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Student loans

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by buckweaver, May 9, 2007.

  1. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    In <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/us/08default.html?em&ex=1178856000&en=95de6d8930e03b64&ei=5087%0A">this NYT story</a> on culinary school graduates, I read the following stat:

    Obviously, this is a problem that many in our profession also face: You pay so much for the degree, but your entry-level job(s) barely pays you enough to make it worth your while.

    Does anyone know where I could find a similar statistic about J-school graduates and their student loans?
     
  2. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    Interest rate is lower on student loan consolidations than it's been in 40 years.

    People who are defaulting are not making an effort to pay. These organizations are unusually lenient and understanding of hardship, especially in these times, and a comfy forebearance is not hard to acquire.
     
  3. KG

    KG Active Member

    I have to disagree with you there. My student loan payments are $441 a month. The only way they'll give a damn about me and cut me a break is if I go back to school and start racking up even more debt with them.
     
  4. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    ... suck, once you spend all the money
     
  5. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    Kathy, consolidate. Are they federal and state? Ask for assistance. You can't give them what you don't have.

    I came to develop a beautiful relationship with these people, on a first-name basis. Friends close, enemies closer, that kinda thing. Mine are less than a hundred a month, and at a 3.9 percent interest rate. Granted, I'll be paying the bastards for the rest of my life, but it's affordable and there's no way in hell they'll ever get all of it. Because I ain't going to live that long.
     
  6. Taylee

    Taylee Member

    It was a beautiful day and a drunken evening five years ago when I sent in my last payment of $184.
     
  7. John

    John Well-Known Member

    Why do they use the word "retired" for loans?
     
  8. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    The culinary school story is scary, though. You wrack up $50,000 or so to get a degree from some fancy cooking school and the restaurants laugh at you and offer you $10 an hour.

    At least in journalism they don't laugh at you when they offer $10 an hour.
     
  9. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Because people who spend their lives racking up debt are usually in retirement homes when the loans are finally paid off?
     
  10. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    If journalism required professional licensing, like the best cooks have (and who duly display in a prominent place in the restaurant), then educated people might not be forced to live on such chickenfeed salaries.

    But that's another argument altogether.
     
  11. jfs1000

    jfs1000 Member

    Jackson, you are right about consolidation, but it isn't that easy anymore. I don't know your age, but if you are over 35 years old most don't have any idea how expensive college has gotten.

    From someone who is struggling with student loans 7 years out of college it is either a high payment or 20 years of bills.

    My wife and I have a combined $50,000 in student loans (FROM A STATE SCHOOL!!!). We are paying roughly $400 a month for 20 years at a low consolidated rate.

    We will be done with them by the time we are 45 years old. This is ridiculous. We can't afford a mortgage on a house in our area because I don't make enough when you add in the student loan debt. If we could put $400 to mortgage, that is about half of our mortgage payment right now at a cndo, and would be a third of our payment on the home we would like to buy.

    That is a huge slice of our finances.

    I know people who are just entering the profession who get paid $25,000 who can't take the job because of a $300 a month loan payment. Add in housing and a car loan and how it soon doesn't add up.

    If you went to a private college and didn't get daddy to pay for it (wish I did), you are looking at $40,000 a year to pay. Some of that will be grants, but I know of one person who has $80,000 in student loans coming out of school.

    A 10 year payment of that at 4.5% is still over $800 a month.

    Hell, a lot of people have $40,000 in debt, and that is $414 a month over 10 years. If you consolidate to 20 years, it is $253 a month. THAT IS A DECENT USED CAR PAYMENT FOR 20 YEARS?

    Who here can afford $400 a month just in education expense whil making $30,000 a year?

    Student loans eat up 16 PERCENT of your salary in that scenario.

    I would say defaulting may be the best option for some people.
     
  12. Riddick

    Riddick Active Member

    What I did was enrolled in a spanish class at a junior college. It cost the price of two months of student loan paments, but got them off my back for like a year or two. gave me time to get a better job and eliminate some debt.
     
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