[Purple Haize]

We need to offer more educational opportunities in TRADES. Welder, carpenters plumbers etc. more engineers less General Studies and Philosophy majors.

I agree with getting rid of ^^^^ but the trade dept is better served through hands on experience and getting paid to do it.

I am about 2500 hours short of a journeyman's license and I double majored in college. Ehh, Maybe should have just went into a trade.

That's my point. The Trades should be more of an option. I don't see why people look down on them. Heck I wish I could do some of them. I did learn to MAKE SURE you turn off the righ fuse when changing out your water heater!
As for Philosophy degrees yep I took a shot at them. Probably because I have one. With honors. I agre it helps one think critically and make logical arguments. Just not sure we need a whole bunch of Em.

[jmdickens]

We need to offer more educational opportunities in TRADES. Welder, carpenters plumbers etc. more engineers less General Studies and Philosophy majors.

I agree with getting rid of ^^^^ but the trade dept is better served through hands on experience and getting paid to do it.

I am about 2500 hours short of a journeyman's license and I double majored in college. Ehh, Maybe should have just went into a trade.

That's my point. The Trades should be more of an option. I don't see why people look down on them. Heck I wish I could do some of them. I did learn to MAKE SURE you turn off the righ fuse when changing out your water heater!
As for Philosophy degrees yep I took a shot at them. Probably because I have one. With honors. I agre it helps one think critically and make logical arguments. Just not sure we need a whole bunch of Em.

I would hope some of that short time in law school helped me learn to think critically......who knows.

[Purple Haize]

Holy smokes. More lawyers. That's what we need lol

[Hold My Own]

Has anyone else heard about something Obama put in place where if you work for a non-prof for 10 years and never default on a payment all of your college loans are forgiven? I just heard something about this....cant confirm it though

[SuperJon]

Has anyone else heard about something Obama put in place where if you work for a non-prof for 10 years and never default on a payment all of your college loans are forgiven? I just heard something about this....cant confirm it though

It's out there. Churches or religious places don't count though. It's in the student loans thread.

[JDUB]

Link? Does this cover school teachers? This could have a huge impact on the next 5-10 years of my life if it's true. I need to figure out now a loan repayment plan, and if Obama is gonna write it off I may as well benefit from him screwing the country.

[ATrain]

Link? Does this cover school teachers? This could have a huge impact on the next 5-10 years of my life if it's true. I need to figure out now a loan repayment plan, and if Obama is gonna write it off I may as well benefit from him screwing the country.

I think its government and non-profits, so I would assume school teachers count. I don't know for sure though. If I had loans, I'd almost be on year 3 of government service

[Purple Haize]

Teachers count in specific instructional and or geographical areas where there is a need. It similar to physicians tat go into rural under serviced areas and get their med school loans forgiven.

[Hold My Own]

4 more years, 4 more years, 4 more years

Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!

[Kolzilla41]

you guys are kidding with the shot at philosophy, right?

learning to think critically is one of the most valuable skills you can learn in college, and applicable anywhere, and philosphy is one of the few majors that actually teaches that here (along with government, and possibly a few others) if we want to be taken seriously as a educational institution, we shouldn't get rid of the most intellectual major the school offers.

also, trades are valuable, yes and the school has moved to add them.

that being said, general studies is just an excuse to be indecisive.

You're right. The intellectuals just end up running for public office.

[Kolzilla41]

We need to offer more educational opportunities in TRADES. Welder, carpenters plumbers etc. more engineers less General Studies and Philosophy majors.

I agree with getting rid of ^^^^ but the trade dept is better served through hands on experience and getting paid to do it.

I am about 2500 hours short of a journeyman's license and I double majored in college. Ehh, Maybe should have just went into a trade.

That's my point. The Trades should be more of an option. I don't see why people look down on them. Heck I wish I could do some of them. I did learn to MAKE SURE you turn off the righ fuse when changing out your water heater!
As for Philosophy degrees yep I took a shot at them. Probably because I have one. With honors. I agre it helps one think critically and make logical arguments. Just not sure we need a whole bunch of Em.

Wait, and you're a ref? They do none of the above

[ATrain]

you guys are kidding with the shot at philosophy, right?

learning to think critically is one of the most valuable skills you can learn in college, and applicable anywhere, and philosphy is one of the few majors that actually teaches that here (along with government, and possibly a few others) if we want to be taken seriously as a educational institution, we shouldn't get rid of the most intellectual major the school offers.

also, trades are valuable, yes and the school has moved to add them.

that being said, general studies is just an excuse to be indecisive.

You're right. The intellectuals just end up running for public office.

No, the intellectuals end up running public programs. The reason they suck is because of the idiots in office who dream them up, and the rules to govern them.

[From the class of 09]

The Real Meaning of $1 Trillion in Student Loans
If the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is right, the total outstanding student loan debt in the United States now stands at above $1 trillion dollars. In economic terms, that changes very little about what we already knew regarding college borrowing. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York had previously pegged the figure at $870 billion by the end of 2011. Either number would be larger than America's collective credit card balance.

But psychologically, it's a sad threshold. A trillion dollars -- it brings home just how enormous the burden is quickly becoming.

There is only one silver lining to the news. It's a sign, partly, that more students are going to college. It doesn't mean more are graduating, or that those who finish are finding gainful employment. It only means that an increasing number of Americans understand that they need an education to survive in the modern economy. Although earnings for colleges graduates are stagnating, they're not shrinking at the same breathtaking pace as wages for workers who only have a high school diploma. Getting a degree is the only reasonably safe route into the middle class, these days. It seems people are absorbing that lesson.

Otherwise, there's really nothing good to say. Student debt is skyrocketing alongside tuition prices, which have been fueled by a horrible confluence of state budget cuts and rising institutional costs. We still do not have a clear consensus on how to tame those forces. The White House has offered a few smart ideas, such as withholding a small amount of student aid from campuses that don't restrain tuition. But they're mostly half steps. As of now, they're also only theoretical.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... picks=true

[scuzdriver]

You guys can always join the military and serve your country after college. Good old Uncle Sam will be glad to take care of your student loan debt.

[From the class of 09]

To Pay Off Loans, Grads Put Off Marriage, Children

Between the ages of 18 and 22, Jodi Romine took out $74,000 in student loans to help finance her business-management degree at Kent State University in Ohio. What seemed like a good investment will delay her career, her marriage and decision to have children.

Ms. Romine's $900-a-month loan payments eat up 60% of the paycheck she earns as a bank teller in Beaufort, S.C., the best job she could get after graduating in 2008. Her fiancé Dean Hawkins, 31, spends 40% of his paycheck on student loans. They each work more than 60 hours a week. He teaches as well as coaches high-school baseball and football teams, studies in a full-time master's degree program, and moonlights weekends as a server at a restaurant. Ms. Romine, now 26, also works a second job, as a waitress. She is making all her loan payments on time.

They can't buy a house, visit their families in Ohio as often as they would like or spend money on dates. Plans to marry or have children are on hold, says Ms. Romine. "I'm just looking for some way to manage my finances."

High school's Class of 2012 is getting ready for college, with students in their late teens and early 20s facing one of the biggest financial decisions they will ever make.

Total U.S. student-loan debt outstanding topped $1 trillion last year, according to the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and it continues to rise as current students borrow more and past students fall behind on payments. Moody's Investors Service says borrowers with private student loans are defaulting or falling behind on payments at twice prerecession rates.

Most students get little help from colleges in choosing loans or calculating payments. Most pre-loan counseling for government loans is done online, and many students pay only fleeting attention to documents from private lenders. Many borrowers "are very confused, and don't have a good sense of what they've taken on," says Deanne Loonin, an attorney for the National Consumer Law Center in Boston and head of its Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.

More than half of student borrowers fail to max out government loans before taking out riskier private loans, according to research by the nonprofit Project on Student Debt. In 2006, Barnard College, in New York, started one-on-one counseling for students applying for private loans. Students borrowing from private lenders dropped 74% the next year, says Nanette DiLauro, director of financial aid. In 2007, Mount Holyoke College started a similar program, and half the students who received counseling changed their borrowing plans, says Gail W. Holt, a financial-services official at the Massachusetts school. San Diego State University started counseling and tracking student borrowers in 2010 and has seen private loans decline.

The implications last a lifetime. A recent survey by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys says members are seeing a big increase in people whose student loans are forcing them to delay major purchases or starting families.

Looking back, Ms. Romine wishes she had taken only "a bare minimum" of student loans. She paid some of her costs during college by working part time as a waitress. Now, she wishes she had worked even more. Given a second chance, "I would never have touched a private loan—ever," she says.

Ms. Romine hopes to solve the problem by advancing her career. At the bank where she works, a former supervisor says she is a hard working, highly capable employee. "Jodi is doing the best she can," says Michael Matthews, a Beaufort, S.C., bankruptcy attorney who is familiar with Ms. Romine's situation. "But she will be behind the eight-ball for years."

Private student loans often carry uncapped, variable interest rates and aren't required to include flexible repayment options. In contrast, government loans offer fixed interest rates and flexible options, such as income-based repayment and deferral for hardship or public service.

Steep increases in college costs are to blame for the student-loan debt burden, and most student loans are now made by the government, says Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, a private lenders' industry group.

Many private lenders encourage students to plan ahead on how to finance college, so "your eyes are open on what it's going to cost you and how you will manage that," says a spokeswoman for Sallie Mae, a Reston, Va., student-loan concern. Federal rules implemented in 2009 require lenders to make a series of disclosures to borrowers, so that "you are made aware multiple times before the loan is disbursed" of various lending options, the spokeswoman says.

Both private and government loans, however, lack "the most fundamental protections we take for granted with every other type of loan," says Alan Collinge, founder of StudentLoanJustice.org, an advocacy group. When borrowers default, collection agencies can hound them for life, because unlike other kinds of debt, there is no statute of limitations on collections. And while other kinds of debt can be discharged in bankruptcy, student loans must still be paid barring "undue hardship," a legal test that most courts have interpreted very narrowly.

Deferring payments to avoid default is costly, too. Danielle Jokela of Chicago earned a two-year degree and worked for a while to build savings before deciding to pursue a dream by enrolling at age 25 at a private, for-profit college in Chicago to study interior design. The college's staff helped her fill out applications for $79,000 in government and private loans. "I had no clue" about likely future earnings or the size of future payments, which ballooned by her 2008 graduation to more than $100,000 after interest and fees.

She couldn't find a job as an interior designer and twice had to ask lenders to defer payments for a few months. After interest plus forbearance fees that were added to the loans, she still owes $98,000, even after making payments for most of five years, says Ms. Jokela, 32, who is working as an independent contractor doing administrative tasks for a construction company.

By the time she pays off the loans 25 years from now, she will have paid $211,000. In an attempt to build savings, she and her husband, Mike, 32, a customer-service specialist, are selling their condo. Renting an apartment will save $600 a month. Ms. Jokela has given up on her hopes of getting an M.B.A., starting her own interior-design firm or having children. "How could I consider having children if I can barely support myself?" she says.


When Debt Takes Over

Potential consequences of taking out too many student loans

--Delays in buying a car or purchasing a home

--Postponement of marriage and childbirth for financial reasons

--Parents feel pressure to take out loans or otherwise help with payments

--Risk for parents who co-sign loans of losing homes, cars and other assets

--Little ability to discharge student loans in bankruptcy

--Inability to get credit cards or home or car loans

--Inability to rent a home because of high debt-to-income ratio

--Being forced to deal with private collection agencies in the event of default

--Having liens placed on bank accounts or property in a default*

--Facing collection fees of 25% of amount owed in a default

--No statute of limitations on collection efforts

--Having wages garnisheed

--Possible loss of state-issued professional licenses

--Reduction of Social Security payments**

--Seizure of tax refund**

*Used primarily by private lenders

**Government loans only

Source: WSJ reporting

Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 87086.html

[From the class of 09]

I like the idea of 1 on 1 loan counseling before you take out any loans. I’m sure it would be a pain for a school but students would appreciate it on the other side.
I still can’t get over how easy it is for teenagers to get this money. Oh you’re 18 with a high school diploma here is $20k.

[blwall1416]

I still can’t get over how easy it is for teenagers to get this money. Oh you’re 18 with a high school diploma here is $20k.

I like Western Sky. Want to borrow money? Sure, we'll help you out. Check out the rates & the payment plans on a 10K loan.

http://www.westernsky.com/General/Rates.aspx

[matshark]

Sallie Mae. Consolidating reduced the rate and then she threw me a further reduction for, get this, making my payments consistently. Considering a lot of people have their repayment deferred and deferred and deferred, I kinda wonder who the master and the slave is.


Now, as much as I don't think it's a big deal for students, it's a pretty huge deal for the lenders who are not going to get significant portions of this money back.

No wonder it's 2% - WE'RE HOLDING THE BAG FOR IT. Sallie Mae will definitely get the money back... it's a GSE. Look who the master and the slave is NOW.

[From the class of 09]

Interesting graph/interactive. Our debt seems rather high for the tuition.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012 ... f=business