

A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College - gatsby
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.html?_r=1&hp

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antidoh
“But when she visited Ohio Northern, she was won over by faculty and
admissions staff members who urge students to pursue their dreams rather than
obsess on the sticker price.

“As an 18-year-old, it sounded like a good fit to me, and the school really
sold it,” said Ms. Griffith, a marketing major. “I knew a private school would
cost a lot of money. But when I graduate, I’m going to owe like $900 a month.
No one told me that.”

Don't obsess over the price, i.e. don't even ask.

The school really sold it. Easy to do when the customer doesn't even know what
they're paying.

$120,000 debt, $900/month, on the front-end low-paying part of your career.
That's astounding.

IF this model of school tuition and loans is going to stand, the payments have
to be based on ability to pay, and allowed to go on as long as it takes. That
may not be sustainable from the lender's side, but _this_ is not sustainable
from the borrower's side.

There should at _least_ be a projectd cost breakdown and total of all things
purchased, and life of the loan cost sheet to be explained and signed, before
gaining admission that depends on a loan.

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Hyena
Except that's how this is usually done. Federal loans can be deferred and
payments scale to income. The counterargument to the high cost of college is
that she, or her parents, should have looked at how much it would all cost and
chose a cheaper school. More aggressively, it really sounds like "by good fit"
she meant "incredibly expensive facilities" or even "fits how I view myself as
a high status person".

There are college where in-state tuition runs far cheaper and many states give
free rides if you get a good SAT score. So it's incredibly hard for me to have
much pity.

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drallison
Leaving students with a huge debt load is counter-productive.

A more interesting question, for me, would be to know why the cost of a
college (or university) education has grown so much in the last few decades.

