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(NPR) Fail Woman frets about paying back $160K student loan while still affording rent in NYC. Luckily, she can buy her organic, locally-grown groceries with a credit card. Seriously, is she trying to win a "you're doing it wrong" contest?   (npr.org) divider line 409
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18373 clicks; posted to Main » on 21 Oct 2011 at 9:39 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



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NFA [TotalFark]
2011-10-21 04:45:33 PM
I recently saw a video of a woman who became a dentist and ran up $200k in student loans. She says she has never been able to make more than $40k per year as a dentist so she defaulted on her loans. since some of the loans were a special medical education loan from the government, now she isn't allowed to treat medicare patients. .

I'm thinking she doesn't have enough life skills to survive as a human being.
 
2011-10-21 04:53:24 PM
NFA: She says she has never been able to make more than $40k per year as a dentist .

She must be the worst dentist ever, or is practicing someplace where they give you a chicken if you clean their teeth
 
2011-10-21 04:54:12 PM
Hey subby. Every detail in your headline is wrong. The woman with $160,000 lives in PA. The woman who lives in NYC has only 85,000 in debt, and her worry is that she will be forced to take on even more debt through paying for groceries with a credit card.
 
ZAZ [TotalFark]
2011-10-21 04:55:37 PM
What I get out of the article is, there are desperate, altruistic woman out there who need a man to rescue them from student loan hell.

Please send photo with application.
 
2011-10-21 04:56:25 PM
Haven't we seen this woman on Fark before?
 
2011-10-21 05:02:33 PM
OK one chick goes to private college and law school and racks up 6 figures in debt, and then, in a blast of brilliancy, decides to go "non-profit"? Cry me a farking river, you tool. Those of less-enlightened fools don't owe you jack shiat.
 
2011-10-21 05:48:10 PM
I've known plenty of people with fantastic degrees that are not truly bright and have no idea how real life works.
Sad, kinda.
 
2011-10-21 05:48:53 PM
Have been hearing tales of guys being handed student loan payment books by women they're "casually dating" with the implied promise of increasingly exotic sexytimes when they stop by for the check every month. Is this really a thing?

/BS detector pings a bit on this.
//Both guys are annoying tools.
 
2011-10-21 05:53:09 PM
Between her undergraduate degree and law school - both at private institutions - Iachini owes about $160,000. She's now 31, and, only half-jokingly, says she's grateful her debt didn't scare away her husband when they were dating.

I see a couple of problems with this.
1) lawyer - the world and the US do not need more lawyers. so your degree choice sucked ballz. (not saying that there are not millions of lawyer jobs)
2) private school - you went with the expensive, deficit choice and now you complain about it. you are a cretin and shuold find a bridge to jump off of.

sorry, dont care why you got your degree, but if you cant pay off your loan, you and the bank which gave you the loan are both retarded. period.

why are school loans not based at least in part on expected returns?
sigh
 
2011-10-21 06:02:32 PM
www.fletcherarmstrongblog.com

Progressivism's battle cry is: "Mulligan!"

It demands the ultimate entitlement - emancipation from the ruinous results of all prior claims of entitlement.
 
2011-10-21 06:04:28 PM
"There were months when I was really having to watch my budget in terms of grocery shopping," she says. As with many repayment plans, hers is graduated, meaning payments increase as time goes on. She worried that at some point groceries would have to go on a credit card.

Stupid submitter.
 
2011-10-21 06:07:46 PM
Student loans are an outright scam. An 18 year old is easy prey for being oversold on loans and even on an education that will not result in a good salary. Nevermind the people who were oversold then for whatever reason couldn't get a degree. There are a LOT of people out there with 20, 30k or more in non-dischargable debt (except in extreme cases) and not a damned thing to show for it. It's a farking racket. Are the borrowers to blame? Sure, they had their part in it. But the lending institutions and those who sell bad ideas to kids can go get farked as far as I'm concerned. Default all you want, I say, though they're going to get their money if you ever plan on having employment or assets of any sort.

/never took out a student loan in my life, would NEVER recommend it.
 
2011-10-21 06:13:41 PM
!!!STUDENT LOAN THREAD!!!


/nothing brings out the bitter vitriol more effectively
//well, except maybe tipping threads
 
2011-10-21 06:16:33 PM
Anyone who racks up $160k in student loans is an absolute idiot. Undergrad schools do not actually matter. Go to a state school. You'll be fine. Anyone (unless you are in sciences) who goes straight from undergrad to a masters program is clearly afraid of being out in the real world. Employers really do want to see undergrad followed by real world experience followed by graduate degree if required for further advancement.

$160k????? Then you go non-profit? Total idiot.

I left college with $5k of credit card debt (cuz I was an idiot) but no student loans.

Debt is always bad.
 
2011-10-21 06:19:42 PM
Meatzilla: Progressivism's battle cry is: "Mulligan!"

I thought it was more like, "I was told that if I properly made a reservation with the club-house, I could tee off now, but they won't let me on the course and the guys on the 18th hole shat all over the greens."
 
2011-10-21 06:22:15 PM
Iachini's debt is certainly extreme, and she had no idea what kind of monthly payment it would mean. Turns out it's $1,200. And, since Iachini chose nonprofit work over the law, that's more than half her take-home pay.


moviesmedia.ign.com

She chose... unwisely.
 
wee [TotalFark]
2011-10-21 06:34:24 PM
That first chick's husband is a saint for basically giving up any dreams he had in order to support her.

That, or she's very talented in that way.
 
2011-10-21 06:55:30 PM
TheDumbBlonde: OK one chick goes to private college and law school and racks up 6 figures in debt, and then, in a blast of brilliancy, decides to go "non-profit"?
dumbandilikeit: $160k????? Then you go non-profit? Total idiot.

You guys act as if she had a choice. The legal market ain't exactly hopping at the moment. She may have had no other options* than working for a non-profit.

*as a lawyer. She, of course, could have been smarter and never gone to law school. My wife and I both went to law school, but only because we had full scholarships and were working full time. It simply doesn't make sense to go six figures into debt on a gamble.
 
2011-10-21 07:00:48 PM
NFA: I recently saw a video of a woman who became a dentist and ran up $200k in student loans. She says she has never been able to make more than $40k per year as a dentist so she defaulted on her loans.

I have no words to think how inept she must be. You don't have to be a big cosmetic dentist to make it in the world, and you don't have to create work thanks to the soft drinks and junk food manufacturers. Just move to a smaller town, do nuts and bolts dentistry and you will not hurt for work. It may not be glamorous, but it is rewarding in way more than monetary ways.
 
2011-10-21 07:03:27 PM
fusillade762: !!!STUDENT LOAN THREAD!!!

/nothing brings out the bitter vitriol more effectively
//well, except maybe tipping threads


Not been to a child support thread, have you?
 
2011-10-21 07:06:48 PM
Between her undergraduate degree and law school - both at private institutions - Iachini owes about $160,000. She's now 31, and, only half-jokingly, says she's grateful her debt didn't scare away her husband when they were dating.

Oh hello, my future! Only my undergrad/law school institution is public.
 
2011-10-21 07:09:14 PM
Theaetetus: TheDumbBlonde: OK one chick goes to private college and law school and racks up 6 figures in debt, and then, in a blast of brilliancy, decides to go "non-profit"?
dumbandilikeit: $160k????? Then you go non-profit? Total idiot.

You guys act as if she had a choice. The legal market ain't exactly hopping at the moment. She may have had no other options* than working for a non-profit.

*as a lawyer. She, of course, could have been smarter and never gone to law school. My wife and I both went to law school, but only because we had full scholarships and were working full time. It simply doesn't make sense to go six figures into debt on a gamble.


she also didnt need an expensive private school law degree to work for a non-profit ...
really hate people who WHINE about the choices they made. HELLLLOOOOO you made your choice, live with it.

or at least change the system so that school loans can be forgiven under chapter 13.
TADA
the problem would solve itself instantly. bank would stop giving loans like that. period.
 
2011-10-21 07:27:33 PM
A lot of self righteous is in this thread. And it's going to get a healthy dose of derp when it goes live.
 
2011-10-21 07:34:18 PM
namatad:
she also didnt need an expensive private school law degree to work for a non-profit ...


(i) ... as opposed to those cheap public school law degrees?
(ii) She needed a law degree if she wanted to do legal work for a non-profit.
(iii) As I said, there's no indication she originally wanted to work for a non-profit. She may have entered law school with dreams of being a big corporate lawyer, valiantly defending Chase Bank against regulators and hippie scum... and have turned to non-profit work once she turned out to be unhireable.

really hate people who WHINE about the choices they made. HELLLLOOOOO you made your choice, live with it.

Sure... but I also really hate people who look at someone's current situation - e.g. working for a non-profit - and call them an idiot for a choice they had made five years previously. You have to be a real douche for using your 20/20 hindsight to blame people for not being clairvoyant.

or at least change the system so that school loans can be forgiven under chapter 13.
TADA
the problem would solve itself instantly. bank would stop giving loans like that. period.


Agreed. I'd also like to see some of the current fraud suits against law schools go forward. Most schools have been misrepresenting graduate incomes and job placement rates for years. The scummiest ones "hire" unemployed graduates for a few weeks, just to claim 100% placement.
The rates of hitting it big in the music industry and becoming a rockstar vs. being a barely-employed guy who plays for his bartab are similar to the rates of being a rainmaker vs. being a barely-employed document reviewer. If more people knew that, the number of people going to law school would be similar to the number of people majoring in music performance, and the industry would be a lot healthier.
 
2011-10-21 07:48:46 PM
Theaetetus: Sure... but I also really hate people who look at someone's current situation - e.g. working for a non-profit - and call them an idiot for a choice they had made five years previously. You have to be a real douche for using your 20/20 hindsight to blame people for not being clairvoyant.

no
I hate them for complaining about it. That risk is identical for every single college student. They make calculated risks about how much to spend, on what degree, at what school, for what potential gain. The student who got a teaching degree at a public school and is now teaching K-12 and having trouble making ends meet? this person I can understand, relate to and sympathize with. the person who spent 160k at private schools to become a lawyer and is now broke? meh. she has nothing to complain about. no sympathy for her. she gambled poorly and lost. whatever.

the first example is helping society by teaching the young.
the last example is an attention whore.
 
2011-10-21 07:56:38 PM
I was very fortunate to be able to get TAP, a pell grant and a scholarship, so in the two years it took me to get my AAS I only racked up about $10,000 in student loans. Unfortunately I squandered it on a degree only slightly less useless than philosophy: Fine Arts. I could have been a graphic designer and possibly made some money in the art field, but nooooooooo I had to be an artist. LOL @ the impetuousness of youth. But I paid the loan off and am lucky to have a steady job as an administrative assistant at the same company for nine years now. You live, you learn.

/csb
//I never stopped painting or creating art, I even sell something from time to time
///my college days were some of the best in my life and if I could I would do it all over again, destitute as I was/am
 
2011-10-21 07:57:09 PM
namatad: Theaetetus: Sure... but I also really hate people who look at someone's current situation - e.g. working for a non-profit - and call them an idiot for a choice they had made five years previously. You have to be a real douche for using your 20/20 hindsight to blame people for not being clairvoyant.

no
I hate them for complaining about it. That risk is identical for every single college student. They make calculated risks about how much to spend, on what degree, at what school, for what potential gain. The student who got a teaching degree at a public school and is now teaching K-12 and having trouble making ends meet? this person I can understand, relate to and sympathize with. the person who spent 160k at private schools to become a lawyer and is now broke? meh. she has nothing to complain about. no sympathy for her. she gambled poorly and lost. whatever.


Nope. As I said, in many cases, the information that would enable them to make a calculated risk is hidden, unavailable, or may be intentionally falsified. They're actually taking the risk blindly, without their knowledge.
If I offer you a risky investment and you take it, you're knowingly making a gamble. If I offer you a guaranteed 5% return on a treasury-backed bond, but it's really a Ponzi scheme, it would be asinine to blame you for whining about it afterwards.
 
2011-10-21 08:01:11 PM
[CTRL+F]

organic

0 found
 
2011-10-21 08:03:23 PM
Theaetetus: Nope. As I said, in many cases, the information that would enable them to make a calculated risk is hidden, unavailable, or may be intentionally falsified.

no it isnt
the number of lawyers in the US is farking enormous. the idea that the demand for lawyers will exceed the current or future supply is absurd. this has been true for years if not decades so was available to her when she started school.

the idea that the better paying lawyer jobs would be available to all law students is also absurd. they know for a fact that some of them will end up in high paying corporate jobs and some of them will end up in traffic court.

falsified? well she is a lawyer. so if the information was false, she would be suing them for fraud, right?

plsu either adults entered into contracts or they didnt. sucks that we think that 18yo students are adults, but we let them sign papers, so I guess they are ... LOL
 
2011-10-21 08:07:15 PM
namatad: Theaetetus: Nope. As I said, in many cases, the information that would enable them to make a calculated risk is hidden, unavailable, or may be intentionally falsified.

no it isnt
the number of lawyers in the US is farking enormous. the idea that the demand for lawyers will exceed the current or future supply is absurd. this has been true for years if not decades so was available to her when she started school.


By the same logic, Ponzi schemes should be completely legal, because getting a good return on an investment these days is clearly absurd, so anyone is already forewarned.

the idea that the better paying lawyer jobs would be available to all law students is also absurd. they know for a fact that some of them will end up in high paying corporate jobs and some of them will end up in traffic court.

Go to a local law school and do an informal survey. I doubt any of them will be able to give you the proper percentages for each group of "some".

falsified? well she is a lawyer. so if the information was false, she would be suing them for fraud, right?

As I mentioned, there's several current lawsuits. What are you whining about? That they haven't been already decided?

plsu either adults entered into contracts or they didnt. sucks that we think that 18yo students are adults, but we let them sign papers, so I guess they are ... LOL

... so you do think Ponzi schemes should be legal. Hey, you signed the papers and lost your retirement account, granny. Sucks to be you, LOL.

You're a putz.
 
2011-10-21 08:08:02 PM
namatad: the idea that the demand for lawyers will exceed the current or future supply is absurd. this has been true for years if not decades so was available to her when she started school.

It's been decades. The legal profession oversaturated pretty hardcore in the 80's.

I think it's eased up a bit now since more people are streaming into MBA degrees, which is now highly oversaturated.
 
2011-10-21 08:11:10 PM
Shostie: since more people are streaming into MBA degrees, which is now highly oversaturated.

There's another place for an informal survey. How many of the people starting out for an MBA realize that they're going to end up unhireable with six figures of debt? They'll all tell you that they know it happens (and of course won't happen to them), but my guess is they think the odds are more like 10% fail, 90% break even or succeed, as opposed to 90%, 10% break even or succeed.
 
2011-10-21 08:13:47 PM
Heard this on my alarm clock radio this morning. She took on debt by going to a private school for her MBA... and is now limited to jobs that pay enough for her to pay it back.

Uh... yeah. Thanks for waking me up with that revelation. Did she need an MBA to figure that one out?
 
2011-10-21 08:16:13 PM
Theaetetus: Shostie: since more people are streaming into MBA degrees, which is now highly oversaturated.

There's another place for an informal survey. How many of the people starting out for an MBA realize that they're going to end up unhireable with six figures of debt? They'll all tell you that they know it happens (and of course won't happen to them), but my guess is they think the odds are more like 10% fail, 90% break even or succeed, as opposed to 90%, 10% break even or succeed.


Before the crash, it was a pretty solid investment. After... not so much.

On the other hand, some of these grads are getting what Fark would call "bootstrappy" and going off on their own and starting up new businesses.

Regardless, it's a bit of a gamble any time.
 
2011-10-21 08:20:03 PM
Shostie:
Regardless, it's a bit of a gamble any time.


Or an impossibly huge gamble... That's the problem: they think it's only a bit of a gamble, but 90% will fail. They don't realize it's more like investing in a penny stock than investing in a large cap company.
 
2011-10-21 08:38:36 PM
So education costs too much and jobs pay too little is what a compassionate person might get out of something like this. But several brilliant people here on fark believe there is no limit to engineering and IT jobs, and that if we merely strive for education in a few areas of knowledge all the worlds problems will be solved.

Go fark yourselves for your arrogance and lack of empathy.

Our society is teetering on the brink of massive change. Gone are the days that we have to worry about our ability to produce to survive. Now we have to worry about how we distribute the significant resources that we have. We hold young people to suffer through the archaic paradigms that no longer promise success and then laugh at them when they fail. Funny.

40 years ago you could go to work at a company as a janitor with zero education, and get promoted from within to a skilled position with good pay and good benefits. My own father did that when bootstrappy was a reality. Now you can hold a masters degree and barely qualify to be an intern. Don't fault young people for sticking to the rules that their parents followed and ending up bankrupt. Every area of knowledge is relevant to creating a better society even if our current corporate driven society only rewards a few.

It's the system we have that is the problem not the people trying to succeed within it.
 
2011-10-21 08:41:07 PM
MayoSlather: So education costs too much and jobs pay too little is what a compassionate person might get out of something like this. But several brilliant people here on fark believe there is no limit to engineering and IT jobs, and that if we merely strive for education in a few areas of knowledge all the worlds problems will be solved.

Go fark yourselves for your arrogance and lack of empathy.

Our society is teetering on the brink of massive change. Gone are the days that we have to worry about our ability to produce to survive. Now we have to worry about how we distribute the significant resources that we have. We hold young people to suffer through the archaic paradigms that no longer promise success and then laugh at them when they fail. Funny.

40 years ago you could go to work at a company as a janitor with zero education, and get promoted from within to a skilled position with good pay and good benefits. My own father did that when bootstrappy was a reality. Now you can hold a masters degree and barely qualify to be an intern. Don't fault young people for sticking to the rules that their parents followed and ending up bankrupt. Every area of knowledge is relevant to creating a better society even if our current corporate driven society only rewards a few.

It's the system we have that is the problem not the people trying to succeed within it.


Well put. VERY well put. If you weren't already TF, I'd sponsor you for that.
 
2011-10-21 08:52:11 PM
The higher education system is completely fuxored in this country. If I hadn't got a scholarship I would probably not even have been able to go to college. It has gotten MUCH worse. Until education is a higher priority than the military or coddling wealth retention in this country we are completely pooched, and I don't see that happening in my lifetime.
 
2011-10-21 09:03:30 PM
Woman frets about paying back $160K student loan while still affording rent in NYC. Luckily, she can buy her organic, locally-grown groceries with a credit card. Seriously, is she trying to win a "you're doing it wrong" contest?

Woman frets about paying back $160K student loan while still affording rent in NYC.

says Stephanie Iachini, of Altoona, Pa. ...Iachini owes about $160,000.

Also
cmunic8r99: [CTRL+F]

organic

0 found


Rincewind53: Hey subby. Every detail in your headline is wrong. The woman with $160,000 lives in PA. The woman who lives in NYC has only 85,000 in debt, and her worry is that she will be forced to take on even more debt through paying for groceries with a credit card.


In summary:

See headline mischaracterizations, then re-read this bit of drek → submitard: is she trying to win a "you're doing it wrong" contest?
 
2011-10-21 09:30:10 PM
The air in this thread is full of bootstraps
 
2011-10-21 09:34:35 PM
You know, education really is far too damn expensive, but how do you rack up numbers like that? I should be around $30k or so once I'm done with my goddamn MASTER'S degree, less if I get some outside help like fellowships. Even without the fund my parents helpfully built for me, no scholarships, and without my current TA bid, assuming I ran the entirety of both degrees on all debt, I would at most be around $100k. For two degrees.

I have sympathy, but come the fark on.
 
2011-10-21 09:36:30 PM
MayoSlather: Every area of knowledge is relevant to creating a better society even if our current corporate driven society only rewards a few.

You're right! Remember those Performing Arts majors who graduated back in the 1950's? They were millionaires by the time they hit the job market. We never would have gotten to the Moon without the thousands of well-paid Women's Studies majors that NASA hired during the Apollo program.
 
2011-10-21 09:41:50 PM
Meatzilla: [www.fletcherarmstrongblog.com image 336x354]

Progressivism's battle cry is: "Mulligan!"

It demands the ultimate entitlement - emancipation from the ruinous results of all prior claims of entitlement.


buyer's remorse
 
2011-10-21 09:46:24 PM
Meatzilla: [www.fletcherarmstrongblog.com image 336x354]

Progressivism's battle cry is: "Mulligan!"

It demands the ultimate entitlement - emancipation from the ruinous results of all prior claims of entitlement.


And what we call 'conservatism' now demands the same for banks and home'owners'.

We are well and truly double penetrated.
 
2011-10-21 09:48:33 PM
"Basically I was just signing papers ...."

Yeah, that's a lawyer I want working for me.
 
2011-10-21 09:49:41 PM
AbbeySomeone: I've known plenty of people with fantastic degrees that are not truly bright and have no idea how real life works.
Sad, kinda.


Me, too... mostly J.D.s
 
2011-10-21 09:50:59 PM
MayoSlather: So education costs too much and jobs pay too little is what a compassionate person might get out of something like this. But several brilliant people here on fark believe there is no limit to engineering and IT jobs, and that if we merely strive for education in a few areas of knowledge all the worlds problems will be solved.

Go fark yourselves for your arrogance and lack of empathy.

Our society is teetering on the brink of massive change. Gone are the days that we have to worry about our ability to produce to survive. Now we have to worry about how we distribute the significant resources that we have. We hold young people to suffer through the archaic paradigms that no longer promise success and then laugh at them when they fail. Funny.

40 years ago you could go to work at a company as a janitor with zero education, and get promoted from within to a skilled position with good pay and good benefits. My own father did that when bootstrappy was a reality. Now you can hold a masters degree and barely qualify to be an intern. Don't fault young people for sticking to the rules that their parents followed and ending up bankrupt. Every area of knowledge is relevant to creating a better society even if our current corporate driven society only rewards a few.

It's the system we have that is the problem not the people trying to succeed within it.


I just signed in after a four month leave to say that I completely and totally agree with this in every way, shape, and form.
 
2011-10-21 09:51:10 PM
fusillade762: !!!STUDENT LOAN THREAD!!!

/nothing brings out the bitter vitriol more effectively
//well, except maybe tipping threads


Nah. At least there is usually some rational debate among the derp in student loan threads.

The top three Fark threads containing the highest ratios of vitriol to pointless topic discussed are:

1) Circumcision
2) Public breastfeeding
3) Best burger/pizza/hot dog/other garbage food in the US/world
 
2011-10-21 09:51:28 PM
It takes an average of 15 minutes for a BJ. (I guess based on ease of calculation)

A dollar a minute means she's only have to blow 10,000 guys to make that money back.
 
2011-10-21 09:52:16 PM
Rincewind53: Hey subby. Every detail in your headline is wrong. The woman with $160,000 lives in PA. The woman who lives in NYC has only 85,000 in debt, and her worry is that she will be forced to take on even more debt through paying for groceries with a credit card.

Wait.. Are you trying to say a submitter on Fark wrote a headline without reading the actual article?

/that never happens on Fark... Ever..
/for evah evah
 
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