metcalfmafia said:
Packchem91 said:
metcalfmafia said:
Who all here had to take out student loans to be able to afford college?
I'll raise my hand first.
I worked thru college. But my memory fails me these days, but i think the NC State tuition back in 1987-91 when i was a student was like $400 / semester??
**I was fortunate in that my blue-collar working parents paid my tuition, and my working helped my apartment costs and food, so I was not strapped.
That said, college tuition has skyrocketed --- fueled in part by the printable money fund that is the FAFSA. If my memory is correct, NC State tuition has gone up 10x in 35 years? And starting salaries have certainly not.
It is ironic that the most liberal bastions in our society are overcharging big-eyed kids and sticking them with $100k of debt, then whining that we should all buy in to help them out.
Appreciate the responses from you and Storm. I guess I should have phrased my question differently. I meant to ask who had to take out student loans and had to pay them off themselves without help from parents.
I think your post is spot on though and points completely to the predatory nature of loans and the schools being complicit with the lenders. FAFSA is pushed on 17/18 year olds like it's the best thing they could ever do. When I was in high school , kids had no idea what they were signing up for in the next 10 or more years of their life.
I say all this a guy who's about to pay his off so I might be a little miffed if this were to pass 
Sorry, i wasn't disagreeing with you -- rather, its fully understandable how young adults get into this situation.
While some just make poor decisions (pursuing degrees that don't result in career paths), sometimes they are somewhat forced into it if they don't get into schools of choice.
A lot of kids in my area end up going to Wingate and get teaching / nursing / social worker degrees (all noble and necessary). Many go there when they don't get into State or UNC or UNCC, or maybe they do it because they have family commitments and this is what fits.
But the tuition is $40k a year. Some of that is paid by grants, but a lot still falls on the student.
So this is not someone going to Harvard and then being strapped, but just a fall-back school and suddenly.
To me, the much bigger question is why have college costs spiraled so much. there is no way someone should have to fork over $40k a year tuition at Wingate.
Two, we've all seen what colleges are doing -- you can't pass one that doesn't have cranes all over the place where construction is ongoing. If not on campus, then adjacent to it with highend apartments.
Its become a huge business. And unfortunately, much of it is driven by the availability of funding thru the government.
**And of course, it can also be argued that tax payer $$ also made it much cheaper for us to be able to go to NC State than Wingate....but even State has gone up over 10x in tuition costs in 30 years. Has starting salary gone up that much (with 3 kids who've all graduated from State / USC in the past 5 years, I know the answer is "no!!")
