Good news for those with lots of student loan debt

[BowtieBelle]

...or is it?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/26/politi...student-loans/

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebA...sh/IBRPlan.jsp

Personally this plan will save my butt. I don't have any debt from my undergraduate degree but my Master's degree at the #1 school in the South... well... VERY expensive. Private school and all that. I can't afford $400 a month payments, which is what it would be starting in December of 2012 (after my six months grace period before I start repaying the loan). With this, I'm looking at between $100-$150/mo with the balance forgiven if I still owe anything after 20 years. However... I know someone has to pay for it in the end.

Let's keep this limited to financial and student loan discussion, not politics, and...

Discuss!

[toesuf94]

Before I reply - what is your masters degree in?

[BowtieBelle]

I will have a dual Masters (2 classes to go!) Business Administration and Higher Education. I want to be a dean of a college someday Or at least a professor.

[Jay_LHD3]

Interesting plan. I can see where it will help some, and I'm a firm believer that everyone should have an opportunity to a higher education.

Without getting political, they need to look into the source of the problem. Why do tuitions keep sky rocketing? These institutions need to learn to live on a budget, just like the rest of us. Not running around with an open check book, jacking up tuition, and putting students in the situation to have to go to the government for help (or be stuck paying back student loans for the rest of their lives).

JMHO

[toesuf94]

Congrats on the hard work - and an interesting goal. The problem you are obviously going to run into is that NOBODY is going to hire you right out of school to become an administrator at any college that will pay you enough to re-pay your loans - correct? Basically, to put it into terms we can all understand: You bought a fixer upper '69 Camaro for $10,000, rotisserie restored it for an additional $100,000, and it is a 307 Automatic car with no options worth about $25,000 on the market right now.

You are upside down to the tune of $85,000.00 and the payments cannot be made by working at jobs UNDER what you studied to eventually become someday. You NEED the $80,000 + a year job just to pay for the paper, anything less and you will struggle.

College has become way too expensive - plain and simple. It is unrealistic to think that a person with ZERO experience is going to come out of college and make enough to carry an $80,000 debt load and survive. Plain and simple. I do not think it is the government's job to absorb these loans in order to perpetuate the issue.

And not to get personal here, but going back to the car example: If you walked into your Chevrolet dealer and tried to take a loan out on a ZR1 right now, would you get the loan? I mean, the car is the collateral, so there is a recoverable asset if you default, right? NO. The bank would NOT loan you that money and would call you insane for even asking. How is it these student loans are being handed out without any backing for nearly the same amount of money to people who have never proven themselves capable of providing an income to themselves, who have no assets, and are being handed a piece of paper that says they did time at a school studying "X" - hire them?

I am not attacking you at all and I admire your degrees...but I have a problem with this entire system and the burden it is putting on the youth of America and now the taxpayers.

[grundere1]

Originally Posted by Jay_LHD3

Interesting plan. I can see where it will help some, and I'm a firm believer that everyone should have an opportunity to a higher education.

Without getting political, they need to look into the source of the problem. Why do tuitions keep sky rocketing? These institutions need to learn to live on a budget, just like the rest of us. Not running around with an open check book, jacking up tuition, and putting students in the situation to have to go to the government for help (or be stuck paying back student loans for the rest of their lives).

JMHO

the problem is that colleges need to spend their money remodeling and adding on to make students come to their college. New buildings and sports complexes are the number one way to get students to look at your college, i work at admissions for a college and i see it all the time. College is a buisness and we are selling it to students, maybe its not right but its what is happening, whoever has the biggest and the best gets the students unfortunatley

[BowtieBelle]

Originally Posted by toesuf94

Congrats on the hard work - and an interesting goal. The problem you are obviously going to run into is that NOBODY is going to hire you right out of school to become an administrator at any college that will pay you enough to re-pay your loans - correct? Basically, to put it into terms we can all understand: You bought a fixer upper '69 Camaro for $10,000, rotisserie restored it for an additional $100,000, and it is a 307 Automatic car with no options worth about $25,000 on the market right now.

You are upside down to the tune of $85,000.00 and the payments cannot be made by working at jobs UNDER what you studied to eventually become someday. You NEED the $80,000 + a year job just to pay for the paper, anything less and you will struggle.

College has become way too expensive - plain and simple. It is unrealistic to think that a person with ZERO experience is going to come out of college and make enough to carry an $80,000 debt load and survive. Plain and simple. I do not think it is the government's job to absorb these loans in order to perpetuate the issue.

And not to get personal here, but going back to the car example: If you walked into your Chevrolet dealer and tried to take a loan out on a ZR1 right now, would you get the loan? I mean, the car is the collateral, so there is a recoverable asset if you default, right? NO. The bank would NOT loan you that money and would call you insane for even asking. How is it these student loans are being handed out without any backing for nearly the same amount of money to people who have never proven themselves capable of providing an income to themselves, who have no assets, and are being handed a piece of paper that says they did time at a school studying "X" - hire them?

I am not attacking you at all and I admire your degrees...but I have a problem with this entire system and the burden it is putting on the youth of America and now the taxpayers.

Oh I completely agree with you.

I got laid off two years ago and was making $38K right out of college. I ended up losing my house-- it was a DISASTER. I couldn't find work when I got laid off because suddenly graphic designers were a dime a dozen, and I couldn't afford to work at a newspaper making $10 an hour as a reporter or at a news station for the same (My undergraduate is in Advertising and Public Relations, emphasis in creative strategy). I lived on unemployment for a while, couldn't find work, it was so depressing. I finally went back to school to get my Master's.

About six months ago I finally found a decent job at a new law firm as a paralegal (I worked in law firms for years in high school and college), got in on the ground floor. This time next year I'll be making $40K again (My boss and I have a verbal contract) and hopefully that number will only continue to rise. I know my chances of being an administrator right now are slim to none, and I'm not sure how I'll use my Master's at this point (I think I'm going to begin by teaching evening classes at the University of Arkansas, which I've already been offered pending graduation; they want me to teach technical advance evening classes now and I'm trying to decide), but I do know I have on the high side of $40,000 in student loan debt and it SUCKS. It's ridiculous what colleges charge...

Thank God I live rent-free and can afford to start paying them back-- but this program is definitely going to help me. But I wonder who is going to end up paying for this? Taxpayers? what a mess!

[Harley1]

Great another bailout that we the taxpayers are gonna hit with....

[el ess A]

Originally Posted by Ark5thGenGirl

#1 school in the South...

You went to the University of South Carolina?

[KowalskiCamaro]

I did! Class of '93.

[el ess A]

Originally Posted by Harley1

Great another bailout that we the taxpayers are gonna hit with....

Wealth recalculation, or whatever you want to call it.

I still think the people that got 4.0 GPAs and stuff should give up some of those great grades and pull up some of those that didn't have as good of a GPA. Like give some to someone with a 3.0 and bring them up to a 3.3 and the 4.0 down to a 3.7. Win win for everyone!

[JETG]

Originally Posted by Harley1

Great another bailout that we the taxpayers are gonna hit with....

I agree with the above and what I hear/see from this post is I can't afford to pay back a student loan, but I can afford to dive a new camaro ??? People priorties now days are all screwed up, you have to pick and chose what is important. I the tax payer should not be responsible for debt you accumilate. It this is how it works, then when my car depreciates I should be paid the difference from the bank or the car manufacture ???

[its a syn]

thanks for the info, i know my daughter just got her degree and is going to try to get her masters and she gets depressed when she thinks about more student loans.

[Russell James]

The concept of forgiving loans is a pile of crap.

No elected official that supports it will ever get my vote. I work too hard for others to free load their bad debts off my ass.

Down at the Occupy Wall St protests there should be a line for - Forgive Student Loans Here... and everybody lines up to walk through a door, behind which is a clown that shoves a pie in their face.