Students at ISU unaware of cost of learning
- Thread starter cigaretteman
- Start date
On top of knowing what their debt is, i think a lot more need to be aware of the average salary ranges that can be expected for a major. Its fine if you want to major in something that doesnt make much, but it doesnt make much sense to be racking up 100k in debt for a degree that wont allow you to ever pay it off. (and i'd really rather not see you in an article where you're puzzled why you went to college and now can't pay back your loans, when its entirely predictable that wouldve been the result)
As a high school business teacher, I absolutely agree with both of these points. To add to it, I think a lot of parents need to have the converstaion with their kids about paying for college and where that money is going to come from. I cant even begin to tell you about the discussions we have in class about who is paying for college. We do a lot of budgets and researching college prices, loans, interest rates, so that hopefully the kids that walk out of my class at least have some sort of idea of not only how much money they will be spending, but also where that money is going to come from.
I'm sure most business teachers do as much as they can but until schools realize what is actually important to students' futures and change high school and college requirements it won't be enough. Personal health and financial literacy are two things we are severely lacking in in this country and it stems from the fact we do not stress either of those things in our education system the right way.
It always irks me when there is an atricle like this that says something like "John recently graduated with 10 zillion dollars in debt. As a major in finance he'll have to work 200 years to pay it all off. If a finance major can't figure that out they shouldn't get a diploma.
I actually dropped a finacial advisor once for something like this. I was setting up a 529 fund for one of my kids. He started going off about college dept and how much he was paying for one of his daughters to go to some out of state big name school to major in liberal arts and how she would never make enough to pay it back. Next time in I asked for a change. Why would I want someone that can't manage their own money better than that giving me financial advice.
I actually dropped a finacial advisor once for something like this. I was setting up a 529 fund for one of my kids. He started going off about college dept and how much he was paying for one of his daughters to go to some out of state big name school to major in liberal arts and how she would never make enough to pay it back. Next time in I asked for a change. Why would I want someone that can't manage their own money better than that giving me financial advice.
You can't tell me how to raise my kids!!
But seriously, good for you for trying to introduce these concepts to kids.
Nobody would go to college if they knew how overpriced it was. The last things colleges want is higher financial literacy among young people.
Just to play devil's advocate, accepting the financial aid award can be done in a single click to accept all available aid. If you qualify for loans due to your FAFSA, those loans are also accepted at their full amount in addition to any awards or scholarships. Making students accept loans separately from gift aid could make their incurring of debt more readily visible to them.
I also agree with the above posts regarding the need for improved heath and fiscal education in the US. At my HS we had one quarter of "consumer economics" where we barely got past how to properly write a check, let alone the importance of budgeting or debt.
Your thoughts are echoed in the documentary I linked.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaNlow-vmyA]College Conspiracy (Full Length) - YouTube[/ame]
Very few students get into college with any information about how college financing works. As we know, 18 year olds aren't the greatest at seeking out information so they never really learn what they are doing by accepting loans.
That's an oversimplification. College grads make 84% more than those without college degrees over the course of a lifetime.
A college education is an investment in yourself. I agree that its ballooning price is bad over the long term, and it is overpriced. But people still go and for good reason.
I agree that most go for good reasons but a lot of people go to college because everybody else is and never consider the alternatives. A lot of those alternative careers that don't require any college education would put them in a much more stable financial situation than going to college.
I always wondered how people could not know they had to pay back their loans. Then, as I was finishing up my undergrad degree at CSU about 4 years ago, one of my coworkers showed up at work one day (a 19-year old) waving around her financial aid letter that she got from a local community college. Judging by the comments she was making, I had the impression she thought college loans were equivalent to scholarships. I said something like, "So you know you have to pay those back, right?"
Turns out she thought that subsidized loans were just free money that she didn't think she would ever have to pay back.
Turns out she thought that subsidized loans were just free money that she didn't think she would ever have to pay back.
I'm shocked the numbers aren't higher. The number of college students who actually understand how student loans work has to be in the single digits percentage wise. A buddy of mine took out $30,000 of loans and can't figure out why he has to pay back over $40,000. Apparently the concept of interest is a foreign term.
