Not as much as tomorrow's. (Next term/semester/f*ck you)

Boo hoo. You're in debt for a product that wasn't worth the money?

Maybe you should have used your intellect to determine that most degrees aren't worth the money and most schools are scams. And your wisdom to stray from the herd and make an unpopular, albeit beneficial decision not to go unless you're interested in engineering or computer science.

Debt free, biatches. Awesome dad FTW.

vernonFL: I went to a small state college in the 90s, a party school in Appalachia. Tuition was less than $10,000 per year. I was able to get Sallie Mae loans that I'm almost done paying off.

My cousin went to welding college and paid off her loans in 6 months. The real question is how much do you make? Because she's making $70,000/yr about 2 years in.

This is one of the most icy, cold, vicious things there is about higher education. How much did it cost to bail out the damned banks? And they are off the hook now. But getting an education, one of the most valuable things an individual can have comes with a stainless steel string attached. I would much rather see college education free and the banks stuck with a 'Having' to pay off their bailout.

OBBN
I broke my back on the job and am now disabled. Financially, it was devastating on me for a few years. But I was able to, with the help of family and my wife, get through it. It was a few years of cutting way back, never going out to eat, wearing the same clothes until they fell apart and driving the same old car until the wheels fell off of it. It was tough, but I wasn't looking for someone else to bail me out.

IOW you got farked in the ass and now you want life to suck for everyone else too.


Chunes
stray from the herd and make an unpopular, albeit beneficial decision

let me get this straight- you think most people should stray from the herd? how does that work?

the_chief: Ha ha. My family paid for mine.

Lucky you.

It never even crossed my parents' minds to contribute to my education or living expenses when I went off to college, even though I was 16 years old when I started college.

340K in debt. Undergrad+med school. Paying super-high interest rates to subsidize people who go to Tufts to learn comparative religion. There's no "you're going to be able to pay it off for sure" discount in the federal direct loan program. They ditched the option to refinance it at low rates because the people who were good risks (me) have to keep the system solvent.

340K@ average 6% (it's more like 7, but I'm low-balling) = 20400 in interest. Because I want to ditch the loan, I'll be paying another ~50k in principle/year. Expected salary is $230k. Plan is to pay it off in 7-8 years. I'll do alright.

I know people who funded 7 years of marketless bleb with $250k+ in loans and have an expected salary (if they're hired) of $40-60k. That's just poor planning.

FishyFred:

/just got done biatching to TotalFark about my company screwing me out of a proper raise, so I should probably stop

Completely off-topic: Our landlords just raised our rent 4%, the maximum they can according to the rent stabilization rules. Yet our income didn't grow 4% and that our health insurance premiums went up...

State universities in my state USED to be incredibly inexpensive. My friends and I got a good education and paid about as much as we spent on booze. Since then, the legislature has repeatedly cut funding for universities, forcing the universities to repeatedly increase tuition costs to the point that it's barely worth it for a lot of people.

Here's the kicker: My friends, who got such a bargain from taxpayer-subsidized educations, are among the loudest opponents of taxpayer funding for, well, pretty much anything. They got theirs, so fark everyone who comes after them. But it gets better, because we all have kids now, and these same assholes now complain about how expensive college is. To which I say, suck it.

impaler:

Same goes for suggesting people go into engineering, as if people can just choose that they can be/want to be an engineer.

I know so many unemployed/underemployed engineers, as well as mathematicians, physicists, chemists, and astronomers. Even worse job prospects for biologists.

\STEM isn't guaranteed to get you a job
\\If you're an engineer, be prepared to compete against H1B1 visa holders from India who will do your job for you at half the salary
\\\companies can get away with it because of the ongoing we-need-more-engineers fallacy

Whatever happened to living within your means and working your way through school?

I know college is expensive, and yes, it was way more expensive than it needed to be. For the quality of some of my professors, I felt royally ripped-off.

But still, I think too many people cry and cry over tuition costs when they really ought to look inwards at their own decisions and lifestyles. Colleges are businesses, and while they rely heavily on student loans to jack their prices, the more students who live within their means and take out less loans, the smaller the demand will be for overpriced schools.

Rent/living costs were actually way more for me than tuition ever was.

impaler: I would love to visit your mythical world where hair dressers and plumbers are pulling in $200K on a regular basis.

Plumbers maybe. That's just a hundred bucks an hour at 40 hours a week after all.

Hairdressers though?

Only if they have clients that everyone has heard of.

Nofun: Whatever happened to living within your means and working your way through school?

My father went to college in the 60's. He paid for the year's tuition, room and board, and a car with a summer job. Try that now, and it would take you two or three year-round jobs.

OBBN: Klippoklondike: Thank god for G.I. Bill and small state colleges.



AND if you play your cards right, you could really strike it good. When I was in, this guy in my unit had the GI Bill and since he was from Louisiana and going back to be in the LA National Guard, he was going to be rolling in it.

The LA NG (at that time and don't know if it still does) would pay 100% of his tuition. His GI Bill would be just a monthly check on top of that.

ElizaDoolittle: TomD9938: impaler: I would love to visit your mythical world where hair dressers and plumbers are pulling in $200K on a regular basis.

Plumbers maybe. That's just a hundred bucks an hour at 40 hours a week after all.



Oh dear.

I know most of them dont actually do 200 + K / year.

That kind of work-load would interfere too much with their golf.

ElizaDoolittle: alex10294: 340K in debt. Undergrad+med school. Paying super-high interest rates to subsidize people who go to Tufts to learn comparative religion. There's no "you're going to be able to pay it off for sure" discount in the federal direct loan program. They ditched the option to refinance it at low rates because the people who were good risks (me) have to keep the system solvent.

340K@ average 6% (it's more like 7, but I'm low-balling) = 20400 in interest. Because I want to ditch the loan, I'll be paying another ~50k in principle/year. Expected salary is $230k. Plan is to pay it off in 7-8 years. I'll do alright.

I know people who funded 7 years of marketless bleb with $250k+ in loans and have an expected salary (if they're hired) of $40-60k. That's just poor planning.

Protip: the balance on an outstanding loan is called the principal, not the principle. How's that expensive education working?

Apparently better than the predictive typing assistant on my phone. ;). But ya, my spelling leaves much to be desired. Didn't waste much time on it. Actually, I'm a grade school dropout (really). I tested into a middle-of-the-road college and then got serious and got a Double BS in chem and bio. Unsurprisingly, people don't care if you proofread when you do well in the hard sciences.
/didn't proofread this either.

ElizaDoolittle: Chunes: Boo hoo. You're in debt for a product that wasn't worth the money?

Maybe you should have used your intellect to determine that most degrees aren't worth the money and most schools are scams. And your wisdom to stray from the herd and make an unpopular, albeit beneficial decision not to go unless you're interested in engineering or computer science.

This. If I had a kid who wasn't likely to make it to a really great school, I'd seriously advise them to pick a job that can't be outsourced. My hairdresser easily clears $200k/year and he's no Vidal Sassoon. The plumber I call? Yep, ditto.

Hairdressing, really?

I assure you that is exception, by far, to the rule. Hairdressers in Rochester hills, mi were hurting with the downturn. Even in that rich area people started cutting back on the service.

FizixJunkee: impaler:

Same goes for suggesting people go into engineering, as if people can just choose that they can be/want to be an engineer.

I know so many unemployed/underemployed engineers, as well as mathematicians, physicists, chemists, and astronomers. Even worse job prospects for biologists.

\STEM isn't guaranteed to get you a job
\\If you're an engineer, be prepared to compete against H1B1 visa holders from India who will do your job for you at half the salary
\\\companies can get away with it because of the ongoing we-need-more-engineers fallacy

Losers complain about immigrants. Winners go home and fark the prom queen.