topic What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ? in Student Loans

What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

JuliusLothar — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:52:42 GMT

I mean I didn't go to Medical school, a Law school, or an Ivy League school so 25 grand in debt is about the price of a new Hyundai! Is everyone

on these forums like 100,000 grand in debt from college? If thats the case this country is DONE ..... I feel as though I bought the whole bill of goods

just with my 25 grand education fiasco.....LOL....America, wow, what a country....education is such big business now its a big LIE !! But my God !

80, 90, 100 thousand dollars for a job ????......Somebody's hoodwinking somebody here......SHEEEEEEEESSSSEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:22:49 GMT

I have 50k in student loans.

I make over $80k a year because of my education. I am happy and only 27

Message Edited by SSTUDVII on 03-11-2010 01:22 PM

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

JuliusLothar — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:59:09 GMT

That's great for you Dave!...I'm glad it paid off for you, but you're the exception not the rule.

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:10:07 GMT

I borrowed 30k total and it ballooned to 40k due to defaulting.

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

JuliusLothar — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:21:24 GMT

don't worry jay, were college graduates and like AIG we're too big to fail.....bailout comin soon.....

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:20:16 GMT

i have $100K+ in student loan because i went to med school. i'm opting to do some public service work (cause i'm so filled with kindness, but also interested in finding ways to reduce my loan if i can) before i take on a more lucrative position.

i'd like to think that people with as much loan as myself did so with the future income potential in mind. taking on $100K+ in student loan to make max $40K a year is unfortunate.

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

tianapb725 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:52:35 GMT

I have close $45K in student loan debt. I will make $48K this year. I'm 26 years old. I actually don't do anything in my field, but my current employer required a degree before even getting a job with them, so to me it was well worth it. Sure, it's annoying to pay it back, but I feel that I spent $10K a year on college was well worth it (not only financially, but life lessons and lifelong friendships).

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

laz98 — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:32:31 GMT

i currently have $40-50K in student loan debt. i am actually still a student, & probably have no job prospects after i graduate, unfortunately! but it is what it is.

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:23:40 GMT

I am currently paying off $65,000 in student loans but I have a $130,000 education. Not working in my field, decided to work for myself! Hopefully my leap will pan out!

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

sapling — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:53:36 GMT

I have $93k in debt, am 27 years old, and earn ~$75k/year in an area with low cost of living, so it's not too bad. Grad school was 80% of the loans, and I graduated 3 years ago.

I admit that as a student I had no idea what my expected income would be in my field (and in fact estimated it would be more like $35k.. shows how little research I did.) So I got very lucky.

I am on the Income-Based Repayment program primarily so if I lose my job I can get 'unlimited' forbearance - I still make the 10-year payment amounts toward the principal. I highly recommend IBR if your student loans are a large chunk of your income. In my opinion there's no downside because you can still pay them off just as quickly, but the safety net is there to automatically lower payments if your income decreases.

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

BungalowMo — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:39:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I borrowed 30k total and it ballooned to 40k due to defaulting.

I have that old James Brown tune going through my head..."The Big Payback"!!!

Love your goal scores!!!

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:21:12 GMT

How do you get on the IBR program? Is it al the time you take out the loan, or when you start paying it back?

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:26:08 GMT

Its easy to get into the IBR program, just call up the Department of Education Loan phone line, you will probably have to fill out a short form and attach your pay stubs for a month or so. Most of the time you will be approved if your total annual salary is less than what you owe on your student loans. I'm in the same boat as many others, as I have 85K in student loans, make about 60k annual (two jobs) and I'm 26. The one good thing is that I work for the Federal govt., so after i make 120 payments, they will pay the balance off for me!

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:53:59 GMT

Good for you! I am still a student. So, I guess you cannot get into the program until after you graduate and have a job?

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

bronzebeauty — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:07:55 GMT

You cannot apply for IBR or Deferment or anything of that nature, until your loan payments are due...6 months after graduation, or 6 months of not being in school. And, you cannot be in default of a loan. Until you're approved for IBR, apply first for the deferment. And, if you have different servicers for your loans, then you'll have to go to their websites and look for their IBR forms. They all basically ask for the same information, but the letterheads are for the respective servicers. The DOE used to have just a generic form. But, you should be able to have all of your questions answered from the info on their site, or just go to the sites of your loan servicers. And, remember, you have to re-apply every year. It is income based...IBR.

I applied for mine last November. It took a few months, but I was approved. I also have different servicers. I called for the deferments, and kept deferring, which I only had to do twice, until I was approved for the IBR. I don't have to pay anything to one, and only $10 a month to the other.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I hope this helps.

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:06:34 GMT

Great Info...thanks! Just hope that all this is still available when I get out of school!

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:35:45 GMT

You raise some interesting points about the necessity of a college education.

There is a bill of goods being sold, though unfortunately it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that you have to have a college degree to get a decent job.

What you find is that there are many good jobs for which College degrees are not required, however without a degree you won't make the cut!

If you look at the progression, in the 50's few finished high school and very few went to college. By the 70's "Everyone" finished high school and a fair number also went on to college, Federal Student loans hit, as well as many Vietnam vets hit the campus' under the GI bill.

Post 80's only a complete failure drops out of high school and almost everyone goes to college, whether they can afford it or not, and many are heavily in debt.

Ignoring how dismal the job market for the past two years, I have hired 2 lab tech's in 2002. They needed a science background, but no degree required.

I had more than 50 applications, only 1 did not have a Bachelors and many had masters. I hired one BS and one MS.

So the short of it is unless you start your own business, the opportunities to get a good job (even one where the degree is not required) if you have no degree you are screwed.

I encourage you to look at many of the examples above. You are seeing where the 4 year loan is less than a half year's pay. The Medical School ones are on par with most starting salaries. Nursing jobs are starting around 25 dollars an hour in the midwest, and higher in major metropolitan areas.

Dave

EQ: 805

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:38:21 GMT

I racked up about $100k in student loans earning a PhD. It goes without saying that I will get paid more, if I get a full-time professorhsip teaching college than if I had chosen to teach high school. However, a recent series of articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education has pointed out that not only is the prospect of getting a professorhsip very slim, but because of the 6-10 years of earned income and personal and retirement savings lost (plus compunded interest of raises earned during that time) while pursuing a PhD, and because of the large amount of debt incurred during that time time on top of lst earnings, professors end up by and large breaking even with schoolteachers, and we all know how well they're paid. So, in short, I will now be making less money with a PhD than I was before I decided to pursue a PhD. For me, it was worth it only because it was something I had to do for myself. However, as far as long-term earnings and credit scores, it was also one of the most financial destructive decisions I have ever made.

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:29:05 GMT

It's all relative but people are correct in evaluating the cost of education like any other financial decision. I have $200k in education loans but make $450k per year. Obviously for me the cost of education was worth it. If I made $50k per year while still very respectable it wouldn't make sense at $200k. Also I have 11 years of higher education and the true cost of my education is $200k plus 11 years of zero income. In other words after spending that much time and money you'd better make a butt load or you're going to be homeless.

Re: What's a 25,000 student loan debt these days ?

smc733 — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:43:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
However, as far as long-term earnings and credit scores, it was also one of the most financial destructive decisions I have ever made.

I realize this is the FICO forums, but no one should ever weigh credit scores into doing what they dream. Credit exists to help you pursue that dream, not to restrict you from it.