That should be obvious. If you really dislike a school then don't just pick it because it's cheap. Press J to jump to the feed. There are some people out there that are in really bad situations. Then transfer in halfway done. Don't borrow private loans to live in super swanky dorms. We all hear horror stories of how this person is $100,000 in debt and that person had their lives ruined. maybe you'll change majors, or drop out, or not like northeastern. There's something like $1 trillion in student loan debt outstanding. My wife wanted to go to Cornell but her parents didnt have the means to pay for it. It’s all the same. Share your story to ensure student loan borrowers are heard. "When I moved to London, I was shocked at how expensive it is. So my advice is to consider the school options, yes, but also think about the rest of your adult life. My personal story is that I have roughly 115K in student loans. She got a lot of valuable experience at an internship that is still directly related to her job 10 years later. This includes banks, credit unions, or online lenders. Anything over 50-100k in debt isn’t worth it for undergrad. You should clarify something with your parents. I was lucky enough to not have student loan debt from undergrad , or any other installment debt like auto loans, so this was the only debt I was paying off. It was pretty great. None of the companies are actively trying to fuck borrowers over. Also, it sounds like op’s parents could pay the 80k and get out debt free. If your degree does not help you, or if you can't pay that debt, then it's a crisis. I've had student loans and paid them off relatively easily in a few years. He planned accordingly, I'm proud. There's nothing inherently evil about student loans. With Halloween beckoning, the old adage that things can go “bump in the night” takes on added meaning. We need to collectively put on our adult pants, starting acting a little less absurd, and calm the hell down. I am an engineer at a major aerospace company, and I promise you for your undergraduate degree no one gives a rat’s butt about what school you went to. The long read : MH Miller left university with a journal full of musings on Virginia Woolf and a vast financial burden. Don't do it to yourself and don't let your kids do it. I just can envision myself at this university and being happy. Consider it as an investment and whether the anticipated returns are appropriate for the cost. Sapping borrowers of their ability to save for the future and live comfortably in the present, student loans are an enormous and escalating national issue. If you're really set on Northeastern, I think you should appeal your financial aid decision. I would go to a community college and then transfer to the 4 year school. I graduated with $200k in student loan debt from my undergraduate engineering degree. Half of my loans are federal and are on an IBR. If you got into all of those great schools, you're clearly a smart person. IMO, it is not a crisis on a macro level, but it most certainly is on a micro level. But in reality is the situation really that stark, or is it just the extreme situations that make it seem like the millenials are in big trouble? Or is the situation really as bad as it is made out to be and we are facing a real crisis? The university I went to had a small but accredited computer science program with little fanfare and that worked out just fine. You probably think of your potential all income relative to the debt and try to justify that it’s not that bad and you’ll pay it back quickly... you won’t. I really didn’t like Stonybrook when I visited, and their engineering programs aren’t nearly as developed as some of the other institutions that I applied to. I was able to bring my private loan from 10% interest to 5.5%. 93 GPA, 1550 SAT, etc. View all outstanding student loans from one dashboard. 70k a year is absolute bonkers. In general people's reaction to this crisis disturbs me. Working with my parents to establish a hard dollar amount of family contribution is a good idea - thank you :). People are borrowing in unreasonable ways and then get shocked when making major life decisions involving years of work and tens of thousands of borrowed dollars with no solid research or plan turns out poorly. Some debt in reasonable proportion to your realistically projected income isn't bad at all. Thank you for the response - sounds like people are overwhelmingly agreeing with your perspective. I went to a highly regarded school in the industry, I work alongside engineers from Ivy League schools, but I also work with engineers from the local commuter school that probably was 90% cheaper than my school. The same goes for a lot of my friends. You cut the cost in half and get the "name" of the 4 year school on your degree. State school all the way, IMO. The people who are fucked the hardest are the ones with $100k in private debt and an underwaterbasketweaving or intersectional feminist studies degree. Credit horror stories crop up every day for Todd Christensen, an accredited financial counselor with nonprofit counseling agency Money Fit in Boise, Idaho. Your expenses change, there’s taxes, you get married, have kids... Student loan debt is my #1 regret in life. The most important investment you can make is in yourself, and so putting your resources toward learning is an excellent idea. Student debt stories are some of the most powerful tools we have to create change. With that said, an engineering degree and some internships from a good school will allow you to earn a comfortable salary once you graduate. it is also true that major choice makes a big difference and sometimes studying unmarketable degrees for high cost is just plain stupid. If I were you, I would ask your parents to commit to a particular dollar amount per year and maximum total dollar amount. 20-40k in debt for a decent career as an EE is nothing. Online. Although the median student loan balance is roughly $17,000, the delinquency rate has steadily risen from 8.7 percent in 2013 to 11.2 percent in 2017. That is like 200-250 a month for ten years. Half of my debt is in the form of “private” loans not guaranteed by the federal government. I regret not gettting a more valuable degree, but my liberal arts degree has still gotten me quite far. If I had to start over, I'd do exactly the same. From mid-2014 to mid-2016, 3.9 million undergraduates with federal student loan debt dropped out, according to an analysis of federal data by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit news organization. /* Customer can control widget dimensions by wrapping it in a div with their own CSS */ I feel that the mature decision is to set aside where I want to go, because it seems like a waste to put myself in debt for life just to enjoy my 4 years of college rather than hate them. As a result, there might be times that … Night of the Living Debt: Five Real Life Student Loan Horror Stories. If you didn’t kill it in high school, it’s debt or no undergrad degree. ... Reddit's hub for advice, articles, and general discussion about getting and repaying student loans. I took a “temporary” job after college. I guess what I'm trying to say is the degree is more important than the school, and internships are incredibly important as well. Some of my friends have hundreds of thousands of debt and homeownership doesn't look like it will be possible for them. Please feel free to join the conversation, discuss experiences, or ask for help. i'm starting to feel like the millenial generation is general gets a bad rap when things aren't all that bad in reality. The Reddit student loans community can be a helpful place to ask about your specific student loan situation — though again, make sure to thoroughly fact-check any advice before acting on it. I'm a software engineer if that means anything for you. Go somewhere decent and affordable and get rad internships. RELATED: Tell us your student loan debt horror stories “I’m 26 and I graduated last year from Wright State with $25,000 in private loans and $20,000 in federal loans… Hi everyone. As you can see, student loan interest is a ticking time bomb that must be dealt with as soon as possible. Investing in yourself is important and if that means taking on some debt to accelerate your shifting from one phase of your life to another then so be it so long as it's done in a responsible way. You should also create a debt plan to see how much extra you can afford to throw at your loans. Learn about PSLF program options. Used that to ease into a public in-state university and graduated with far less debt than most people and in a timely fashion. The same goes for a lot of my friends. Direct Loan borrowers were allowed to base their payments on their incomes, and to have their debts forgiven after 25 years. And I get it, a lot of kids entering college aren't prepared to make that kind of responsible decision, but that's all of our fault for making money and financial literacy such a neglected topic of discussion. Credit Card Debt can invoke fear, stress and nightmares. As of 2019, 44 million Americans owed more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, to the tune of $37,000+ per student. My Mountain of Debt. These 10 credit horror stories are certainly scary, but they’re also full of invaluable lessons that can help you to find out useful tips on things like how you can get a loan … I want to go to Northeastern so badly, but I just think it seems childish to take out 150,000 in loans (and have to add interest in top of that) just to do what I want to do. … If I could do it over again I would pick a school like the $16k/year one you mentioned. I had a competitive job offer from a software company that is a household name before I graduated. Many borrowers have made terrible decisions. We all hear horror stories of how this person is $100,000 in debt and that person had their lives ruined. Income these days has a lot more to do with your grad and postgraduate degrees, and even those employers don't really care where you went to school. I was a first generation student from shithole nowhere with parents that knew less than I did and we were taken advantage of by a for profit soul sucking vampire before all this was popular. Back when I started school, the interest rates on my student loans ranged from about 6.5% (a subsidized loan that my school offered up to a limit) to 8.5% (the majority of my federal loans). I tried to find decent jobs in my field once I got back to the US and while I got 2 interviews (out of ~100 apps) practically no one would look at my application/resume without a masters. Your starting salary as an engineer in the workforce will probably be around $70k or so, depending on the industry you choose. (Screenshot: Reddit) ‘Playing with stocks is risky’ Other Reddit users were considering actually spending their student loans to buy GME shares.. As the cost of higher education continues to rise, households are finding it increasingly difficult to manage the accompanying loan burden. You could even take a mixed standing and attend SB the first two years and transfer somewhere else. Young people are supposed to make stupid mistakes like this, the difference is it didn't use to cost them a fraction of the rest of their lives. Analyze and optimize student loans. Me? There's also the added risk of, you don't know what you'll want to do after 4 years of college. This system has tons of safeguards put in place to protect borrowers, and it is a testament to how poorly our generation has made decisions that we have made the sweet deal we get on subsidized federal lending into a crisis. That especially goes for Americans getting aggressively bumped by burdensome student loan debt. I mean a lot of times, there’s no choice but to go into debt for an undergraduate degree. Dream schools can be really alluring (and I did visit a few of mine) but I realized that the debt it would put me in far outweighed the benefits of spending a few years at a fancy school. I graduated almost 8 years ago now and I can tell you that it is absolutely not worth spending more than you can afford on a degree. 99.4k. Or op could work a summer internship and make a few grand. Horror stories about student debt are nothing new. Stony brook isn’t a bad school and prestige isn’t as cutthroat for engineering as it is law schools. I consolidated a few of my private ones and plan on doing the same with the others. 9 Unbelievable Student Loan Horror Stories. Save your credits for things that are upper level eng or things you like , don’t waste money relearning English 101 which at most schools is just review and not that rigorous. Take something that will help you get a job or that you love. I went to a community college close to home and got a transfer degree. Real Student Loan Horror Stories from Our Community Joseph Orsolini, CFP, College Aid Planners, Inc.: “I am working with a young lady who recently graduated from an elite college with $172,000 of student loan debt. Created Apr 19, 2010. Go to SB, do extremely well, make networking connections, do a lot of interning and you’ll put yourself in a good position come graduation. I was ecstatic, there is just so much I love about the school. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. You'll graduate with a strong resume and be setup for success. I've paid $1000/mo for over a decade on my loans. I also only make 42,000 a year and my wife works part time at a cafe. Read their horror stories below. Nearly 74 percent of first-generation students in the class of 2015-16 borrowed money for their undergraduate education, according to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) . Read their horror stories below. I am VERY lucky that I have a pretty decent job outside of my field right now, and no matter what, my debt/income ratio should be 1:1. Op, the money you spend either as debt or that of your parents is money that could become the down payment for your home or money to study abroad for a summer or even a full year. Don't do it. The average undergraduate debt is something like $36k. Life could be hard. Paradigm shift is happening as more and more people realize their degrees are not worth what these schools are charging these days. Find out what transfer credits they’d accept and go take as many as possible at community college for 1-2 years. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Very few people who put together well researched plans and carefully think through college/borrowing end up in trouble. Consider whether you want that much debt anchored to you with a salary like that. Struggling with the costs of post-graduate life, an MBA student, Lara, 27, has been making use of the site for three years and has had around ten sugar daddies—the last one of which has turned into a relationship. Our client contacted us in a panic, because he owed Citibank in excess of $14,000. Northeastern also doesn't really have any unified student or campus culture because of the nature of the school/co-op program, etc. It has significantly altered my life in bad ways and I regret it daily. Join. Your headspace will matter more than the school itself for whether you're happy or not. A few weeks ago, he was meeting with a couple that had one partner lose a state job with substantial benefits and take a position with half the income. So imagine your parents chipped in a bit, you took on a small amount of debt, and earned a little, and the debt is a serious nonissue. The four to five years you spend in college are going to give you an excellent foundation but don't pour everything into it, you're just getting started. And I still have £40,000 of student loans to pay off. Second, think about your other schools and get it out of your head that you wouldn't like it there or you'd be miserable. It has set back my entire life plans (marriage/children at least 5 yrs, buying a home at least 10). I hate the idea of student debt, so I told my son flat out, "I can afford 2k/month for 4 years", plan accordingly. Mechanics of materials is the same at a private school as it is at your public state school, and it’s way cheaper. Read thousands of real student debt stories from people across the country. It sucks. Even if you didn’t apply to the honors college at admissions you can still get admission later. You don’t want to be bogged down with $280k in education debt. Thanks to 0 debt, we are miles ahead to peers of same age financially. While student loan refinancing would have helped me manage the interest rate, at the time I was facing $500,000 in student loans, and I was stuck. In preparation for a speech I gave at one of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s student debt press conferences, I learned about “auto-default”: Under Sallie Mae loan contracts, your loans … Book free 1:1 sessions with certified student loan experts. It is small if it lets you get that 80k job. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Subsidized and unsubsidized federal loans make up the other half. I'm dealing with it but nothing pisses me off more than when somebody says "yeah well you should have done your research". In the NJ/NY area, some engineers start at $50k/yr out of college while others, on the extreme high end, may start at $80-100k. As that guy from 60 minutes would say: “What would you do?”. Giving access to low-no underwriting unsecured debt to parents/young students has turned out about as you would expect. At my San Diego debt relief law firm, we find debt solutions to your debt problems. Student loans come in two types: federal student loans and private student loans. The issue? Student Loan Horror Stories. After retaining us, we sent several letters to … Are they willing to pay half the cost of any of those schools? So first I'd talk to northeastern and tell them you absolutely need financial aid, and if they can offer anything. Potentially $280,000 in debt does seem crazy. I wasn’t excepting any need based financial aid, but I was hoping for a presidential scholarship or at least a few thousand dollars worth of merit based aid. However, due to the price difference, it seems that I really don’t have a choice when it comes to where to go to college. The net impact on the economy of the loans being out there is hard to quantify too. Private student loans come from private lenders. Read full article. Because of this, my partner and I were able to purchase a home in our early 30s. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the StudentLoans community. It makes life really hard. I took a “temporary” job after college, rather than going … I'd caution on this advice just a little though, we have to be careful to avoid generalizations about money matters. In my opinion, going into debt for an undergrad degree is not a smart financial move. That doesn't go without saying that if some generous donor were to come along and pay them off that I wouldn't accept. Eventually, Clinton planned, every new student loan would be a Direct Loan. For those reasons, they have said that at most, they will finance half of the cost of my undergraduate education. From experience, none of the schools you got into will put you ahead in the engineering world. Or would you be okay with going to a less expensive school so you can start your adult working career and actually make and save some money? Editor’s note: We asked Denver Post readers if huge student loans were a guarantee of a better career or just of crippling debt. Focus on grades, internships, networking , not worrying about a relatively small 20k in debt. In fact, some people have experienced terrifying tales of financial misfortune outside the holiday season, and you could too. I eventually did a short sale. Whether by way of savings dilemmas, excessive debt or institutional red tape, here are six … The "drain" would only be the interest on that debt ... which I can see an argument for reducing in a number of ways. Model payment scenarios based on payoff goals.