Burying College Grads in Debt

[NVMojo]

Congratulations, parents of the Class of 2009! As you read this, your child is settling into the routines of college life: ill-timed early morning lectures, inevitable all-night cram sessions, and the search for parties on a now fairly familiar campus.

While the pleasures of college life remain the same, the economic security that a degree used to guarantee has disappeared. This fall, the Class of 2009 joins the ranks of an emerging debtor class composed of educated young adults.

The average student borrower now graduates with $27,600 of debt, almost three and a half times what it was a decade ago. 84 percent of black students and 66 percent of Latino students graduate with debt. And 39 percent of all student borrowers graduate with unmanageable levels of debt, according to the Department of Education.

After graduation, young people confront unaffordable rents in markets like San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago or New York, where the majority of young adults pay between 30 and 50 percent of their income to rent.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/28641/

[ChoralScholar]

1. These kids would be better off, rather than using credit cards

to borrow the maximum in student loan money. The terms and interest rate are far better. And, don't forget, they'd be budgeting actual money, not just numbers on a CC statement.

[chalky]

2. Check out this article: "Student loan shame"

Congress could wind up denying borrowers a chance to refinance when interest rates decline

While Congress has been battling over how much to cut student loan programs, another aspect of this debate has been largely overlooked -- namely, the move to prevent students and former students from refinancing their loans whenever interest rates decline. That's unduly punitive.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=423523&category=OPINION&newsdate=11/27/2005

[ChoralScholar]

4. That would suck. I locked my rate in at 1.72% with an outside company.

EOM

[Blue_Tires]

3. man...where was this story 10-12 years ago?

could have used it back when i was in HS

[JPZenger]

5. Most Important Policy - Preserve Bank Mark Ups

There have been proposals to reduce college loan expenses to the government and to students by having the government make the loans directly. Instead, Congress's top priority was to make sure that the bank's high profits were preserved. If I understand the system correctly, these are no risk loans to the banks - the Feds pay for them if the students don't.

There also are for-profit schools that are manipulating students into going into deep debt that can never be justified by the education they are getting. They often mis-represent the job market.

Then, there was Sallie Mae, which has been conspiring with a for-profit chain of colleges to charge students 18% interest rates on college loans. The students say they were not informed of the true costs. That is now the subject of an investigation by a Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

[otohara]

6. My Son Will Have About That Much

to pay when he graduates in 09.

I think that's a deal, considering the education he's getting.

[newscott]

7. Wow I'm way ahead of the curve

I managed to have 20k in debt, for which I'm still paying, way back in the 80s.