I can forgive the high school students a little bit. Every teacher they've ever had has been a college graduate, and thus the mantra students hear from the first day of school is that they must go to college. If they choose to do something else they're met with the consternation of screwing up the first adult decision they have to make.
College students, though? They're supposed to be smart enough to figure this stuff out, and to be wise enough to look beyond just their nose:
According to Fidelity’s College Savings & Student Debt study, six in 10 high school students say they won’t be able to afford college without the help of student loans, and more than one-third (36%) don’t know how long it will take to pay them back.
Additionally, the study results reveal 65% of college students taking advantage of the current federal payment pause say they have no idea how they’re going to start repaying their loans once the emergency pause is lifted this fall.
"These findings are not as much a surprise as they are a concern," says Jesse Moore, head of student debt at Fidelity Investments. "This October will be the first time in over three years that most federal borrowers make a student loan payment, and a lot has changed in three years. These people have bought homes, started families, changed jobs and all have felt the impacts of inflation."
They bought homes without considering how they'd afford the homes in addition to their previous debts? Are you serious? I don't have a lot of sympathy for such people.
I applied to 4 universities back in the '82-'83 school year. Two were military academies, two were public universities. I got accepted into one of the military academies and both of the public universities, but couldn't afford UCLA or Purdue. Before I got the acceptance documents from West Point, and being financially responsible even at that young age, I considered postponing college for a few years; the plan was to join the military, then get a degree using the GI Bill.
Some might say that the GI Bill route and West Point both required someone else to pay for my schooling, and that would be correct. It would also be irrelevant. In both cases I agreed to work for the government in order to get my education. There was an agreement, not an abdication of my own responsibility. I worked within the system, I didn't expect the system to accommodate my whims as those mentioned above have done.
As for the high school students, I encounter too many for whom a community college is beneath them. It costs a lot to be housed and fed--just ask any parent!--so yes, going off to college is going to be an expensive proposition. I'm forced to ask: what are you doing to mitigate this cost? Anything?
Having a sense of personal responsibility can be a heavy burden in today's society, as we look in awe at those who have no such sense and wonder how they can be so shameless in their sense of entitlement.
5 comments:
Teaching regular and AP Physics at a suburban school, nearly all of my students intended to go to college, but many had never gotten any kind of realistic career or college guidance. I had a candid discussion with each student to give them a heads-up.
Some students weren't sure if they should attend a private college, the flagship state university or a decent local school. That conversation usually started the same way.
Me: "Is money an issue?"
Student: "No, my parents said they'd help out."
Me: "Money is always an issue. Your parents will essentially be buying a new car every year, and dumping it into the lake. You need to have a frank discussion with your parents to find out how much they intend to contribute and you need to consider what you are getting for the extra cost. It's real money."
Some student view college the way a woman views her wedding day. It's a magical time in which every whim is valid.
When NPR does those interviews with recent college graduates complaining about student loan debt, they never ask the graduate their high school graduating class rank, ACT score or college major.
They bought homes? How did they qualify for home loans? Our oldest son is worried he will never be able to afford a house, and he has no debt (other than a car loan which is almost paid off - and which he took out to help establish a credit history).
He has squirreled away about $70k to put toward a down payment. Part of that ability to save has come at our expense, since his rent is cheap. He has a job which he doesn't want to leave, otherwise he would relocate to a less expensive location. He is off to a slow start even without the encumbrances of debt and dependents. I don't know how kids who are burdened with offspring and student loans can even gain momentum.
"Some student view college the way a woman views her wedding day. It's a magical time in which every whim is valid."
Politically incorrect, true, and perhaps the funniest thing I'll read all day!
Politically correct, funny, but only partially true. There are plenty of sensible, budget-conscious brides out there, just as there are students who take the cost of education seriously. My nieces, for example, split the cost of a wedding gown that was on sale. Their mother, a florist, made arrangements from flowers gleaned from their yard and from friends' gardens. Both weddings were beautiful without breaking the bank. Some whims were squashed as invalid, I am sure!
As someone who recently graduated from college, and has very stable income and housing, medical, dental, and my loans are minimal: It's still an incredibly daunting task that we frankly don't prepare 18-year-olds for. We do tell them that college is good, and we tell them that it's an investment, and then we provide practically no financial recommendations other than "Take out a loan" which to a new adult, whose parents also may not fully grasp how the college financial system works, sounds like free money that they'll deal with when they're successful. It's obviously not, but in the current system, even with working, family helping, and scholarships, tuition can STILL be incredibly difficult to make up. We don't allow 18-year-olds to drink, smoke, or tubal ligations (at least not without massive amounts of consultation) at this age, so why does our society seem so okay with saddling them with masses of debt, which to them, seem to be a "I'll deal with it when I'm older" thing.
I personally have only 10k in student loan debt, that's after working nearly 35 hours a week in college, and having my dad help partially pay for it, and after doing 2 years at a community college, which I think isn't looked down on so much by students, it's more that they don't realize how much they can save. 18-year-olds (or I guess 17-year-olds, because that's also where they have to be making these decisions) aren't ALL capable of divining all these numbers years into the future. More counseling could help, but then we're gate keeping kids by the skills of their school counselor (which is often funded by local tax dollars, so based on local wealth). I think the best solution would be to provide government comped, or free college to kids. Many other countries do it. And since college is the greatest path for children of low-income families to achieve greater socio-economic mobility, I think it's important to implement.
The current system is not meritocratic, it's heavily skewed by wealth and zipcode...
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