Four months after my niece’s graduation party, she got an email with a subject line indicating that she would soon need to start making payments on her student loans. Employed only part time and sharing a room in a small apartment to keep costs down, she was afraid to open the email. Since I know something about student loans, I offered to help her out. I took a Sunday morning drive to her place.
It was worse than I imagined. Not her debts, which were about average and composed only of federal loans; fortunately she has none of the high-cost, inflexible private loans that usually play a role in the worst student loan stories. The awful part was the process of figuring out her options. The system seemed designed to confuse rather than inform, purposely rigged against the borrowers who most need help. Laura took screenshots as we went along so I could share with the world what we were experiencing. As you follow us on the journey, notice how difficult it was for us to get her on the path to income-based repayment, even though I knew from the start that it would likely be best for her.
We sat down at her dining room table with a roommate’s computer. She closed her eyes and opened up the email. What we saw was a relief, making me think, for a moment, that my assistance was not needed, my trip had been superfluous. The email was friendly in tone and made it clear that she would not necessarily have to make large payments right away:
It’s time to decide how you want to pay back
With the cost of attending even public state schools starting at $20,000 a year, most college graduates will leave with student loan debt. This inevitable debt can already be immense and feel crushing. Credit card debt accumulated in high school is not forgiven by the bank when a student graduates to college. Why would you let your teenager needlessly make their future financial situation worse? Stress surrounding student loan debt has claimed lives. In Oklahoma, two colleges students committed suicide over their inability to pay their debts. They were found dead with their bills beside
“Is Forgiving Student Loan Debt A Good Idea?,” an article written by Kayla Webley in a 2012 issue of TIME magazine, discusses the solution of a one-time student loan bailout for all college students, and argues that, even though this solution is not the best, it is an answer nonetheless. Webley supports this claim by introducing a petition started by Robert Applebaum, a student burdened with $88,000 in college loan debt (130). However, she argues against his propositions, stating that the bail-out will not be an efficient stimulus politically or economically, many students will eventually be able to pay back their loan debt, and there are government programs already in place to give students financial
Thesis Statement: College is not something to put off until after you have graduated, students need to find ways to pay for college before they graduate.
Student loan debt relief is a controversial issue in America today. Student loan debt affects twelve million college students, roughly 60% of all college attendees, per year (Student Loan Debt Statistics). Student loan debt relief rose to the forefront of economic news during the financial market crash of 2008. The U.S. Government has developed a debt relief plan that extends payments over a 25-year period, with a full forgiveness of all remaining debt at the end of that 25-year term (Ensuring That Student Loans Are Affordable). During this repayment period, payments can be suspended during times of unemployment, giving hardship students a break from their student loan payments. Many people feel that student
When we think about college and a college education, it seems as though our first initial thought is the student loans and debt that can result in achieving a college degree. Looking back, student debt has risen drastically and has made it extremely stressful for students and families. Many people go through their entire life in debt, especially from being a student. Student debt has always existed; however, now, it is so extreme, almost all students who attend college find themselves deep in debt, and must continue paying off their debt many years after they graduate. For the past two decades, student debt has risen, illustrating how big this social problem has become. The reason student debt is a significant social problem is because of how much it can effect a person’s life, and their families lives, that can carry over to their future. Although there were many things that led up to and impacted the drastic student debt that is now being faced by many students around the world, the corporation Sallie Mae, was the essential factor in why student debt has skyrocketed to unreasonable proportions. Sallie Mae provided the first type of corporation that changed its focus from helping students, to helping themselves. The history and scope of the student debt can help us understand that the corporation, Sallie Mae, was the main cause of this problem.
I owe $40,000, I owe $60,000, I owe $100,000. Isn’t that a lot of money for one person to owe? Graduates have been faced with a serious problem brought about by the constant borrowing of money to gain a reputable education. The debt of loans varies from person to person but the extreme amounts that individuals owe is something the media finds worth gossiping about. Little does the public know, in reality, all the commotion and conversation about these debts are not accountable for the majority of college borrowers. According to A Lifetime of Student Debt? Not Likely by Robin Wilson, she intrigues her targeted college audience by giving examples and providing
Here in the United States, there are many forms of consumer debt, which help contribute to the large sums of debt countless Americans find themselves faced with. Directly effecting many college students is student loan debt. Student loan debt is now the second largest form of consumer debt behind housing” declares the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Grisales). This is due to the fact that student loan debt grew 7.1% in 2014 to $1.2 trillion (Grisales). If this statistic alone is not worrisome this next one is sure to be. The amount of debt in the housing market that helped to spark the last recession was only $1.3 trillion (Grisales). Due to the increased amount of debt required by students to attend college many students are feeling the wrath. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “In 2014, 11.7 percent of females and 17.7 percent of males between the ages 25 and 34 were living with their parents” (Grisales). The fear of obtaining massive amounts of debt is driving the current generation of student’s to put off many future hopes and dreams. While causing them to move back home to save money. The current student loan crisis is crippling the economy and ruining the lives of American students.
Over the last decade student loan debt has risen substantially and is now one of the largest form of personal debt in America, totaling about one trillion dollars, with 71 percent of students who earn a bachelors degree graduating with debt, with the average amount of debt being $29,400.
Student loan debt is the second leading component of American consumer debt. Student loans can be seen as a challenge that has to be overcome, on top of college itself. This is an opportunity for college students or former college students to show their responsibility. It is the responsibility of the student to find some way to pay this debt. This situation should not be the taxpayers’ problem. Student loan debt is a problem that does not always have an easy solution for the debtor.
Kevin Carey’s goal for writing this essay was to reach out to college/university faculty, and Student Affair professionals to call to their attention the crushing problem of students loans and debt and emphasize the need for income-based loans in favor to the system that is now in place that causes students to fall further into debt due to high
Not Likely,” goes upon shedding light on to explaining how students end up with the debt that they have. Wilson’s piece goes on to enlighten a situation that people tend not fully to understand. To make her point across she uses different examples of how money tend to add up against individuals attend college and uses the word borrow and make reference to student loans quite often throughout her article. At what appears to be an epidemic sweeping the nation, Wilson points out a number of articles going about saying the there is a disaster of financial storms, which are consuming students who attend colleges, and who use titles like “The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History and How We Can Fight Back” (256-257). She goes on to use an example that stating the majority of students who have debt listed against their name owe no more than a reasonable priced vehicle. Wilson also states in her writings that some borrow money for more than their schooling even cost and will even reach double the amount of what ones schooling actually cost. Any person that is responsible with money should know not to over borrow especially when it is double what something
Student loans are becoming an increasingly heavy burden for their borrowers in the United States. In a personal interview conducted on October 20th, 2015, a close personal friend, Cory Hays, and the sister of the author, Melissa Korpela, were interviewed regarding their student loan debts and status of re-payment. Hays has $80,000 in student loans, but cannot pay them back because he was unable to find a position in his field, kinesiology (Hays, 2015). To make ends meet he works as a server and works less than full-time and also has a second job being a caretaker for the building he lives, which provides a small salary and a reduction in his rent (Hays, 2015). As such he is able to be in forbearance until such time that he can get full-time employment (Hays, 2015). Also, the author’s sister has $65,000 in student loans for her bachelor’s level teaching degree
With many students with stories too similar to Sarah’s we need to focus on how we, college students and citizens of America, can help each other. Many people feel that we need to help college students with loans others believe that that need to handle their own loans.
In the United States today, the number of students graduating college with student loan debt is quite astonishing. In the article titled, “How the $1.2 Trillion College Debt Crisis Is Crippling Students, Parents And The Economy”, we will examine and break down the student loan debt crisis by the numbers. Today, almost two-third’s of students graduating college are graduating with an average of $26,000 in debt. For most students, $26,000 is a lot of money when the average annual income for a first year graduate is only in the mid $40,000 a year range. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student loan debt has reached a new milestone, crossing the $1.2 trillion mark (Denhart, 2013, Introduction, par. 2). With student loan debt levels
The Department of Education in recent times has embraced a new system regarding student loans, bringing on board a customer-friendly policy. According to this new scheme, students will now have access to loans with easier and less complex repayment terms. This development will help them fast-track the repayment of their debts without hassles. The Department of Education also integrated an income-based repayment plan: a flexible approach geared at facilitating student finance in their most dire hour of need. Sadly, despite having the potentials to substantially pull off the amount of burden on people’s shoulders, this income-driven repayment scheme hasn’t gained much traction and acceptability among the general population. This is due to