Everything You Needed To Know About Student Loan Debt

Poor baby, I feel for her (sarc)

Having attended uni' with no help from anyone, before there were such things as student loans, my first paycheck after graduation was all mine.

A few things. I wonder what her majors were in; I wonder why she went for two degrees if her levels of debt were likely high after her first degree; and her writing style makes her sound like she just graduated from high school. I certainly hope she didn't major in journalism.

"At 25 years old, I have $188,307.22 in student debt, all of which is my sole financial responsibility.""

Lucky I'm writing because I'm speechless.

"That exorbitant number was abetted by easy lending with a co-signer"

Co-signer? Sucker.

"I am owed answers simply because I have the right to pursue happiness."

See my response above - speechless. I'll give you an answer - YOU ARE STUPID.

188 grand (and a Jesuit college, no less!) and she still can't write?

She should probably sue them for malpractice, for letting her graduate.

And then think real hard about what she thought she'd get for the money and how realistic that was...

"I followed societal expectations ..." Yep, society's to blame.

Future historians will look back and wonder how so many 'smart' people could be so stupid. By that I mean historians who paid attention in Grade 6 math class. The rest will blame society.

Pompous, self-righteous, self-entitled, leftist idiot.

Nuf sed.

I thought that was a parody, but evidently she's serious.

After high school, I earned degrees from Miami and Xavier universities... At 25 years old, I have $188,307.22 in student debt

I'm curious as to her major, but she never mentions it. What were he expectations? Enlightenment at rock bottom prices, or a job that would pay that debt off immediately?

No one forced her to take on that much debt. It's her own bloody fault.

In her defense, I could probably have gotten railroaded into taking on debt like that by my parents and elders ( had they pushed me that way) when I was 17-18 and rather naive.

I'm not proud of that, just saying that fresh out of high school I had not yet developed my full on jaded & suspicious cynicism filters that inform my view of the world today.

Two (2) degrees - dare I ask "what in"?

Where to begin? Apart from her own naivete, there are many contributing factors to her problem.

The young and their parents have been sold a massive lie. Universities prey on those gullible folk, quite happy to take their money to finance the salaries and services that serve the institution but provide little of value in return. The guidance counselors and schools who keep feeding the maw are also at fault.

Every kid and his parents should be given this book "Worthless: The Young Person's Indispensable Guide to Choosing the Right Major" which is featured in the sidebar of SDA. If I could extend the title, I would add that not every kid should or needs to go to university. There are plenty of other career options which pay better and in the long run, would give better satisfaction.

Student loans helped me get an engineering degree, but I never owed more than what I could earn in about 4 months. Summer jobs and frugal living did the rest.

Its hard to figure this gal out. As opposed to what some here are saying, her writing is very formal, and suggests that her education may well be a BA and/or MA. She is probably (unsurprisingly) having difficulty finding a job in her field.

So she spent $188k? I dont know what tuition is in the US but I suppose that could have covered tuition only. I graduated uni with $42k in loans, a good half of which was tuition, and even though there was a 6 month grace period following graduation, the payments were deadly (because the loan had to be paid back within 8 years).

Anyhow, I didnt go crying about it. It sucked paying the loans back, and the bank was a little more harsh than I would have cared for, but I managed to repay it within 5 years and never had to think about it again. Now as an older and wiser man, I can talk to people about "those days".

I confess that when I signed the loan application and cashed the cheques I did not put my mind to what it would be like to pay it back. It sucked, but I did it, with much difficulty.

I cannot believe that this person would go whining about her loans publicly, but then again I dont think that one is "entitled" to a post-secondary education.

This is another example of all these students that take degrees, imagining that they will get a white collar job upon graduation in some sort of "Save the World" organization. Then when they graduated and didn't get these jobs, they pitched tents and called themselves occupiers.

Hell, my first degree was a BA. Fortunately I had lived at home and didnt graduate with debt. I say "fortunately" because in the mid 90's it seemed like all of the waitresses and bartenders at restaurants in Calgary had BAs and BSCs. The movers too.

Your are "owed and answer?"
How's this for an answer. You should have been living in your parents basement when you were getting your education, not after. Instead of fancy universities hundreds of miles away you would have saved a hell of a lot of money in rent and travel alone.
Tell that to your friends who are still "owed answers."

The Ursuline Academy in Cincinnati now asks for $10,800. for each year of her high school education. Did her parents force her to take out loans for her own high school education? I think not.

No mention of her uni majors... There is a Facebook profile with a "Katherine Brotherton" with a photo that looks quite a bit like this gal. Beside her school "Miami" which I think is the Miami, Ohio university, is a listing for "Royal Holloway" which allows me to assume she spent some time in London, England for her education as well. Possibly for an exchange program.
Can't imagine the Brits give that away for free. Some people find London expensive, more so if they're paying for it out of their own pocket.

So she does seem to have borrowed as much as she was able to, and spent it all.

When a person marries one of these gals that owes a great deal of money in unforgivable student loans, does he/she assume a part of that debt? Should "Plenty of Fish" have this query in their criteria? It seems to be a deal breaker. She may have her student loan payments coming out of her social security payments. If any...

http://www.facebook.com/katherine.brotherton.5

Her major? Not math. Not English.

What does that leave?
I'm guessing Liberal Arts - i.e. Philosophy

As Jim Croce said "I graduated fully prepared for life - in the 17th century."

"I have $188,307.22 in student debt"

That's huge. I managed to become a lawyer and a teacher with less debt than that; of course, I supported myself by robbing charity coin boxes during law school. (Ha, got there first!)
Seriously, I wish she had told us her educational background. I can understand how young people can kid themselves on their way to a certain amount of debt, but that sum requires a lot of delusion or a great amount of terror at the thought of quitting school and facing the payments.
For the record, I think she writes kinda pretty, but not worth $188,307.42.

"....I am owed answers simply because I have the right to pursue happiness..."

Okay. You borrowed $188,000 because you were stupid.

And because you think someone else "owes" you some other answer, you obviously remain so.

How does a moron get that much education?

"Would you like fries with that order?

I had a student loan/debt at age 39 with a family to support. I worked while going to college and one part time job turned permanent at 5 times the salary when I graduated - still, I was 34 grand in debt but we economised (ate K-dinner, no vacations and took the kids to the parks instead of arcades, movies and other parent traps). We did OK in 3 years I was out of debt and in 4 more years discharged my mortgage. _ it's called work and budgeting kiddies - gotta leave the the bar scene and party days behind - adults now - debt loads and responsibilities - work is freedom - get it?

"I am owed answers simply because I have the right to pursue happiness."

I bet this girl has an iPhone bought on a three year plan with the cellphone company. And a car loan. And I bet her parents have another car loan. And a mortgage. And a second mortgage. Possibly a third, too.

Clearly, logic was not one of the studies she paid so much money for. She also seems to have missed out on the whole "compounding interest" concept.

This is one of the fuzziest expositions I've read in some time. Boiling down all the verbiage, she's complaining that somebody didn't protect her from herself and she wants off the hook because she has a right to be happy, and all that debt isn't making her happy.

I'd say her biggest problem is she thinks this is a very learned and erudite piece of writing. Sigivald said above she should sue for malpractice, I concur. She wuz robbed. Just not the way she thinks

The silver lining in this cloud is that the poor dear won't have to save up for her future children's college. There won't be any because the bubble will have burst and all the schools currently pillaging the twenty-something Gen Z kiddies will have gone out of business by then.

One gets the feeling that a hell of a lot of things are going to change radically (and suddenly!) in the next ten years. One of them is going to be the certification mania that rules Big Business and government employment. I believe the stake which will kill that particular vampire will be tort reform in the USA, and possibly a move to "loser pays court costs". It makes me nervous thinking about what type of circumstance will be required to make that happen.

My experience of the American college system was that of a pony jumping through hoops. Courses were taken purely as a means of getting my ticket punched so I could advance to the next hoop, which I would then jump through. Almost all of it was a waste of my time, with the exception of Physics, Statistics, and Psychology. Those were good for me because of the instructors, not the course content. All the other courses I had to take, if I could have challenged the exam I'd have easily passed. It was a joke. Lucky for me it was a cheap joke at the county school.

Physical Therapy school was much the same, but not cheap. An expensive farce put on for the benefit of the certification body. Best course in the whole sorry mess was scientific study design and statistics, its the only one I still use in my daily life. Nice to be able to read and judge scientific papers on one's own.

Not worth the money I paid though, I can tell you. If I hadn't already worked in PT before entering school I'd have graduated knowing -nothing- except study design and stats. Which would be of limited use treating ACL repairs and frozen shoulders.

Send your kids to welding school, then make them build a car and a garage to put it in. That's a better education than four years of university and a much better use of funds.

For someone that deeply in debt for a university education, she should be:

a) more articulate and

b) able to think more logically, rather than inarticulately spouting, platitudes: "I am owed answers simply because I have the right to pursue happiness. And since I am not alone in this debilitating epidemic, my peers deserve their voice as well."

What a dog's breakfast. Honey, you were had.

It is hard enough to find a job in a hard science/technical field with a college/university education; so I do not understand why people pour tens of thousands into what should be hobbies. Why do those who like to watch television think they need a degree in media "studies" (or any other identity-politic, hobby, etc)?

I don't know what this woman studied, but she could certainly be an MD by now at that expense. My suspicion is something less rigorous than medicine.

I bought and paid for two masters in philosophy, and am a PhD student. I know that I do so with little hope of getting that money back, but I have other reasons. I don't borrow for school now, and what I did borrow has been paid off long ago. As a philosophy major, I'm pretty well aware of what is owed to me, and an "answer" isn't it, unless it is to explain why taxpayers (which is what this really comes down to) should bail out this pathology.

On a related theme: I wonder why the Occupy people aren't raiding the offices of overpaid school administrators and teachers? These are the fountainhead of the education racket, and yet they are let off as untouchables. Perhaps it is because the same educators are trying to divert attention away from their own excesses.

You're owed an answer? Okay, if you insist on being a "victim" of your own behavior, then you're a victim of Big Education. I'll bet none of your Burn-down-the-World-101 profs taught a single lecture on the promise of being paid for it once the students who took it earned the money to pay it back. Nope, they took cash on the nail/bank deposit every two weeks. To paraphrase that dumb hick country singer at whom you probably look down your nose, Jerry Reed, they got the gold mine and you got the shaft.

Apparently, back in the old days, professors were responsible for financing students. I think that would be a great system to consider going back to. It would solve so many problems.

I hope to God she didn't graduate with degrees in Accounting and Financial planning.

http://memegenerator.net/instance/14532813

$27,000 a year since she was 18, that's what she's been borrowing, and presumably spending even more since she said she worked. Yup, gotta feel bad for her.

She don't look too hungry...

I attended a very expensive private American college (quite some time ago). The college's financial aid office provided a realistic and reasonable plan for me, one that combined a parental contribution, a part-time campus job, an expectation of earnings during summer breaks or co-op education terms, a federal student loan, and a substantial college scholarship. My parents ended up paying no more than they had to pay for my brother to attend the local public college.

Within three years of my graduation, the undergraduate loan had been paid off. Perhaps our colleges and universities today no longer provide financial aid counseling to their students. But I also think that the students I teach not only do not understand debt, I'm not sure that they want to understand it or believe that they should do.

Compared to the scholarship students I knew, my students seem to spend a good deal of money going out to eat and (especially) drink, and not just on the weekends. They seem to buy more of their clothes at Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Banana Republic and fewer at Goodwill or Bibles for Missions. They take Caribbean holidays. When I was a student, many of my classmates spent, wasted, and gambled away wads of their own or their parents' money, but they tended not to be students on financial aid or student loans. We knew that we could not afford to keep up with our wealthier classmates financially, and were unlikely to try to do so.

Unfortunately, this young woman did not learn what I was taught in my first year course in American history and government: the right to "the pursuit of happiness" is merely a right to pursue it rather than a guarantee of obtaining it.

I graduated high school in May 1982 at the tender age of 17. My parents could not afford college for me or any of my 4 siblings. I worked that summer by hustling house painting, lawn cutting, etc. I used the proceeds for the local community college. After two years there, paid in full by me, I went to the local 4 year university. I worked my way through the next 3.5 years graduating with a BSci in biology. I owed nothing because I did the smart thing and went to school only after being able to afford it. Yes I could have done like my classmates and headed off to a 4 year university and ended up with loads of debt. Instead I got the prerequisites out of the way for a lot less than at a four year university.
The added benefit to this was that when I graduated I had almost 4 years work experience under my belt. This put me ahead of my classmates at interview time.

Tuition at those schools is about $15,000 times say 6 years equals $90,000. WhereTF did the other $98,000 go? Plus she worked?

Poor people in the U.S. often take their first two years at community colleges which are almost free. Then you take the 3rd and 4th year at a better school.

When I went to school I lived on nothing but sure wasn't going to borrow to consume. I had a few grand of loans over 5 years of school.

I'm willing to bet her degrees are not in finance.

Send your kids to welding school, then make them build a car and a garage to put it in.

I learned how to read and write in English in grade one.
I learned how to type in grade nine.
I learned double entry bookeeping in grade ten.

And then I dropped out of school.

I was going to be a farmer so I went to the big city to take a course in agricultural mechanics. And yes, I did learn how to weld.

Never put that education and experience to much use since I had a burning interest in electronics.

Had been building various projects since my childhood days. Crystal radios, two tube radios, hi-fi systems including the big bass reflex speaker systems.

Anyways, my interest in electronics diverted me away from the farm to a career in the mainframe computer business.

How does one get from A to B in a situation like that? Home study, library books, going back to school as a young adult, on the job training. (and now the internet)

Continued building electronics projects, but now they were computer based. Amazing how much you can learn in building something, and making it work.

Never ran up any debt of any significance until I got married and bought our first house. Also learned early on to put away something extra for your golden years.

It is possible.

PS I can still weld, but its not pretty.

There is clear lack of sympathy for this woman on SDA, but actually she highlights a BIG problem. She is totally correct when she states: "student debt will be the financial ruin of my generation," Young people are told they need to get an education to get a decent job, but costs have gone up and up and up. As States are strapped for cash, they have squeezed colleges and universities and these costs are passed on to students. This is a somewhat new phenomenon. Sure it was possible to work your way through university and not incur debt many years ago, but many students are not able to do so these days because of the exorbitant costs. How many of you would have had the wisdom to go against the status quo under similar circumstance? Do not judge her situation on the basis of what things were like 20 years ago. Things have changed. The Economist has called student debt the new junk mortgages. All of this money is owed to the banks, and in the States you cannot get out of student debt by claiming bankruptcy. The situation is not quite as bad in Canada -- yet, but it is coming. Obviously there will be a shift and people will start to think twice about going to university -- but universities are still pushing their "product" as a ticket to success and banks are certainly pushing theirs (student loans). No point in asking what she majored in -- as she indicated, she has a full time job. The writer -- like many young people -- is caught in a demographic shift. I feel sorry for her and do not think her problem is totally of her own making. People will wake up when they see the large number of indentured servants (university grads) the system has created.

I didn't think anyone that stupid could even gain admittace to a university.

I bet she votes form Obama.

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Katherine Brotherton's Skills & Expertise
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Bing search. She spent 180 grand on this garbage ?
She would have been way ahead flipping burgers at McDonalds.

take a stupid person, send them to school, and what do you git, an educated stupid person

Scott Jacobsen: "On a related theme: I wonder why the Occupy people aren't raiding the offices of overpaid school administrators and teachers? These are the fountainhead of the education racket, and yet they are let off as untouchables."

Well stated.

LindaL: See above. I might have sympathy if this lady had cut her losses after the first degree and decided to study in an area where one might hope to find a decent job. I expect she piled one useless degree onto another and now expects to be taken care of.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/household-finances/the-good-news-almost-half-of-all-students-graduate-debt-free/article4536524/

"What is interesting is that...roughly 40 to 50 per cent of post-secondary students have no debt at graduation." (Referring to Canada)

"As Professor Beaudry explains: “The real problem is the distribution of debt: the median student has almost no debt , while there is about one quarter of students that hold almost all the debt.”"

If this is so, the problem of student debt has been mis-stated and we are hearing mostly from those who have been imprudent.

This young woman's problems may be extreme but they are not unique. Presumably in the states, 94% of students are graduating with a Bachelor's degree with debt load. Student debt in the US is more than 1 trillion and outstrips credit card debt. She speaks out in part, because too many people are ignoring the problem. These students have been o.k.ed for loans with no collateral, sometimes even beyond what was needed (government backing on student loans ala Fannie Mae). What do you think will happen when all those students decide to stop paying back their loans? Well, last time it was the government left having to bail out the banks. This is the mortgage melt down, part 2. You can criticize her for her specific problem, but you cannot ignore the bigger social problem that these loans have created.

She borrowed and spent $188K and is still uneducated. Small wonder she is angry. Nobody told her that degree is not a synonym for education. She got a degree...

I borrowed this comment at the link,

"... This fool is a sterling example of the entitled generation coming up in this country. While she surely did learn to use a lot of big words, it's clear that neither of her degrees earned her any math skills or reading comprehension...."

This well educated generation will be able to describe and document their own stupidity with big words and elegant prose

This civilization will be the one with the best documented and and best written books about its own decline and downfall

like someone videotaping their own suicide, every detail will be available

unless the barbarians burn every book?...

Dang, I worked 3 part-time jobs and put myself thru college , got a BS in Math and Computer Science. Had a girlfriend too, many a time we had Maruchen Dinners for lunch and hotdogs with M/C for supper. No movies, no vacations for 4 years. No new truck, lived in a ratty trailor, no internet, no cellphone, no big screen TV. I did manage to save enuf for a 12 pack of Miller to watch Nascar on Sundays. During hunting season we supplemented our meals with deer, squirrel, rabbit, crawdads, wildhog, catfish and bream, during the summers we picked purplehull peas, corn-on-da-cob and turnip greens. A country boy can survive. Yea it was tuff, and you betcha we sacraficed, but now I am 2 years away from retirement. Well, that is, if God be willing and the creek don't rise and Obama gets defeated.

"in the States you cannot get out of student debt by claiming bankruptcy"

Linda hits the key point right here. The current astronomical levels of student debt are the evidence that student loans in the United States have become just another money-grabbing scheme by the crooked banksters that run the nation.

The way the system ought to work, is that the banks ought to be doing some diligence on how much money they're shoving out the door to these students. "You want $25,000 per year to study English Lit? Get bent. You haven't a hope in hell of finding a job with that degree that will pay us that money back." Foolish banks that did make those loans would lose their shirts, as they should. Tuition for such worthless degrees would be low, as it should, as the universities wouldn't be able to con students into paying so much for those degrees.

But the banks can't stand losing money. So they lobbied the government. "Make these loans exempt, we're losing too much money! There's a nice chunk of campaign cash in it for you!" Corrupt Congresscritters eagerly agreed. Universities then figured out the con; now they can jack tuition through the roof, because the banks will just keep shoveling out the money, because the students can no longer escape the debt. So the whole thing is spiraling out of control. Eventually it will collapse, as all such schemes must, and it will do a lot of damage when it does.

Nuke the big banks from orbit. It's the only way to be sure we'll be rid of their corruption.

@ I.M.

So you blame the Bank for giving you the loan you begged for and then get annoyed when they insist on being paid back? It was your choice on what to squander or invest the money on. You obviously did not make wise decisions but that is not the banks fault. If you had followed the path RATT (and I) took you would not have had a problem.
You say " banks ought to be doing some diligence on how much money they're shoving out the door to these students". If that was the case about 70% of all student loans would be turned down and although that seems like the logical thing to do it would clash with the notion that higher education is a established right, although it shouldn't be. It would also put a major dent into affirmative action , also a good thing, but politically incorrect. Bottom line is that YOU borrowed the money. YOU are obligated to pay it back. YOU made the decisions on what to spend it on. We learn from experience and experience comes from making mistakes. Welcome to the real world. I have no love for Banks but all the choices were yours to make. As you said " "You want $25,000 per year to study English Lit? Get bent." But if that is what the student wants, it's not the Banks job to say no and crush their dream. Although it should be. That's the students mistake and the Bank has every right to be repaid.
I most certainly agree with you "Tuition for such worthless degrees would be low, as it should, as the universities wouldn't be able to con students into paying so much for those degrees."
But there again, who is forcing anyone to take these worthless degrees ? Your choice.

This should be handed to every student waiting to have his/her student loan approved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQMI7TksYo0

"You obviously did not make wise decisions but that is not the banks fault."

Excuse me, but **I** took out no student loans whatsoever, nearly twenty years ago. I earned my bachelors largely via scholarships. Save your holier-than-thou rejoinders for those who deserve it.

"If that was the case about 70% of all student loans would be turned down and although that seems like the logical thing to do it would clash with the notion that higher education is a established right, although it shouldn't be."

Exactly. Social engineering, the banks, and the government have all acted in concert to corrupt the cost of university/college education, and the massive bubble in student debt in the United States is the result. It **will** collapse. It's just a matter of time.

@ I.M.
Sounded like you were complaining in the first person. Also sounds like you did everything right, so why are you so angry on behalf of all the twits that majored in social sciences and basket weaving ?