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Problems with student loan debt
Student loan debt has become a pressing issue
Essays on how to manage student loan debt
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There are many new college grads out in the workforce that are dealing with 5-and sometimes 6-figure student loan debt, and with the recession and unemployment rate still in full swing it's not a good time to be dealing with a ton of student loan debt.
Back in 2009 a typical student carried an average of $24,000 in student loan debt by the time they graduated. Consider that a small investment in comparison to what that investment will yield a student for the life of his career.
In any case, in this current economy it's not guaranteed that you're going to get that high paying job straight out of college, so there are some steps that every recent graduate should make that's carrying some student loan debt out there in the work force.
Put
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Giving yourself a goal of paying off your student loan in 10 years will save you a significant amount of money in interest.
For example if you have $30k in student loans and you pay it off at 6.8% in 10 years your payments are going to be around $345 and the interest that you're going to end up paying is going to be a little over $11k in interest. If you run in some trouble and stretch out those payments for 20 years the interest you're going to end up paying on that loan is $24,960.95, and if you stretch those payments out to 30 years the interest you end up paying is going to be a whopping $40,405.93!
Organize your loans. If you went to multiple schools, obviously you're going to be juggling several loans. It's going to be imperative that you organize those debts or find some sort of system that organizes those debts for you. The government offers a great way to track your federal student loans, if you Google the National Student Loan Data System you will be able to find them.
Knock off the high interest rate loans first. Taking care of the high interest rate loans first is "Debt 101", if you take care of your highest interest rate debt first you will save yourself a significant amount of money in the long
Along with scholarships, fellowships, and grants, student loans are an important method of financing post-secondary education. With tuition costs rising, more students are borrowing to pay for college education today. However, not all students realize the burden of paying back their student loans. Many are defaulting.
In “A Lifetime Of Student Debt? Not Likely” by Robin Wilson, he talks about how student debts aren’t as bad as everyone seems to think. One of the most common reasons students default on their loans is pointed out by Wilson. He states, “the problem among students who go heavily into debt is that they are determined to attend their dream college, no matter the cost.” (257). Attending a smaller college, or even a 2-year university can help cut down on the costs. And even if that 4-year university is the only way you’ll get your future career, taking out loans to help pay for a degree isn’t something someone should be afraid of, in fact it helps more than you would think. He talks to people who had taken out several thousands of dollars in student
Finally, so far the best ways to be able to pay off student loans are to either save up money up to the age of college preparation, find a degree that can pay well, and to find a college that can give you the best
Mark Kantrowitz indicates in his article, Why the Student Loan Crisis Is Even Worse Than People Think, that “Student loan debt is increasing because government grants and support for postsecondary education have failed to keep pace with increases in college costs”(Why 1). This means that the government no longer covers for college tuition fees. College graduates are 20% more likely to work at a job that is outside of their major by the debt they are in. Kantrowitz also mentions that “students who borrow to attend college, it appears that more than a quarter (27.2%) of them are graduating with excessive debt” (Why 1). In reality, leads to student saying that the financial cost was worthless, ending up with a job that is especially not what they went to school
To understand the student debt crisis, one must first understand what caused it and what results from it. College undergraduates use student loans to finance the cost of tuition, room, board, transportation, and personal expenses while attending (Gage and Lorin). Student loans are different from other forms of debt because basic consumer rights like bankruptcy protection don’t apply to students who default on their loans. As a result, students are virtually locked into their debt, offering them little to no ability to refinance it. Solutions to debt problems like consolidation are available to students but that process doesn’t involve shopping for a better deal from competing lenders like it does in other debt areas. Therefore, interest rates often remain high and the loans remain with the original lender (Vanegeren). As Kayla Webley expl...
The debt associated with higher education is one of the biggest factors of deterrence for most people who are interested in college, and it is not at all surprising. 71 % of college seniors who graduated last year had student loan debt, and the average debt for a college student with a four-year degree is $29,400.This number has gone up an average of 6 % each year. Keep in mind that this is just the average debt, and there are students who are in debt upwards of $30,000 dollars (projectonstudentdebt.org). Now in order to understand why the debt is so high it is best to break down the different costs of higher education. The first and most important of which is tuition.
Doyle states in his article, “As of this writing, the total amount of outstanding student loan debt has been estimated at $960 billion (Kantrowitz, 2011).” Right now, there is only 7.4 billion people on earth, but not all of those people are in debt. So, massive debt with not near enough people to even cover the debt on the whole planet put this issue into perspective. Many people talk about applying for scholarships but scholarships can only cover so much of the price, and even then, the scholarships aren’t guaranteed. Now what about paying off the loans? How will that take? “First, incomes vary tremendously across different choices of majors and professions. Second, the incomes of individuals starting out in the labor market vary according to the state of the labor market at that time.” There are many different factors that go into this process. As stated in the previous paragraph, those who do both work and school are more apt to pay their debt off at a quicker pace. But, how much they make and how often they paid is another contributing factor. If the average college student is making minimum wage (part time) and is going to an in
Most people today accept the debt that comes from college. Students consider student loan debt as a “good debt.” They see other students make this mistake but follow their path anyway. Nearly 80% of college-bound students have not projected the total amount of money they will need to graduate college.
It is a norm and expectation in society today for students to pursue higher education after graduating from high school. College tuition is on the rise, and a lot of students have difficulty paying for their tuitions. To pay for their tuitions, most students have to take out loans and at the end of four years, those students end up in debt. Student loan debts are at an all time high with so many people graduating from college, and having difficulties finding jobs in their career fields, so they have difficulties paying off their student loans and, they also don’t have a full understanding of the term of the loans and their options if they are unable to repay.
In November 2015, I started off with $13,500 in student loan debt. I had five loans in three different categories. I didn’t start paying my loans until January 2017, by then it had acquired $3,500 in interest, making the total $17,000. That year I made it my New Year Resolution to pay down my loans by 2019.
As of 2016, American students have accrued a massive 1.3 trillion in student loan debt. Just 10 years ago, the nation’s balance was only $447 billion (Clements). This ever-present cumulative burden has caused many post graduate Americans to delay important life events such as marriage, homeownership and children because of this substantial encumbrance (Clements). The debt will only continue to grow with neglect, so the most effective action to take would be eliminating the cost altogether.
“About forty-one percent of borrowers fall behind on their student loan payments in the first five years of payment” (nytimes.com). Statistics also show that nearly thirty percent of student loan borrowers wind up dropping out of school. These facts help show that student loans are not a reward for you but are a burden. Student loans can be avoided by obtaining as many scholarships as possible, saving for college before you get there, and working to get money to pay cash for college.
For those who believe college debt is worth it, there is an opposite end of the spectrum that believes it is not. Here are some reasons why many would disagree. According to this online scholarly review called The Pedagogy of Debt, by Jeffrey Williams. He states that “The Shameful Secret of Higher Educations”(Williams). What people would immediately see as soon as they read this is financing an education has more of an after affect to it than what we believe. With that being said Williams continues by stating that “I am one of 100,000,000 on the rolls of student debt. Every month I write out a check for $660 to Sallie Mae. I simply abbreviate the entry in my checkbook as S-M. It hurts”(Williams). What we analyze he is saying here is that the number of people in debt from paying back college loans is increasing rapidly and continuing to grow every year. Also, Williams states that “At 46 and fifteen years out of grad school, I still owe around $9,000 from my graduate school ….Besides that, my daughter, who graduated in 2002, herself owes about $25,000.”(Williams). This proves that after you graduate, you still going to be in debt regardless. If you graduate or not, the debt still follows you. So is the cost really worth it in the long run? That’s the real question. Therefore, Williams proves that debt will continue to grow the longer you stay in school and the higher you go onto obtaining a higher degree. The reality that one cannot outrun debt, can cause apprehension of going to college especially if the job market is
To Consolidate or Not to Consolidate With consolidation, all your personal loans are combined into one a single monthly payment and one fixed interest rate. Sounds cool, right? You can consolidate your federal student loans through the Direct Loan Program, which can help you determine what your interest rate would be. For private consolidation loans, shop around carefully for a low or fixed interest rate, if possible. There is a potential downside to consolidation, however: consolidating federal loans into one private student loan will result in loss of repayment options and borrower benefits, including unemployment deferments and loan forgiveness
Weston, L. (2006). Deal with your debt. Weston, L(1), Student Loans (pp. 110-114). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Publishing as Prentince Hall.