Rolling Stone's "The Great College Loan Swindle"

I went to university at the University of Toronto, which is a top university in Canada. Tuition there was ~$6k per year from 2006-2010.
 
HockeyBjj said:
I graduated 70k in debt with an electrical engineering degree

Wife unfortunately had 80k but a school counselor masters degree, so she doesn't make near as much as I do to support it

We started off life together 150 grand in debt and it's rather inconvenient

In hindsight, there are many things both of us would have done differently like community college for two years and staying in state for school. Unfortunately, at the time, the seriousness of the loans was all swept under the rug to teenage me as "don't worry about it. You'll be able to pay it off easy once you have your nice high laying engineering degree" so I made mistakes that I should have been smarter about

We can make the payments, but won't be able to buy a house until we've been married 10 years which kinda puts us behind in life in ways
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And then welcome to the next scam. The mortgage. Somehow, Americans are duped into thinking that it's OK to borrow money to buy shit that we can't afford right now. Why save, when you can just make monthly payments with interest? Can't afford fancy out of state college? Take a student loan. Can't afford a house, take a mortgage. Can't afford a car, take a car loan. Can't afford a cell phone, get a 2 year contract. We take out 30 day loans to buy groceries with a credit card and yes you end up paying the interest on it, because the credit card companies charge 2-3% to the store, which is then reflected in the price of goods. The banks make off with 3-5% of our lifetime earnings, because we take a loan out on almost every single dollar we spend. This is also why we as a country are in 3 trillion dollars of debt. Our elected officials are truly a reflection of ourselves.
 
Go to JC for two years for cheap while having a job and paying for it. Transfer to a good, but relatively inexpensive school and choose STEM. Get a good job in a STEM field.

Profit.



Or, go directly to an expensive school. Take out massive loans for a liberal arts degree to learn there are 59 genders and white men are evil. Graduate. Work as a barista, and complain about your debt and demand Bernie forgive your loans.
 
More people should go to junior college. Two years there in two years at a university and you'll save tens of thousands of dollars.
 
My 17-year-old is a senior in high school right now. He sees daily the stress that a mountain of student loan debt can put on a family.

He's way smarter than I am, considering I spent my entire time in high school smoking weed, droppin' acid, and fucking girls. I was 17 myself and a junior in high school when he was born.

In middle school and the beginning of high school we were beating it into his head to do college as cheaply as possible. Community college and then transfer to finish his degree.

Then we learned real quick that he was very smart; 1500 SAT, perfect 800 on the Math 2 and 770 on the chemistry subject tests. All AP classes, including Calc, German, Chemistry, Physics, and Computer Science. He is fluent in German after four years of AP classes, yes including as a freshman.

His first choice for college is Carnegie Mellon. His back-ups are Lehigh and Pitt. He really wants to go out to Pittsburgh, we visited Carnegie in the beginning of October and he was enamored with the city.

He applied to Pitt last weekend received his letter of congratulations on being accepted and is awaiting his financial package. He applied to Lehigh this week.

He's putting together his art portfolio for Carnegie, he wants to do Computer science/robotics and 3D modeling/animation.

Ultimately, the school he chooses will be the one that offers him the best financial package. I have no doubt he can go to Pitt or Lehigh for nearly nothing, if not completely free.

Carnegie doesn't offer merit scholarships, so we'll see what they offer him.

I wish I had parents that could focus my energy. I knew what NOT to do when going the college route after the fact, and helped him to make informed decisions during high school.

Perhaps he can help me finish paying off my student loans after he's out and working. Haha.
 
quatin said:
And then welcome to the next scam. The mortgage. Somehow, Americans are duped into thinking that it's OK to borrow money to buy shit that we can't afford right now. Why save, when you can just make monthly payments with interest? Can't afford fancy out of state college? Take a student loan. Can't afford a house, take a mortgage. Can't afford a car, take a car loan. Can't afford a cell phone, get a 2 year contract. We take out 30 day loans to buy groceries with a credit card and yes you end up paying the interest on it, because the credit card companies charge 2-3% to the store, which is then reflected in the price of goods. The banks make off with 3-5% of our lifetime earnings, because we take a loan out on almost every single dollar we spend. This is also why we as a country are in 3 trillion dollars of debt. Our elected officials are truly a reflection of ourselves.
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Home loans are fine. Americans are just retarded and pay the minimum. If people stopped spending money on retard material things and put the money towards the loan they would be fine.

I know a girl who is always broke and in debt, but somehow she can afford to buy new shoes and boots weekly. I mean, how retarded do you have to be to spend 400 dollars a month on footwear?


I'm a cheap and miserly bastard. People scoff at some of the cheap things I do, but over time they have saved me thousands upon thousands of dollars.
 
superking said:
My 17-year-old is a senior in high school right now. He sees daily the stress that a mountain of student loan debt can put on a family.

He's way smarter than I am, considering I spent my entire time in high school smoking weed, droppin' acid, and fucking girls. I was 17 myself and a junior in high school when he was born.

In middle school and the beginning of high school we were beating it into his head to do college as cheaply as possible. Community college and then transfer to finish his degree.

Then we learned real quick that he was very smart; 1500 SAT, perfect 800 on the Math 2 and 770 on the chemistry subject tests. All AP classes, including Calc, German, Chemistry, Physics, and Computer Science. He is fluent in German after four years of AP classes, yes including as a freshman.

His first choice for college is Carnegie Mellon. His back-ups are Lehigh and Pitt. He really wants to go out to Pittsburgh, we visited Carnegie in the beginning of October and he was enamored with the city.

He applied to Pitt last weekend received his letter of congratulations on being accepted and is awaiting his financial package. He applied to Lehigh this week.

He's putting together his art portfolio for Carnegie, he wants to do Computer science/robotics and 3D modeling/animation.

Ultimately, the school he chooses will be the one that offers him the best financial package. I have no doubt he can go to Pitt or Lehigh for nearly nothing, if not completely free.

Carnegie doesn't offer merit scholarships, so we'll see what they offer him.

I wish I had parents that could focus my energy. I knew what NOT to do when going the college route after the fact, and helped him to make informed decisions during high school.

Perhaps he can help me finish paying off my student loans after he's out and working. Haha.
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Can he do two years of JC and transfer? My friend transferred to UCLA from JC and was accepted to Berkely and Stanford too I think.
 
KONG-D'SNT-TAP said:
Or if you wanna continue your education and become a lawyer or say a history teacher.

We do need history teachers in schools. No major is useless if that's the field you want to be involved in
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oh no doubt, I was just referencing a BA in History only (so like no Teaching credential or Masters)

Going to Law School was my intent, till I realized i'd have to take out waaaaay more loans on top of the existing ones I already had
 
Current college student here I've should've been done a while back, but due to personal reasons I'm still taking a few classes, I currently have one more term left. I've met alot of students that when I look at what they are majoring in I just laugh. Most students go for that real college experience like someone mentioned on here it's not worth it.. most "good schools" aren't all that.

When you are 17-18 years old its hard to make these types of decisions. You go from one year of raising your hand to use the bathroom to the following year talking to someone about your financial situation. It's ridiculous.
 
superpunch said:
You can literally teach yourself on a place like freecodecamp.com for free and make like $100K. This is nonsense.
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In this day and age you can self educate yourself on almost every subject.

College is primarily for making future contacts and interaction with your peers and being exposed to different viewpoints.
 
HunterSdVa29 said:
oh no doubt, I was just referencing a BA in History only (so like no Teaching credential or Masters)

Going to Law School was my intent, till I realized i'd have to take out waaaaay more loans on top of the existing ones I already had
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Well getting a bachelors in history won't cut it.

Problem is a masters degree is so expensive and history doesn't pay well. But it is important for people to have a passion when it comes to those majors. Rock and a hard place
 
It depends on the degree but a lot of degrees are not worth it. Even the "worth it" ones can sometimes be not worth it. Accountant was the goto degree. But I've seen accountants making close to nothing cuz there's an abundance of accountants. Even lawyers are switching jobs.

It doesn't help when low skill jobs are now requiring a bachelor's degree. They should really outlaw that. But a college degree is not needed to be successful. Not all degrees are created equal. Some bachelors make more than masters and PHD. While others make near minimum wage.

I know many people with no degrees make more than college grads.
 
lifelessheap said:
Can he do two years of JC and transfer? My friend transferred to UCLA from JC and was accepted to Berkely and Stanford too I think.
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He certainly can. That's the plan if none of the schools he applied to offer a good enough financial incentive.
 
Rolling Stone should consider STFU after the UVirginia debacle.
 
Fluffernutter said:
I thought the Ivy Leagues all have a "pay what you can" plan due to their endowments
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They do. If you can get into one of the top thirty or forty schools you can afford to go. As for another post mentioning going from JC to Stanford. The only person going from JC to Stanford is Jesus Christ. If you have the credentials to get into Stanford the endowment will carry you or you have $150K or better income.
 
College is not a scam. It is still the best route to a comfortable future. But it is by no means a guarantee and you have to be smart about how you pursue. Do it as cheaply as possible and get a degree in something that makes money.

In the end though I think the root of the problem is the variety of viable options for careers is dwindling and whatevers left requires formal education. This is simply funneling everyone into the college system. When I went to college in 2000 there was a matrix for acceptamce criteria. Get a certain GPA with a certain SAT score and you were in. Now they are becoming way more picky and rejection rates have increased significantly. And I did not go to some liberal arts school. Majority of students were STEM and Finance majors. The increased cost is only one part of the story.
 
clmetal said:
As a dad, I'm dealing with this now. I have 2 sons in hs at the top of their class. I can send them to a state school they are overqualified for, or i can send them to an ivy league school and borrow big to do that. Final option is a military academy. Very hard decision.
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National Guard man. Basically free money for college and some experience.
 
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