I Will Die With Student Loan Debt

[angrychair]

70. Must be nice to live in your world

I didn't get your happy ending. A college education is the "end all, be all" in high school. It was then. It is now. What options do you have? The "sell" on a college education is it is the only true path to financial security. Earnings charts are put out all the time, by the government, that relate the more education you have the more you earn.

Education=success. So, either you sign the damn loan documents or you muddle through life on minimum wage, labor-intensive occupations (fyi, while I am paraphrasing a little-don't remember the whole sell-, that is what I was told when I signed my second round of loan papers)
During the time leading up to this I was homeless or part-time homeless during some of these periods. I didn't have a stable, loving family. I had been working a series of mainly outdoor, labor-intensive jobs like installing siding on houses, electrician helper or landscaping, I was bad at all of it and did not enjoy it. Plus the pay sucked. An education was my way out of that.
And it was, to a certain degree.
What they don't tell you is that, often, it isn't just the education. It is where you went to college, the type of degree, It is who you know, where you live (local economy, infrastructure and so on) and the stability of the US economy as a whole that are huge factors on your success, from the moment that degree hits your hand.

So, am I better off with a degree? Yes. Was it worth the price I am paying and the huge profits the department of education will get from interest in my loan? No. I got screwed. No "cost-benefits analysis" would have helped me figure that out.