Student loan nightmare. Man finds out his student loan balance is 200k after he graduates

[Yupster]

3. What do you say about a story like this

Obviously, he made foolish decisions, but then that's what young people (all people?) do.

The fact that his parents had him sign loan papers without telling him what he was signing adds a weird dimension to it all.

In an odd way the student loan situation kind of reminds me of smoking. For years while I was growing up people would say that they didn't know that smoking was bad for them, but then at some certain point, it was hard to say you didn't know smoking was bad because by that point you should have known.

Young people going to college today. You need to know how much money you're borrowing and understand the terms. At some point in the future the defense of I didn't know what I was doing will not hold any water anymore.

Understand that there are cheaper schools you can go to. There are some degrees that will not help your pay prospects. This has been going on long enough now that young people should now know this stuff.

PS - I have a kid in college now. So far we have not had to borrow any money. Hopefully we can get through the whole 3.5 years without borrowing.