means that, in paying them back, you're giving the government money.

And given how many students they have forking over all that cash... bluh.

Yet education get's severely underfunded. >.<

 

[Kagayours]

Yet education get's severely underfunded. >.<

That's what I meant when I said it "feels like a business".

Because if education costs weren't so high, they wouldn't be getting so much money from people paying back their loans. >>